iSank

Will do and we will get there. Was just in NZ and one of the courses we played received 3 olives trees from Crete. here’s the foto

Inbee Park is just so relaxed, she is in my thought bubble when I feel I’m getting uptight. Doesn’t always work.

We had some time off around the holidays so we did a cruise from Sydney to Auckland and enjoyed 8 rounds with my favorite golf partner, my wife. 12/20 Sydney The Lakes 1928 Michael Clayton Our first game of the trip, the course was in beautiful shape, and it was a worthy challenge. Seemed like the 1st 9 was one giant sand trap, and the back 9 brought in the water obstacles. Would love to play this course again. 12/24 Melbourne Sanctuary Lakes Greg Norman design A fun course, many sand traps, too many, but we had fun, and both played a good game which made for good tempo’d enjoyable golf. 12/29 Stewart Island Ringa Ringa Heights Golf Club 6 holes 3 laps $10 pay is on an honor system, basically a slot in the wall of the office that says slide $10 here. Hilly, tall grass, tiny greens, set along a lovely coast line. Here’s us on the 1st hole with the ship anchored in the background. Yes the grass was a bit thick at points. 12/31 Akaroa golf club If you ever looked at a hillside and thought you could never build a golf course there, well here they did build that course and while holes are set along the relatively flat near hill fields, several are build alongside, up, down, and cross over a fairly sized hill. 1/1 Kaikoura Golf Club Great people here, and on New Years day they had over 50 golfers out for a tournament, we were on our 13th hole when the shotgun start filled up the first 12 holes. Nice rolling fairways, set on a fairly easy 18 holes, but good fun. 1/2 Purapuraumu Beach Golf Club designed by Mr. Alex Russell of Melbourne Took an hour bus ride from Wellington to play this enjoyable course. Set up very much like a Scottish Links Course where the holes seem dictated by where the sand dunes formed. The design maximizes these features, and with the wind blowing steady off the Tasman Sea set me up for glorious successes and utter failures but surely a fun day out. Good golf loving people at this club. 1/5 Mount Maunganui Golf Club Mr. C Redhead 1935 designed the 1st 13 holes then the rest were developed after WW2. Set in 3 sets of 6. This was a Saturday and the all the members were out enjoying their fair track. Missing the fairway costs you here with rough and trees between parallel holes. The play was a little slow but we were able to meet 8 super nice club members in the groups ahead and behind us while waiting. 1/6 Titirangi Golf Course, Auckland designed by Dr. Alister MacKenzie Loved the course, tough course, every shot counts and there are 4 challenging par 3’s; par 70 (2 par 5s) for 18 and under handicaps and par 72 (4 par 5s) for all others. Would love to play this course again about 5 more times, maybe more. Here’s a tee on the back 9. And then we ended the trip at the CFP championship. Good to be home! Look forward to walking 9 later this week. Aloha, iSank

I’ll try Duke Kahanamoku Eddie Aikau Shane Victorino Ted Makalena iSank in 15 years maybe Marcus Mariotta in 20 years maybe Tua Tagovailoa Narrowed down to Ted, Duke, Shane and me. looks good to me.

Unscrew the heads off of everything you can. Had the airline loose everything travel bag, clubs and all but never a broken club but I do take all my heads off then tape the shafts together and protect the ends. Doesn’t help you now but have fun buying a new shaft.

Not sure how the weather will cooperate but we played there early December last year and it was great. Ok from my small experience I really enjoyed The Judge and The Senator there at Capitol Hill, not a fan of the Marriott there. There’s a 3rd Course there, all part of the RTJ trail. Then head an hour east, or was it 2? And visit Opelika where there is nicer Marriott plus 2 beautiful courses The Lakes and the other one, plus there’s a fun par there, best par 3 I’vebeen to. Welcome to the TST, have a great trip.

We live about 225 yards down the 1st hole, House has been hit a few times but never had a broken window except once by the stoopid paper boy. I love living here, plus I get a couple free barely used balls each week. Was with a co-worker a few years ago at Waikele where he hit a house and the lady came running out asking him to pay for it, he did.

Great to see/hear about the nearby courses, we don’t get out there that much but enjoy hearing about these trips. iSank

Hope that goes well, I love Maui Golf, especially Kapalua. This is My favorite thread, watching the Australian Open this week and in just over a month we have a round at The Lakes in Sydney secured. We are doing a cruise and bringing our clubs so here’s a quick rundown. 2nd port is Melbourne and we haven’t yet booked a tee time but plan to. Next 2 stops are small Islands but both have 9 hole courses we are likely to play. Then off to New Zealand Here we start at Clearwater GC, Christchurch, then Kaikora GC followed by either Paraparaumu GC or Wainuiomata GC, have a game booked in Rotorua, and we end with a round at Titirangi GC, Auckland. Please let me know if you’ve played any of these. It’s just my wife and I and we look forward to peaceful Holidays. Aloha, iSank

That’s a lot like the conversation that goes on in my head when I’m in trouble. Thanks for sharing! Aloha, iSank

Got the Troon email offering a Hawaii resident discount card but the last paragraph says the Plantation Course “will be undergoing exciting enhancements and will be closed from February 2019 - November 2019. ““We look forward to the opportunity to restore many elements of the Plantation Course and implement a few ‘refinements’,” said Bill Coore. “It’s like when you have a special piece of art, or something really special to you, and you get a chance to dust if off and make it new again. This will be a very thoughtful restoration and refining process, but it’s not a redesign. We are very happy with the way the course looks and the way it has gone through the past nearly three decades.” And lastly.... “Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the original Plantation Course design team, will assist with the extensive course refinement project. In addition, Troon’s Design/Development/Agronomy team, as well as long-time Maui resident and Golf Channel personality Mark Rolfing, will also work on the project. Enhancements will include: resurfacing all greens with Tif Eagle Bermuda; renovating every bunker on the golf course; and re-grassing tees, fairways and roughs with state-of-the-art Celebration Bermuda turf. New tee complexes will also be added, including additional forward tees to help increase guest enjoyment and several new tournament tees will also be built on key holes to further test the world’s best PGA TOUR professionals during the Sentry Tournament of Champions” Did not see this posted earlier, if so I’ll delete but caught me a bit as I love going over for a few great rounds. Well here’s to 2020 at Kapalua! Aloha, iSank

Sent the last set to Lanai so I have a set over there when I go, before that I gave a set to my niece who is starting the game and before that I donated them to someone at American Airlines, well it wasn’t a declared donation but someone surely thought it was because I never saw that set again.

That is pretty cool. What a beautiful part of this country, just rode my motorcycle around a few states and noticed the Rio Grande up in Colorado. Have Fun!

That’s a great trip, thanks for sharing. Interesting to hear how you see changes in St Andrews. We went 2-years apart so did not see much change but we did see big differences between Dornach and St Andrews but one is not the other. We missed Jubilee but won’t do that again.

Mahalo @iacas was able to play Torrey Pines a couple weeks ago and since then I have been on the road with my bike. One more week and I go home.