Ugly golf in a gorgeous place. Nasty numbers belying a sweet couple of days. Here they are. Read 'em and weep. In three rounds I hot 117, 97, and 101 with my stableford scores at 17, 27 and 23 playing off a well-earned 17 handicap rating.
Golfers will grimace with and for me and for the rest of you just be assured I was horrible most days, most holes, most shots with very few bright spots. I stunk. My tee-game stunk. My short-game stunk. My putting stunk. Still I played with some great people and saw some fantastic countryside and had a chance to tee it up in a very friendly international tournament.
All this stinking was happening after all in Australia which pretty much makes it all good. I had beers and laughs with Stewart from Ballaratt and Ippy from Dubbo, got a "welcome to OZ" souvenir boomerang from Patrick from Brisbane, played with and met quite a few of the seeming thousands of Albertans who made the trip to Sydney for the WMG.
I watched new golf-mate and generous and intrepid driver, Tony Reynolds, qualify for the champions round on Friday. I swapped e-mails and phone numbers with plenty of folks and promised to see them again 4 years from now in Torino if golf is part of that version of the Masters Games.
So yes, it was horrible golf on my part. And yes, it was worth every second and every penny.