For those of you who didn’t know, I had the fortune to visit Hong Kong and Australia over Christmas and New Year.  As I managed to get 3 rounds of golf in along with many other things, Martin has asked me to write a few words for the website.
Hong Kong was electric, very cosmopolitan and the cleanest city I have ever been to. It still has British influences, for instance  - road signs are the same, white and yellow number plates on the cars, they drive on the left and the majority of people can speak English to name a few. Its airport (the 5th busiest in the world) is huge and modern. If you haven’t been to Hong Kong its well worth a visit!
We then flew to Melbourne, staying an hour’s drive south of the city at a place called Torquay, which is known as the surf capital of Australia and the start of the Great Ocean Road. The day after we arrived I got my first round of golf in at the Anglesea Golf Club. Not a bad course but what made it very interesting and unusual were the 300+ wild Kangaroo’s living on the course. It was very strange when you had to usher them off the tee before you could tee-off. They were lying down on the edges of the fairways and under the trees watching as you played your second shot.
On Boxing Day we went to see the first day of the Ashes Test at the MCG. The cricket was soon forgotten apart from the fact that we saw Shane Warne take his 700th test wicket. The MCG was fantastic with a 90,000+ crowd and the ‘Barmy Army’ singing just below us.
After trying our hand at jet skiing and water skiing we then flew to Sydney for a few days and to witness the ’New Year Celebrations’. As you could imagine Sydney was very busy at this time of year with its famous Harbour Bridge and Opera House, along with Sydney Aquarium, Australia’s number one tourist attraction.
Having arrived back in Torquay, Brad celebrated his 13th birthday with a surf lesson on the same beach that a surfer was attached two weeks earlier by a Great White. He did well and managed to stand up on his surfboard.
My second round of golf was at Torquay. It is a links course with some lovely holes. The fairways were quite wide, but off the fairway you soon found yourself in trouble. I played very well at Torquay and was only 6 inches away from an eagle on one of the par 4’s.
After visiting many other attractions including driving along the ‘Great Ocean Road’ to the famous 12 apostles, Ramsey Street from ‘Neighbours’ and driving around the Australian Grand Prix circuit, it was nearly time for our journey home, but not before I managed another round of golf. This time it was at the ‘13th Beach Golf Links’. There are two courses of which we played the Beach Course. It was recently voted in Australia’s top 20 courses, and the 5th best public access course. The day we played was typical, a stiff breeze coming from the ocean made driving treacherous. And when you eventually got to the green, they had so many undulations, bumps, swales and multi-tiers, it made reading a putt extremely difficult. Even though I didn’t score very well I thoroughly enjoyed the course and would put it amongst one of my favourites that I have played.
It was now time to return home and back to reality – the first leg of the Winter League at West Mids Golf Club.

WHITTINGTON WINTER WONDERLAND

Dave Turner, Andy Paddock and myself recently had the pleasure of playing the superb Whittington Heath Golf Club. Established as a nine hole golf course in 1886 on land adjacent to Whittington Barracks, the course is one of the oldest in England. In 1927 the course was re-modelled and extended to 18 holes. It is a course with real character. Not too long at 6135 yards from the yellow tees, the course has heather and bracken abound plus extensive mature trees. It is definitely a thinkers golf course and finding the fairway from the tee is paramount. The greens, despite the time of year, were in excellent condition and posed several problems for the three of us. There were constant slopes and hollows to overcome and even a two foot putt got your full attention.

The course opened with a 482 yard Par 5 and one which could be easily reached in two, when the course was running fast in summer.  All the Par 3's were good strong holes that required a very accurate tee shots. In fact the 15th, at 196 yards into the prevailing strong wind, was to my mind the toughest hole on the course.  Holes 5 and 6 were as good a pair of Par 4's you could ever wish to play. Stray from the fairway and you were in real trouble. The front 9 climaxed with a sweeping uphill dog leg right Par 5 of 463 yards and like the 1st could well be challenged in two for the bigger hitters during the summer.

The back nine started with three tough Par 4's of between 370 and 380 yards. The short Par 3 13th was a little gem and at only 135 yards proved no pushover. The 18th was certainly a stern closing hole at over 430 yards, requiring both length and accuracy from the tee to stand any chance of challenging the green in regulation.

Our round was thoroughly enjoyable on a glorious March afternoon. Dave produced some great play and finished with an extremely creditable 37 points, achieving a remarkable 20 pts on the back nine!!! He went on an amazing run of 7 straight pars from the 9th to the 15th, which was his best ever,  narrowly missing a five footer for his eighth consecutive par at the 16th. I achieved the only birdie of the day at the Par 4 11th, hitting a 3-wood to ten foot and for once holing a putt of any consequence. Neither Andy nor I ever really got to terms with the tricky greens and never challenged Dave's tremendous score.

The club has two deals which offer excellent value for money on this prestigious course. £100 for a 3ball and £120 for a 4ball, prices rise considerably during the spring and summer. The offer runs from 1st January to mid March and if available next year, is one that I would recommend for a midweek spring Society outing. This course has certainly found its way into my all-time favourite Top 10 courses that I have played, and one that I cannot wait to return to.