Queensland Surf Championships. 

Excellent from go to woa.

The Queensland Surf Championships were held on this week. There was plenty of action with a number of events going on at the same time. Mid March is the National Championships. They will have 5000 competitors at that one. All golfers should try and see one of these truly Australians events.

Burliegh Heads walk is a very pleasant 45 min walk through the forest and along the ocean. If you are looking for something to do give it a go.

We played our final Queensland round of golf for this year at the Banora, where it all started. The course is in great shape.

Now that it is the first of March and the last weekend of the Australian summer has come and gone the weather is starting to change a bit. Yesterday we had 4 rain showers move through the area and the temperature dropped to 25 for the days high. Last night we shut off the fan for the first time. Today the high is only going to be 26.

Good news for next years golfers. We now have a very good practice facility in Kingscliff. Jeff at Chinderah has agreed to give us 2 for 1 on a bucket of balls next year. They have a good range with chipping and putting as well. This will help golfers tune up their skills and pass some time while waiting for their next round of golf. Most of our golfers tried the course and liked the fact that they could just walk on. The par is only 60 with 29 out and 31 in. They have 6 par 4s and no par fives.

With Tweed Coolangatta coming on as our Gold Coast unlimited course and Chinderah as our practice area our packages will be even better next year.

Today we move south to Bryon Bay. From there we will play the northern NSW courses of Ocean Shores, Byron, Ballina,Yamba and Muwillinmbah. This year a lot of the golfers liked Ocean Shores and Muwillinbah courses the best.

Once we have played these courses we will have 20 different courses from Noosa on the Sunshine Coast to Yamba on the Northern NSW coast. If we get a chance we will try for Bonville in Coffs Harbour as it is considered the number one course by many in Australia. The golf guide ranks it number 9 overall, 15th best design, 20 best conditions and number one for aesthetics. We have also played Horizons in Nelson Bay and many different courses on the central and south coasts of NSW.

While there are many fine courses on the eastern coast of Australia only the Gold and Sunshine Coasts offer a large amount of courses in a small area. There are courses for every budget and every type of golfer on the SE Queensland coast.

I will continue this blog until we get home on April 7th, still reporting on interesting courses, special tours or events as well as the weather.

Next year's golfers will be able to read this blog and find out more about the total experience that a waits them down under.

Remember if you book a cart you will get a pull cart. So when booking a power cart make sure you tell them you want a power cart.

Brisbane group ready to depart. 

Full moon on the Gold Coast. 

Last group arrives

We made our last pick up today. They were supposed to arrive at 4:15 but arrived 6:15 on a different airline. It seems Freedom Air cancelled the Thursday flights and did not contact me or the passengers. What a scare to end up at the airport with no flight. Fortunately they had the number of our car rental and gave them a call to tell us they would be late. They also asked the right people at the airport and were referred to Air New Zealand where they found their new ticket waiting for them.

Next year we will make sure everyone checks flight 72 hrs prior to departure.

Overall everything has gone well considering the number of people traveling. Other than one flight delay, one flight cancelled and the incident with the customs officer it was good. Everyone did end up on the Gold Coast on the correct day.

Next year we will include hospital information in their handout as well high lite the numbers to call for emergencies such as 000 as well as my mobile number.

We will offer Tweed Coolangatta as our Gold Coast unlimited course next year. This will give those golfers two course to play on with fast greens an a 4.5 star rating for only $150 more. This will keep all golfers together for socials and the ability to play with other Canadians. We will still offer the budget unlimited on the Sunshine coast but I think most golfers will upgrade to get the better course and the extra course.

Yesterday played our final round at Tweed with the new arrivals. They found the course to be good but also it could be tough. After we meet 12 our golfers that were also finishing their round so had a few cool ones with them. A number have expressed the desire to return next year.

Today we will take in a large surf carnival, walk Burleigh heads, and catch the show at the Banora club tonight.

Dan changed his ticket and will now depart two weeks later. He reported it to be very easy. He is going to take the rental car and explore the hinterland a little more and then spend the last week in Brisbane with his relatives.

The majority leave tomorrow- 26. The rest are staying longer or are off to NZ.

Sunrise over the Gold Coast. 

Colonial Course

As we near the end for most of the golfers they are all rushing about trying to get in as many rounds as possible before they head back to the land of ice and snow.

Don has reported that he has done around 15 round and still has 3 rounds booked. This maybe enough for him to win the honor for the most rounds played. He has played then on about 10 different course. To quote him" it is great to play all the different courses. That way we see a lot of the country and experience all types of courses. The golf book is a big improvement."

Getting back to the Coloninal Course. It may be the best groomed course that we have played here. It equals Twin Waters on the Sunshine Coast. The fee with cart is $25 with the Mega Membership or $42 otherwise. This is the rate for twile light time. Our time was right at 2:30 but got there early as you can go right out when you arrive. The round took 3.5 hrs and we had at least an hour and half of light left.

The course is flat, with water on 17 holes but the fairways are wide so you can avoid most water expect for the water that crosses the fairways. Plenty of sand, fast greens and not too long from the white tees. The Golf Guide ranks this in the top 100. Cart paths, half way house, and club house are excellent. Well worth playing.

Yesterday we went back to Emerald Lakes and they gave us carts as well for only $29. Excellent course designed by Graham Marsh. Another great bargain.

In Australia they call carts, buggies or power carts. One of the group reserved a cart and got a pull cart. It was a hilly course and they did not have any power carts left. So when booking reserve a power cart if you want one.

Went back to Tracies for the third time last night. Saw some of the group there. When you see Gaye as her about here opal. Adam, the owner of Tracies was very happy with the arrangement where he gives us $10 pasta nights during the week and free drink on the weekends. He indicated that he would love to do the same thing next year. Thanks a lot Adam for the good food and Nadine for the excellent service.

Schooners Bottle shop was also excellent to deal with and Grant thinks the Canadians drink as much as the Aussies. Grant provided prizes and gifts for the tournament. Thanks Grant.

We are off to the airport today to pick up our final two golfers for the season. They have been to NZ for the first month and are going to stay in Australia for the next 5.5 weeks.

Going to take Jackie for her last snorkel in the creek at Kingscliff. When the tie is coming in or at ebb it has some good snorkeling.

Some of the many kangaroos at Kooralbyn. 

Boomerang Farms' Club House, 

Final Week for Most

We are into the final week for golf for most of the golfers. Two more are due to arrive in two days and two will stay longer.

Yesterday we decided to go to Boomerang Farm. This has an old farm shed for a club house. It was constructed in 1902. The course is 9 holes, a little rough, but very pretty. The last nine you play from different tee boxes. James the owner has give us a 20% discount. One of the reasons to play this course is to see the wildlife. We did see about 3 kangaroos in the trees,

Today 12 of us drove over the mountains to Kooralbyn. It took us about 1:40 minutes to get there. The drive is very nice with mountains and lush green forests for most of the way. When we got to Beaudessert the area is more farm land with cattle and hay crops. The area is dry and requires some rain. The valley is a great place for horse back riding and golf.

The course is very good. A great layout but needs water on the fairways. This is the place for kangaroos. We must have seen 150 during the day. The green fees were $25 with a cart. The cart was nice as it was warm but not too warm. A par 72 layout and about 6200 meters from the blue tees.

On Saturday we went to O'Rillys. A resort high in the mountains with lots of rain forest hikes. The road going up is a narrow one lane road with some steep drop offs. The views were great and the hike was very pleasant. Would not recommend it for our golfers as not much to see up there that they could not see at tambourine Mt or the Natural Bridge.

A few of the group on the bottom deck. 

The group on the top deck of MS Surprise. 

Sunset Cruise in Paradise

Yesterday 36 of us took a two hour cruise from Marina Mirage @ 5 pm MV Surprise. This is a wonderful old boat of 80 years. We cruised the canals and waterways of the Broadwater around Surfers Paradise. We were provided with finger food and a Champagne Cocktail. We saw multi million dollar homes and boats, wildlife and the bright lights of Surfers. The evening was overcast so it was not too hot. A number of the golfers also brought their own wine or beer as well.

A number of the ladies went to Sea World prior to the cruise. They found it worth while.

Others have been taking various trips around and about the country.

Don, Ruby, Bessie and John took three separate day tours to Bryon, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane.

George, Deb, Gaye, Robert, Dave and Sandie took a 4 night 5 day trip to Cairns. This group is also departing from Sydney so will have 3 days to explore this wonderful city.

Lotte, Beth took a one day trip to the Barrier Reef at Lady Elliot Island.

Neil and Karrie did an over night trip to Hamilton Island when they were here.

Rich, Nicky, Lou and Jean did a two night trip to Sydney. The four will also spend four weeks in NZ along with Al and Pat. Lou and Jean also took a three day trip to Townsville. Lawrence and Judy are taking an overnight trip to Sydney.

Dan and Ron are taking extra time to explore Australia before they head home.

The weather continues to be good with highs each day around 28 with a breeze. It can get a little hot on the golf courses as the trees stop a lot of the wind.

With about 2.5 weeks completed the most golf so far has been done by Marion, Kathleen, Mandy, and Johanna. They have golfed 12 times on a number of courses. With just a week or so left I would expect the group to increase the number of times they play so they can get in as much golf as possible.

Ray,Ron, Jackie, Beth and Dan at Tracies for pasta. 

Ron and Dan at the 19th hole of Emerald Lakes. 

Emerald Lakes

Yesterday we played at Emerald Lakes with Dan and Ron. Rate the course a 4 star course. It has a good layout with water coming into play on over half of the holes. The greens had just been top dressed but they still were fast. The course is starting to dry out and it will need watering soon. They have plenty of water around so it should not be a problem. Very nice club house and a fine public tennis facility. For the price of $22 on the two for one program it is well worth the money.

Went back to Tracies for our weekly pasta meal. The 8 ladies were there along with Ron and Dan. Adam has done a good business with the golfers. Everyone enjoys his place. Will definitely use the restaurant again next year.

Checked out Junipers' Casino in the afternoon. It is a very nice casino, the only one on the Gold Coast. Wandered around and played a few of the slot machines. It was one of the few times that I made some money, $35. We then took the monorail over to Broadbeach for a quick look around. There are plenty of restaurants in this area. Many say this is the best place to eat on the Gold Coast.

I was checking the flyers in the local paper and spotted a wine sale. It took us out of our way to find the place but we did purchase another case of wine. Why another you say. The price was $2.99 a bottle. So purchased four shiraz, 4 merlot, and 4 white. The reds were crocodile Rock and I have seen them in Edmonton at Superstore for $9.99. It was a shipment that was supposed to go to America but the buyer went broke so the wine was put on sale. Great buy.

Tweed Coolangatta Course Club house back right white building. 

Lyn,Phyllis and Beth on the 10th green River Course. 

Tweed River Course

Played the River Course at Tweed Coolangata today. Excellent course with more difficult greens then the West Course. There was more water as well. Overall not much to choose from between the two courses. Take whatever course suites your desired tee times. These courses offer excellent value. I would rank these courses at a 4 star level. Twin Waters and sanctuary Cove would be 4.5 stars. Banora gets a 3.5 rating.

Lawrence and Judy played Ocean Shores and reported it to be an excellent course and recommend that everyone should try it. I will not be there until March sometime then I will be able to give brief description of it. It is another course ranked in the top 100.

Gold Coast Country Club

Golfed here today to see what the course was like. This course is an unlimited play course. It is 37 km and 25 minutes from Currumbin. The course layout is interesting but the fairways were yellow and brown from fertilizer burns. Greens were good and the golf carts had GPS systems. The green fees were $30 with cart or $20 to walk. The pro insures me that next year the course will be in good shape as they are getting a better water system. The rating is 2 stars and not worth the drive.

Those golfers looking for a nice drive in the country should take the Currumbin Valley Road. It is only 22 km long but you pass some nice home, farms, rock pools and then you come to a National Park. Take the 1km hike thought the rain forest and see some small water falls. On the way back stop off at the Crystal restaurant for some Devonshire Tea in their gardens.

Don from Brooks Alberta admires his booming drive. 

Ray checking the score card. 

Sanctuary Cove

Yesterday 15 of us traveled to sanctuary Cove for a round of golf. The distance is about 50 km north of Kingscliff. Everyone found the drive to be worth it. The drive is easy along the M1 and turn off at exit 57 and follow the signs for 9km.

The course is a 4.5 star course and home to Adam Scott of the PGA. They have two courses the Palms and the Pines. We played the Palms as the Pines is a private course. Each hole was a postcard picture and the course has water and 73 bunkers with fast greens. Everyone thought it was great. Our cost was $65 which included GPS carts and practice balls. The ladies toured the village after the round for a little shopping.

Just at the end of the round we got a little rain shower then later last night got a good downpour. In the morning everything is dry as if it did not rain.

Coolangatta Tweed West 18. 

A real dragon. 

Coolangatta Tweed Golf

Monday we golfed the west course at Tweed. The course is in excellent shape and is interesting. Their is a variety of holes, lots of bunkers protecting the greens and from cutting corners. Water comes into play on a number of holes. This is a good 4 star course.

A number of our group were on the course. Most have played a number of courses now and have more tee times set up.

The weather has been hot and humid. The temperatures around 30 -32 with bright blue skies. We golfed at 6:48 and finished around 10. This time of day is ok along with the later afternoon say around 2:30.

All the golfers seemed to be coping with the right hand drive and getting out and about. We delivered 3 fans to the ladies yesterday to help get some air moving in their condos. We suggest that the screen doors and window be open. There are not many flying bugs and the fly screens stop about 50% of the air movement.

Yesterday was spend checking out Mt. Tambourine Golf Course. It is a nine hole course with a second set of tee boxes for the second nine. The course has good view but is hilly. They have given us a discount of $10 which makes the 18 hole rate $15. The ladies shopped in the village and found it to be well worth while. They have a number of art galleries, restaurants and craft shops. For lunch a stop at the Polish Place restaurant is well worth it. The restaurant sits right on the edge of the cliff with wonderful views and heaps of bird life. They also have one of the largest iguanaa that I have seen. Jackies was feeding the lorikeets and they came and landed on her. What a surprise.

On the road back we stopped at the Beared Dragon Pub for a cold one. This is a great country modern country pub. They have Cane Toad Races every Sunday and lots of out door eating areas as well as a small zoo.

Today 13 of us are off to play sanctuary Cove about 1 hr north of hear. This is an area where they have a number of top courses with green fees to match. Today we pay $60 with cart.

Golf Tournament

Today we had our Golf Tournament. It was a great day, weather was hot, sunny, blue sky, and a nice wind to keep it cool. The course is in great shape.

We had 31 players with carts. We went off from the 10 and 1 St tees at 1pm NSW time. Prior to tee off we had a light lunch. The format was a two per team keeping gross score and net score for each hole for both players. At the end we calculated the Stabbleford scores for each team. Prizes for highest Stabbleford score, low gross and net were awarded. All others received their prizes by way of a random draw.

After the round we had hot finger food and drinks as we waited for the scores to be calculated.

During the round we were interrupted by the press. A local newspaper sent a photographer out to take pictures. They were supposed to be there prior to starting but arrived when we were on the 10th green. We had to stop play for about 20 minutes for a number of groups around the 10 th tee so we could get a picture or two of some of the golfers. Look for photo when it comes out in print.

The cost $35 for each golfer. This included green fee, cart, light lunch, after game finger food, and prizes.

Our 2 hr cruise is scheduled for the 17th at 5pm. We have a two for one deal with them and we can take our drinks on board.

We were a little worried the two nights ago as we had a big wind and rain storm. It caused a number of black outs and dust storms in Brisbane. However here the water disappears very quickly so the course was dry.

Golfers Arrive

We have fallen a bit behind in keeping this blog up to date. So lets catch up.

We played another round at the Headlands course in Mooloolaba. We offer 4 unlimited play courses on the Sunshine Coast. They are calendar, Headlands, Mt Coolum and Tewantin. Tewantin is an upgrade course for an additional $100. Tewantin is 3.5 stars and the others are 3 stars. Our budget package includes accommodation in calendar and membership at that course. This year the best conditioned course of the group was Headlands.

We headed south on the 30th and picked up two golfers at the Brisbane Airport. We took them to the condo they had chosen and then we checked into our residence for February on Crumbin Beach.

The following day we drove to the airport once again and picked up 26 golfers. They were tired but excited after an enjoyable two full days in Singapore. Most crammed in as many tours as they could during the two days. Everyone felt that Singapore was and excellent place to stop.

We had one incident at the airport. The golfer had a buck wheat travel pillow and of course never thought of it as food. The custom officer gave them a hard time and also indicated that the golf tees were wood and there fore should not be brought in. They also had wooden shoe trees in their golf shoes and a wooden handle hair brush that caused problems. Finally a supervisor came over and permitted them to enter the country. This is not away to greet and make people feel welcome when they arrive. Next year I will warn the golfers about all wood products.

We finally got everyone on the air conditioned bus and headed to the Gold Coast taking the longer route through Surfers and along the coast.

The cars were waiting for us and the paper work went quickly. However it does take a while to pack the cars with all the clubs and luggage. Most golfers risked the drive and took off following our tip booklet directions. They had no problem arriving in Kingscliff and getting their accommodation. I lead a convoy of 5 cars south for those that preferred to follow me then make their own way there.

We got everyone checked in an settled. Many had not eaten for long time and headed to the restaurants. Next year will have to tell everyone to pick up some food in the Brisbane airport prior to getting on the bus.

The weather was overcast but hot. I think the temperature was around 29. Recommended opening up the condos to cool them off, as most do not have air conditioning, and go shopping.

Queensland is a tropical state an unfortunately they do get some insects that we do not see at home. It is almost impossible to keep them all out of the condos as the doors and windows are always open so you will see a few of them.

A number of people wanted to know about the metal grill works on the screen doors. Is there a high crime rate? Did need need to be careful?

No, the crime rate is very low. The doors are like this because they are left open when people go out. The homes would get too warm if they locked the main doors and closed the windows. So they make the screen doors a little more secure and they lock. This way they can leave the wooden doors open.

We have our golf tournament today. We meet for lunch then 18 holes with power cart and prizes after. The entry fee is $35 per person. We have 32 golfers participating.

We are also running a Down Under Tournament. Everyone that wants to enter turns in their scores for 6 different courses and after all golfers have departed for Canada we will total all the cards and away a prize to the winner. They will receive it some time in April as our last golfers do not leave until the end of March. There is no fee for this as it is away to get the golfers to travel around and see other courses and other parts of the Gold Coast.

Darryl from our car rental company has organized a two for one, 2 hour evening cruise on the 17th of Feb. Everyone has indicated that they will be coming. Of the nice things about this cruise is we can all take our own drinks on board.

Played Club Banora, 3.5 star course yesterday and found it to be in excellent shape. We use this club as our home course. The green fees here are $15 for our golfers.

We are off to the tournament now and will report on it tomorrow.