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Women's Australian Open Pro Am, Wednesday, 11th
February 2009 at Metropolitan Golf Club.
Well, having been asked to write about my
recently won round of golf with Laura Davis, I
was left wondering, where on earth do I start?
So here goes. Ok, maybe just a little
name-dropping to start with eh? We were hitting
off in second place on the first tee after
Carrie Webb's group and behind us were Gwladys
(yes, that is the correct spelling) Nocera,
playing with Australia's own Dawn Fraser. All
these star names, Ha! Gloating now!!
Ok, Back to my round with the ever so friendly
Laura. Firstly, let me say that this lady is
not only majestic in presence but this word so
aptly describes her golfing prowess too. People
have said at times that I have a particularly
long drive but after witnessing the *crra..ack*
and flight of any ball hit no, smacked by
Laura Davies, I could only be regarded at best,
as a very average distance hitter. Not only did
Laura's drives pass mine easily but they seemed
to wave goodbye as they flew missile-like and
landed at least 80 to 100 metres beyond any of
my best!
Although, I do remember on one hole I was
feeling pretty good about my drive, particularly
when we were approaching our balls for the
second shot and there was my ball, WOW! Just two
feet away from Laura's, gee maybe I can
play this game with the lower markers….. Yeah
right! It then of course dawned on me that Laura
was hitting off the Championship tees/Men’s tees
with Graeme Sims from Inside Golf, whilst I and
Australian Netball Captain Sharelle McMahon (a
truly lovely lady and a great ambassador for
Australian sport; Ha, how's that for another
name drop?) were hitting off the Ladies tees and
on this particular hole Sharelle and I were at
least 80 or even 90 metres ahead of Laura's tee.
Ha! Oh well, it felt good for all of ten seconds
I guess.
However, I do not want to give the impression
that driving the ball is the do all, end all to
playing good golf. It most certainly is not.
It does however; give one a distinct advantage,
if you also possess a magic short game and can
putt like all greens have grooves to the hole,
as Laura seems to do. Honestly, the way she
shapes the ball to draw or fade on command is a
truly spectacular sight. The surprises however,
kept on coming if...and at Metropolitan (Golfing
Heaven) it is very easily done, she landed in a
bunker, the size of which would reduce the
average golfer to a trembling wreck, (I mean
some of these were taller than her 5'10") Laura
would calmly walk into the bunker and as easily
as you would ever have thought possible simply
blast the ball to within an 18 inch or closer,
radius of the hole. This was done with such
regularity that left you in no doubt that this
was “a normal day at the office" for her.
However, her pin point approach shots and
putting were the real highlights for me, how she
read Metropolitan's undulating greens I can only
wonder but she constantly one putted, whilst the
rest of us stood scratching our heads when our
putts refused to even look at the hole. She
also seems so relaxed all the time; I don’t know
how she does that? However, I will be working
on that aspect of my game in the very near
future! All in all, we had such a wonderful
day, one that I will certainly remember for the
rest of my life. By the way we had some quite
humorous moments too; Like when I had driven my
ball, for once smack in the middle of the
fairway and was looking around for the distance
markers to work out my next shot, Laura called
to her caddie, “Johnny, get your thing out and
tell Catherine how long it is”, whilst Sharelle
and I exchanged looks and I feel sure had
similar thoughts like “this wasn’t in the fine
print” then looked at Laura who had quickly
realised what this must have sounded like and
gave the biggest grin as nonplussed, Johnny took
out his (Ok, what were you
thinking?) distance laser glasses to look at the
flag and turned to me and said “Catherine you
are 147 metres from the flag”. Well, with that
information I then took out my seven iron and
put the ball on the green. Impressive yes? Err,
no, I then proceeded to three putt, Doh!
Well, we all had fun and finished 14 under, in a
reasonable third place, first and second were 16
and 15 respectively.
Of course it wasn’t too much of a surprise to me
when Laura won the event, she was so focused it
seemed inevitable. Well-done Laura!
I
would like to say, at this point a very big
thank you to Golf Australia and their very
professionally attentive staff, for looking
after me so well and for giving me such a
wonderful opportunity, via their competition
"Would you like to play a round with Laura
Davies?" I can only encourage other golfers to
take a chance to enter these types of
competitions whenever they come up. I entered
this comp with the feeling that 'you have to be
in it to win it' but in all honesty, I didn't
really expect to win and can still remember
being totally 'gob-smacked' when the e-mail came
in telling me that I had! My motto from now
on... "Have a go, you just never know!”
Yours, in this great game of golf,
Catherine Rogers
Winchelsea Golf Club
Sharelle McMahon, Laura Davies, Catherine Rogers
and Graeme Sims
Photo
courtesy of the Golf Australia Magazine
Story written by Catherine Rogers........with
thanks..web |