On the 11th of May I went out to the Melbourne Airport Golf Club to play a round of 18, with a good mate Foz. This is the first time I had played 18 holes and I was really excited to get out there and play and also get some help with my game.
As the name suggests, this course is right behind Melbourne Airport with bush land surrounding. This course doesn’t have much undergrowth, making it much easier to find a stray ball. My favourite hole has a challenging hill dropping away from left to right with a big gully in the middle. As you’re hitting you can see the planes taking off almost right over you head the sound booming around the whole area.
The weather wasn’t great that day with consistent rain in the morning, combined with fairly heavy winds. The weather did improve as we played on though and warmed up later in the afternoon. There was hardly anyone around and this helped as we could just take our time with no pressure.
I was still struggling with topping the ball on the first hole, however as Foz was watching he was able to give me feedback. I was tending to rise up a bit with my body on the down swing and that was causing me to top the ball almost every shot. I was also looking down directly at the centre of the ball instead of behind hit. I practiced keeping the height of my stance consistent as I swung down and also looking at the back of the ball, and I started to hit the ball much more consistently almost right away.
This led to me playing much better than I had ever played so far. I managed to even hit my first green in regulation on a par 3, with some draw on the ball.
I also started using the driver and on the Par 5’s I was able to keep my score from ballooning and get my first bogey on a Par 5.
My chipping was pretty good that day using a sand wedge I bought for $3. I was able to chip onto the green consistently and even stuck within a foot of the hole from about 20 metres out.
I had gotten a nice Taylor made putter as a present, but hadn’t actually practiced with it until I got to the course. This putter was much faster than my previous putter and so I struggled with having a feel for the distance of my putts, which did hurt my score.
From that I’m going to head to the putting greens more to work on getting my feel for distance better as I was 3 putting almost all of the holes, which was a bit disappointing.
Overall though I’m really happy with the progress I made and how differently I was playing on the last 9 holes compared to the start of the round. I broke 120 for 18 holes, which I’m very happy with and continuing to work towards breaking 100. I’m excited to get back to Melbourne Airport Golf club again and would recommend it as a great course for all types of golfers.
Achievements unlocked
Break 120 ✔
Play 18 holes ✔
Make a bogey on a Par 5 ✔
Shoot a green in regulation ✔
Chip to within 1 foot of the hole ✔
Hit a draw ✔
Find out more about Melbourne Airport Golf Club