Day 3 was a splendid day spent at New South Wales Golf Club with Club Captain Phil Banister.

After a restful though short night I spent my first full day in Sydney with ‘Golf’ being prominent for the first time in the ‘Golf Journey to Australia & New Zealand.’ I visited the New South Wales Golf Club and was astonished by her beauty. She is in a class all by herself as far as I have seen in the world of golf—links golf with significant elevation changes. ‘Spectacular’ as my friend Seannie would exclaim with a voice inflection that surely said the adjective was well deserved!

I was hosted by Club Captain Phil Banister. We spent a good five hours touring the golf course, meeting and conversing with several members. We sat in the clubhouse with a view overlooking the 18th green. From that vantage point one sees the pureness of this seaside golf course with its ups-and-downs meandering itself up and around on a bluff overlooking the sea and then down to the sea itself as if a horse lowers her head to drink. The original Dr. Alister MacKenzie design was modified by E.L. Apperly six and twenty-two years after it first opened in 1928. Since 1951 numerous architects have been involved and there is one who wished he had the opportunity to work on her a bit but never did—Jack Nicklaus.

CLICK here for a BEAUTY VIDEO of the New South Wales Golf Club.

The home hole and the clubhouse at New South Wales Golf Club.

I heard many stories of Australia, Australian golf and those who play our humbling game on the La Perouse links. None more fascinating than Dan Cullen who turns 100 years old on the 15th of November. He grew up near Perth and came to the game as a sort of forced indenture as a caddie after eating figs from a wealthy man’s fig tree. On the advice of Bobby Locke he came east to Sydney because that was where the money in golf.  In addition to playing competitive golf, in the late 1960’s he set up and operated a driving range still known today Cullen’s Driving Range. While we think of the 1977 Open at Turnberry as Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus’ ‘Duel in the Sun,’ it was Cullen setting a record for the oldest golfer ever to qualify for the British Open. He was 62 years old. Happy Birthday to Dan Cullen!

Surfers, not seals, in the water at Maroubra Beach.

After golf I explored the area a bit by driving north to visit Maroubra Beach and then Coogee Beach. Stunning, absolutely stunning. Australia, an island continent, has over 21,000 miles of coastline, that’s over twenty times more than what California has in the United States. I can see why most of Australia’s 23 million people live near the coast and love their beaches.

Saturday, November 1st, my first full day in Australia!

Staying in Kingsford I found a perfect location close to the historic golf courses of Sydney, the beach and the city itself. Two out of three wasn’t bad for the first day! Down Under Andy (-:   (Facebook Link, Andy Reistetter, 11/3/14)

I did not realize until we were already in flight that I would be losing a day on the way to Sydney. They assure me I get it back on the return!

Well, on Day 2 of the ‘Golf Journey to Australia & New Zealand,’ I made it to Sydney after a 10-hour flight from Honolulu! Or was today Day 3 too?

I thought I was leaving from Honolulu and arriving in Sydney on the same day but not exactly as I fly over the International Date Line. According to Wikipedia, the IDL is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth that runs from the North to the South Pole and demarcates backward calendar day from the next. It passes through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, roughly following the 180 degree longitude. I have no idea what that means but the lady Sydneysider sitting in 27D aside me told me that when we land in Sydney it will be Friday, not Thursday. So I missed my first connection in Sydney which was scheduled for Thursday afternoon! Reminded me of how I lost my very first job out of college with Mobil Oil before I ever started But that is another story.

Hawaiian Airlines fed me like a King! They must have thought I was King Kamehameha from Maui or something!

Hawaiian Airlines Flight 451 was a good flight especially in terms of the hospitable staff and the fact that they feed you and feed you well! Being on time, not too bumpy and being able to pick your own premium movies when you want to also made it a great flight! I watched a Korean golf movie with English subtitles called ‘Mr. Perfect.’ It was the fictional story (I think) of Baek Se-Jin, an amazing golf talent, whose life spins out of control and bottoms out when his manager is killed when he is drunk driving, as they called it in the movie. He escapes to a small island where he saves a school while the young children, one who Se-Jin develops into a champion junior golfer, while they save him from a useless life. Good story and a testament to how popular golf is becoming in Asia.

Beak Se-Jin is Mr. Perfect in an interesting Korean golf movie.

Arriving in Sydney I had the distinct pleasure of watching a nice custom official empty completely my roller bag and backpack and open and search my rigid golf travel bag. No worries, I am a day late anyhow! The cell phone SIM card option didn’t work with my phone so I ended up buying a new phone but now I have GPS and a way to communicate with all my new Aussie friends! A rental car was still there for me a day later and also the room I am staying in for the first week near the University of New South Wales!

My little Nissan Micra, standard shift, in Berlin Blue, with the steering wheel on the wrong side! Left, Left, Left!

Driving the car was a bit tricky as like in the UK they drive on the left side of the road here in Australia. “Think Left, Left, Left” were words of wisdom from Dick Donovan the renown book collector  when I made my first trip across the pond to St. Andrews with my older son Joe. However, when a pedestrian crossing the street, you better look right because that’s where the cars in the closest lane to the sidewalk come from. My biggest challenge will be having the blinkers on the right side of the steering wheel as I turned on the windshield wipers a hundred times as I drove the 10 km. to my new home in Kingsford.

All in all, a great first, and second, day here in Australia! Sunset was 7:22 pm, sunrise will be 5:55 am with the days getting longer. It was another day (or two) with twenty hours of sunshine in it. I am 9,631 miles from home and 15 hours ahead timewise. So I here in Sunny Sydney heading to bed while my buddy Stokes is teeing it up back in Ponte Vedra Beach. Now that I am here it is time to find the golf!

Arrived in Sydney but not sure what day it was! (-:   (Facebook Link, Andy Reistetter, 10/31/14)

Following the Sun west, Catalina Island near LA, heading out into the Pacific Ocean.

Good first day! I am writing this in my hotel room near the Honolulu Airport on Thursday morning. I gained six hours of time I think flying from Jacksonville, Florida to Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas and then the 8-hour flight into the vastness of the Pacific Ocean finding the Hawaiian island of Oahu (which always makes me laugh to think it or say it out loud, kind of like Yahoo!) and safely and thankfully the landing runway of the Honolulu airport around 4 pm local time yesterday.

It was a day following the sun, sitting in my window seat simply amazed at how much an airplane can keep up with the earth’s rotation. I think I calculated about 18 hours of sunshine for me yesterday. I think I like breaking up the trip to Sydney this way as I stayed up to 10 pm yesterday and slept pretty much to 5:30 am this morning, completely refreshed and ready to go! Much different than ‘piercing into the darkness’ and the short night on trips east across the pond to Scotland or Europe. Following the Sun with thoughts of Ben Hogan. I am following the long days of summer and sunshine too with this second consecutive winter trip to the southern hemisphere.

I have much to be thankful for on the ‘Golf Journey to Australia & New Zealand’ that I made a list on the plane. This odyssey has been in my mind since the ‘Journey to Olympic Golf’ a year ago. Getting to know a few Aussies in the golf business over the last seven years on tour helped put definition to the trip. Meeting a lively bunch of them at the Masters this year sealed the deal for sure. About a month ago I sent out a few emails to test the waters. The GO decision was made a week ago Monday on October 20th and this airplane ticket that brought me to Honolulu yesterday and will take me to Sydney today was purchased. So much has happened as far as planning in the nine days before I left  So very thankful to so many people both back home and ahead in my new home for the next 2-1/2 months!

Upon arrival in Sydney I will secure the rental car, find a SIM card for my LG phone (never knew it meant Subscriber Identity Module but now I do) and hopefully it will work and give me internet & GPS and a way to text back to the States. I will drive 6.1 km to my room off campus near the University of New South Wales (UNSW), meet some new friends and stay awake as long as I can.

Well it’s time to leave for the airport and hop aboard a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Sydney and thankfully and happily follow the sun ‘Down Under’ for another day!

(-:

Andy

Aloha, Mahalo. Aloha… made it to Honolulu, heading to Sydney to day on the 2nd day of the ‘Journey to Australia & New Zealand’ Hello to new friends Down Under, so long but see you soon to old friends in the USA! (-:   (Facebook Link, Andy Reistetter, 10/30/14)