Queensland Country Championships is a tournament run by Queensland Golf, is held annually and open to State female amateur golfers. This year it was held on the Gold Coast and hosted jointly by Surfers Paradise Golf club and Southport Golf club. Both golf courses are beautiful aesthetically and maintained in tip top condition. The "rough" would rival the average person's lawn!
There were approximately 350 competitors from Cairns to Tweed Heads up the East Coast and out West as far as St George and other little country clubs so it was a very well attended tournament.
I accompanied the contingent of Gympie Womens Golf Club which had 12 representatives in various divisions. We all stayed in the same Apartment Block in Broadbeach and generally had a nice time off the course at different cafes and the like.
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| Broadbeach on the Gold Coast |
The skyline is littered with the awful high rise buildings which is largely accommodation places. Our apartment La Grande is one of the lower buildings and is situated about mid photo. The decor and facilities were top notch and we had a panoramic view of the entire Gold Coast beach. It was a lovely spot.
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| Our view from the balcony |
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| Some of the Gympie "girls" |
The shortest gal in the picture actually won the best gross and nett in our division so she was really rapt. She is naturally a very loud person and boy was she loud on presentation night. Good on her tho'
Day one was a mixed event of Foursomes whereby we played with a partner. It's mainly intended to allow players to familiarise themselves with the courses and local conditions. Anyway it's also an opportunity to blame or credit one another for particular doings. Betty and I complemented one another very well with minimum challenges presented to one another. We came about 11th out of 88 so we were more than happy with our game.
Day Two and Three were individual stroke events. The first day I fared quite well with an average score but others had found the course more difficult so I looked on paper better than I deserved. The second day was an absolute disaster for me, I hit every damn drain, bunker and tree on the course! When I landed in the same drain three times I realised I was way out of any contention. I scored 12 strokes on that hole! That is Golf tho' - it happens. Anyway despite the big number I had a great group of girls to play with, it was played in good spirit and the surroundings were absolutely superb.
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| Group of us before we left for Gympie on the last day. The bags under the eyes were even more pronounced. |
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