I guess I'm not your usual Scotsman as I don't like Whiskey, never wore a Kilt until I was in my 60s and never took up golf until I was into my 50s and apart from a couple of games of golf in Darwin with my wife Jude and using hired clubs that was about it.
However in 2000 we moved from Darwin to New South Wales to a little retirement village called Darlington Park which had it own small 9 hole golf course and its own beach.
The course as I said was very small with 4 par 4 holes and 5 par 3 holes the longest par 4 was 280 metres and the shortest par 4 was 168 metres, the Longest par 3 was 138 metres and the shortest was 116 metres it was a par 31 for the course and 1489 metres.
This course had lots of trees and I do mean lots, when teeing off at the first hole as you are look at the flag waving in the wind 280 metres straight in front of you, there is a row of large bushes, shubs & trees running the full lenth of the 1st hole, however you might think thats okay but from where you stand to tee off you are only 2 metres from the edge of the bushes, and if you don't hit your ball straight down the fairway and you slice or hook it into or over these bushes and trees you are in trouble and your ball will only end up on the beach which you can't see from where you are or it will be lost in the THICK bushes.& shrubs
Normally it would mean just walking into most bushes to retrive your ball but these bushes are covered in Tic's, now I don't know if you have Tics in England but they are bloody awful as when you walk into the bush to try and find yu ball, they drop on you and if you don't check to make sure they are not on you they bite into your neck or other parts of you bare skin and suck your blood if you try and just pull them off the body breaks away leaving the small head in your neck so you must make sure you get the head out.
Now back to golf, on competition days you have to wait for the other golfers to get off most greens before the next lot of players tee off, especialy if you have some big hitters it was quite common for people to be struck with a golf ball myself included and needing a couple of stiches.
However I know most golf courses have trees but this course had them everywhere but you just got used to playing and trying to manage them, but then you had the wildlife if you were out early morning for a game of golf with a few mates you had to watch out for the kangaroo's most time they would be fine but if there was a few little joey's around they could get a little bit aggresive,
On the 9th hole it was a straight shot from teeing off to the flag on the green but there was a sand bunker staight in front of the green with about a 1 metres high sand bank wall, and in the spring some of the I think they were honey eater birds used to make holes in the sand wall to lay their eggs how lovely you might say, However in spring the weather was nice and warm in that part of the east coast of Australia, and the snakes used to come out and yes they would sometimes go into the holes that the birds laid their eggs in to eat them. SO you had to be careful if your golf ball fell short of the green and went into one of these holes, you had to make sure that the hole was empty usually with a bit of stick.
Some of the Wildlife that I myself have seen on this golf course were Large Pythons, Red Belly Black snakes, Copperheads, Brown Snakes, Monitor lizards, Blue Tongue lizards, Kangaroos, lots of spiders, in the bush amongst any rotten wood, White Supher Crested Cocatoos, Black Tail Cocatoos, Sea Eagles, Honey Eaters, Rainbow Lorikeets, King Parrots, Kooaburras, and many more.
So when I was having a bad day of golf it was always a pleasure to see this wild life and in the 10 years that I was there I was never bitten by aTic,or any of the snakes or chased by the Kangaroos and after a hot day on the course you could always take a dip in the surf to cool only 5 minutes walk from the front of the golf course and then head tothe Luv Shack for a cold one only 5 minutes walk from the beach.
Oh what a Life it was and yes it is all true, .you might be wondering what happens to all the lost balls, well a couple of the golfers who lived in the park used to put on those white paper overalls with a hood on and head off into the bushes to get the balls and then sell them back to the golfers for a $1-00 a ball and only if they would be in very good condition
It was as you say HAPPY GOLFING
Scottish Bob
