Date: August 16, 2007
Author:

Boland and Shanahan on adventure of a lifetime

Sourwa de ca Australia! (Hello Australia) It&aposs been a couple of days since we have been in contact, so I will run you through a day in life of Stace and Julz on the road in Thailand. We typically get up at 4am. It&aposs crazy we know, but that&aposs when the bus leaves the athlete&aposs village. We do our best to sleep on the one hour bus trip in the hope that we will feel awake when we arrive. Once at the course we hit the showers and then have breakfast (the food is a lot nicer there than the village!) Then, like in any other tournament, we hit the range and the practice green. We have completed two rounds so far and both have taken about five to six hours! I won&apost be complaining about slow play in Australia anymore! Following our round and completion of the cards, we eat and then wait for the next available bus back to the village. For those of you who played in the Australian Amateur Championship, three years ago in Queensland, you will have some idea of the style of course this is. There is water on every hole and what looks like a short course is made long because we are playing from the men&aposs tees. Most of the par fours are around 400 yards, the fairways are very narrow and the rough is very tough – not so much with trees but just very, very thick grass. Neither of us have played as well as we would have liked and this was not helped on the first day when we finshed after 7pm (including playing three holes in the dark!) But there have been definate patches of brilliance. My downfall (Julia) has been scoring double bogeys on closing holes which make my scores look rather sad. Fortunately the other countries are also struggling and at the completion of day one I was situated in 19th, however I don&apost know what the situation is after today. So far this experience has been one of the best things I have ever done. I wish I could describe to everyone how amazing the villiage is and how different this country is when compared to Australia! Unfortunately golf is not going to be included in the next World University Games, however I would recommend people try to qualify if it is ever included on the program again! It has been well worth every hour of practice! Be in touch soon! J and S