NSW Open – practice session

By Shaz Thompson on January 22, 2014 • ( Leave a comment )

Today was one of the official practice rounds, we had a tee off time of 12:29 and a friend of mine who is playing as an amateur was joining us. We were like two little friends going to a new school, everything seemed a little less daunting because we knew each other. Teeks was on the bag, or should I say, in the cart, it was great having her with me to keep me calm.

I registered over the phone yesterday, so all I had to do was go in and give them my contact details, get my yardage book, and my car park pass. The yardage books require a cartography degree to decipher and about a 30 min preparation for each shot to work out the distance. Sadly distance measuring devices or GPSs are not permitted, we really need our caddies to assist here writing down what clubs we took etc.

Although my game was not at its best today, I was happy with my length, I actually felt that the course was shorter than I remembered last year. This either means I am longer or they shortened the course, it isn’t the latter which is great news and a big thanks to Mark for his perseverance with me. I must admit that I felt more comfortable and I made a conscious effort to act like I belonged there, whereas last year I felt like an outsider. We also played with Celina Yuan a young amateur with loads of talent and Karen Pearce who turned pro in the 90s and at 45 has taken up tennis and is now 122 in Aus, imagine being that talented!!!

My tee off time on Friday is 10:40, a very respectable hour! I am playing with Fabienne in-Albon, she is a Swiss girl that came to Aus to study and she actually won the Avondale Bowl, I have played with her but I doubt she will remember that. The other pro that I am playing with is Sienna Lambert, don’t know too much about her.

If you want to follow my progress there is live scoring or even better come and visit, I won’t be offended if you go and watch Laura Davis instead of me but it would be great to see some friendly faces in the crowd. Entry is free and you can walk almost anywhere and watch some superb golfers that you will recognize on the television when they are playing the European or US PGA events.

Here are some photos from today.