Day 4: WOW Sydney & Hosting the 2000 Olympics!

So much respect for prior Olympics and ones since 2000. Here I am with a key date, the last time golf was played was in 1904 at St. Louis at Glen Echo CC.

Sydney has so much respect for prior Olympics and ones since 2000. Here I am with a key date, the last time golf was played was in 1904 at St. Louis at Glen Echo CC.

I made it 3-for-3 on Sunday, November 2nd with a tour of Sydney jetting around in my little Berlin Blue Nissan Micra. Australia is golf, the beach and Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales to me. Up early, I hopped in the car and headed out on the M1 and M2 to the western suburbs. I felt like James Bond, shifting with my left hand while taking pictures with my right hand. Through lots of tunnel and with light Sunday morning traffic I was on my way to see Sydney. Zipping through toll booths with no attendants, the rental car thingamajig was beeping often. Tolls are not cheap here and I think I will be charged a little extra at the end of the week.

Are people in Sydney friendly, helpful and overly nice to be around or what? This is how I met Jim, the security guard!

I didn't know where I was going until I saw a sign for Sydney's Olympic Park. We all remember how well they hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2ooo. Why visit the Olympic Park? Easy answer when you look at what I was doing last year at this time—on a 'Journey to Olympic Golf.' Now Sydney would be the fifth (Atlanta 1996, St. Louis 1904, Mexico City 1968, Rio de Janeiro 2016) Olympic City I visited on my quest to define the 'Olympic Spirit of Golf.' Simple logic: extract the Olympic Spirit from prior Olympics and combine it with the history and tradition of Golf. Hey, nobody has done it for 112 years, so who is to say that is not how to define the 'Olympic Spirit of Golf.' Well actually junior golfers compete in the Junior Olympics for the first time in Nanjing China this summer. Maybe I should go ask them. I did try to go to Nanjing but no sponsors appeared! CLICK here for VIDEO INTERVIEW with Jim Pearson at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Park.

I don't know about me (well I do and the answer is NO) but Jim is a deserving NSW Champion in my mind. He knew there was golf memorabilia in this place!

So seriously here is how things go for Andy Reistetter on these journeys. I am driving through the Olympic Park area (it is vast) and see a sign for Golf. So I turn wondering what the heck Golf had to do with the 2000 Sydney Olympics? I mean Aussies are very sophisticated and forward looking people but this was 14 years ago? So, of course, I get to a dead end roundabout without seeing another sign or anything that looked golf related. I see a security guy so I pull over and ask him about it. "Yeah, they should have taken that sign down four years ago," said Officer Jim Pearson. Evidently there was a driving range within Olympic Park that Australian golfer Bob Stanton would stage huge golf merchandise shows. Stanton won the 1966 Dunlop International at The Australian Golf Club by beating Arnold Palmer in a sudden death playoff. The range was also used for overflow parking during the 2000 Olympics. Golf is back in the Olympics in Rio in 2016 after a 112-year absence... I am thinking Australian golfers will excel there as much as the city of Sydney and Cathy Freeman excelled at the 2000 Olympics! CLICK here for a BEAUTY VIDEO of driving through the CBD of Downtown Sydney!

I became quite intimate with Sydney, courtesy of an AATKings tour on Monday, Day 5!

My day concluded with a drive through downtown Sydney, what they call the CBD (Central Business District), and a trip across the Harbour Bridge with a glimpse of the Sydney Opera House. The still pictures at the end are from my exceptional AATKings tour on Monday (Day 5). I am taking the liberty of merging days since part of me is 15 hours behind and the rest of me is right here in Sydney, Time Zone UTC +10:00! What a day of visiting the Olympic Park and seeing Sydney, Australia! http://www.andygolftraveldiary.com/day-4-wow-sydney-hostin…/ Day 4 spent driving around Sydney and visiting the Sydney 2000 Olympic Park. (Facebook Link, Andy Reistetter, 11/3/14)