By Julian Little
After, what felt like forever (only 4 weeks really), we finally got back onto the course for our first round of 2021. We had a tee time of 7:20 at Jackal Creek Golf Estate. It was great to be greeted by a packed car park (always a good sign to see how busy the course is).
The COVID protocols were very much in place and did not cause any problems in terms of registering and paying for our round. All the staff from the pro shop to the starters and marshals were very accommodating.
All formalities done, we headed down to the tenth tee box for our much-anticipated round of golf. So not having seen the course in a while, it was an absolute pleasure to look down onto the tenth and see an inviting and lush fairway.
That, however, was the last time I saw the fairway! The rust had certainly kicked in after the festive season and my tee shot was nothing to talk about. What was noticeable in my drive to my various positions (except the fairway), was how good the course looked.
If you have played Jackal Creek recently, you will have noticed that some fairways and rough areas around the course, were in desperate need of some TLC. We are happy to report that with the introduction of the Matkovich Golf Maintenance team, the course is in amazing condition. There are issues with some of the greens at the moment, but these are being addressed and will be resolved soon, with ongoing maintenance and remedial work being done.
Anyway, back to the round of golf, I managed to get through the first two holes with not too much damage done to the scorecard. The next challenge we encountered was the weather. The sun was beating down on us and the sweat started pouring out, which made the putter very slippery! I think I had five, three putts which certainly made the card look quite shocking. (Mareli Joubert shares some excellent advice here – click to read more.)
Made it to 9th, finally, my eighteenth, carved my tee shot right and straight behind a tree, played the hero shot, struck said tree and was staring at a double bogey. Managed to walk off with a six on the par 5, not too bad considering. (Be on the lookout for a piece on course management in a future article).
All-in-all, it was a great day on the course, regardless of the score. Always a pleasure playing a round with your mates on a challenging, but certainly, very fair golf course.
