Living the dream

Despite little Jessica causing some sleep issues I’m firing on all cylinders. After months of planning and preparation the Golf Farm is starting to take shape. I’ve had a crash course in tee and green building, excavation, log manipulation and bunker construction (thanks to David, Andrew, Adam and Bruce for doing the real work). Have also had to do some hard work (apologies to the workers, but I did struggle at times).

Things got off to a shaky start Thursday morning when the hired tip truck wasn’t interested in playing ball – it decided it wasn’t going to allow the excavator to ride on top, and tried everything in its power to make life difficult. Extra special mention to David for saving the day. If it was left up to me we’d still be going …

The excavator and one stubborn tip truck

The first job was to take a pile of logs and turn them into a tee bed – actually, there are two beds, one at the top and another at the bottom of the property. I might as well be completely honest here and tell you I had no idea what to do. My smartest move was getting the brother in law on side (Andrew) and David the excavator driver. I must say, I made one hell of a supervisor as those two lads did an exceptional job. Andrew did say the only thing I was good for was buying lunch – he will be punished for this behaviour by having to pay full fee for any lessons (this will also apply to his four sons).

Just logs – nothing witty to be said here except they are very heavy

There was a bit of stuffing about Thursday afternoon (moving some dirt and aligning those bloody heavy logs) but by knock-off we were in good shape and the boys deserved a few beers.

The bottom tee box after day 1

Friday morning:

Bruce and Adam arrived first thing this morning. These guys are the green experts and also responsible for laying the turf on the tees. I can’t say I was responsible for much – was pretty much hanging around like a bad smell for most of the morning, but I did get a chance to take these happy snaps.

Bruce marking the green location with sexy pink paint

Bruce and Adam hard at work

Bruce and Adam are machines. Bruce’s fitness put me to shame and Adam rode the Bob Cat all day, only stopping for a quick bite to eat. By early afternoon the bunker was dug and will be ready for sand sometime Saturday (by the way – it doesn’t look like much, but the lip will sort out most).

The bunker – not quite ready for action (it got a bit deeper than this)

Bruce was fed up with me getting in the way and put me to work for the last hour of the day. He handed me a shovel and made me chief operational manager of smoothing out the tee sand. It could be my questionable fitness but shovelling sand is the hardest job in the world. My back gave way early and then my lungs started to pack it in. Then, to top things off, I got a blister on top of a blister. Adam really needs to slow down a bit and stop making me look so bad.

After an excruciating 45 minutes (it felt like five-hours) the tee-boxes were ready to accept the grass. I was done and retired myself to the couch for a cold beer (Bruce was left to pack up).

Done. Finally! Shovelling all that sand nearly killed me…

I’ve recovered enough to put this post together and it’s so exciting to be living the dream. It’s going to be a ripper of a venue and it’s awesome to be building my own little golf adventure park. It’s something that I’ve always wanted and I feel so lucky to be in a position to do it . I’ll hopefully add some more images and an update tomorrow (depending on how hard Bruce works me).

I really hope if you’re ever in or around the Sunshine Coast that you give me a hoy and drop by for a lesson. If you’re keen for a lesson I’ll let you know how to book in for one soon.

My only other wish now is that Jessica sleeps well tonight – Dad really needs some rest.