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The 5 day tour of the Sapphire Coast in November was our first visit to the region in 10 years and although windy every day, we were lucky with the weather when the rain stayed away until the drive home.
It was warm enough without any real heat and the accommodation at Albacore Apartments was convenient and very comfortable. The courses haven't changed and every day was a challenge but, unlike 10 years ago, we didn't knock ourselves about anywhere near as much as we did in our younger days.
Moruya - in really good condition and the greens turned out to be the slowest of the week. There is 2 cross-over tees (9 & 18 and 17 & 13) where care is required and each player in one group incurred a 2 stroke penalty for using the wrong tee on 17. Apart from the persistent and annoying announcements from a horse show on the adjoining showground and a 300 metre walk around that area to the 13th tee, it was a great start to the week. But it isn't a tough walk and the extra distance didn't make much difference at all. The Lahuna Motel was very good and, Kyla, our hostess certainly made us feel welcome.
Bermagui - now this is a tough walk, much tougher than I remembered, and made more difficult by the strong wind. The greens were much quicker than Moruya the previous day and rolled right out making getting the ball close to the hole very much harder. This is a course which plays much longer than its 5,500 metres and will test all levels - even in carts.
Tura Beach - by far the hardest course of the week for all of us except Michael Lees, with quick greens, severe bunkering and strong winds. It also plays long but we all carted this day and the fact that only 10 points separated 11 players is testimony to its toughness. Always a pleasure to inflict such pain on oneself when we can play courses of this quality at such reasonable cost. A pleasure for me was to run into Scott Richardson whom I hadn't seen for 25 years (City Week of Golf in '92) and it shows what a good social network we can create for ourselves in this great game of golf.
Pambula/Merimbula - we played all 27 holes over the 2 days in, at times, very high wind. The courses are all in great nick and the greens slick and hard to read with very subtle rolls. Only 'Killer' suffered any ignominy when he had to push the electric buggy he borrowed from John Hardy all the up the 18th hole on Wednesday when the battery gave out. John Hardy flatly denies he gave it to Killer half charged to improve his chances in a private wager.
Once again a successful tour and two of the tourists have already locked their spot in for the Hunter Tour next year.
In the end Michael Lees proved to strong and won the tour championship by 5 points from the fast finishing Gary Davis with John Vallins a further 3 points back. The Blue Team kicked away on the last day to take out the team prize after the Reds led on days 1 and 3 and only 6 points separated the three teams coming into the last day.
Dave Vanderweil finished up the biggest winner of Skins for the tour with $138 whilst Ken Rogers managed to collect the biggest skin of the tour ($42) at Bermagui.
For full details and results click here.
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