Australian Open Golf Tourney

Posted on December 1, 2013 by robandlinds

When you think of the Australian Open you immediately think of tennis — or at least we do. Turns out they also have an Australian Open golf tournament, who knew? Apparently, this tournament was well-recognized across the world in the 70s and 80s and some considered it to be the fifth golf major of the year. Big names like Jack Nicklaus won the tournament in 1964, ’68, ’71 ’75, ’76 and ’78. This years tournament was at Royal Sydney, just down the road in Rose Bay (east of the Sydney CBD), which is just a stunning area. There were a few big names in the field so we thought it would be worth checking out. To date, it’s been one of the few things reasonably priced in Sydney at $35 a ticket!

Rob was smart enough to record the tournament and we made it on Australian National TV! Our heads were tiny specks on the television but (hey) it still counts! It was on the 9th hole (par 3) – where McIlroy hit a bunker shot.

Some of the notable players were Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Stuart Appleby and of course Rod Pampling. We were there for the 4th round and got to see McIlroy and Scott battle it out in the final group. Scott had tons of chances to close it out but ended up losing his one stroke lead on the 18th hole when he bogeyed and McIlroy birdied for the win. Couldn’t have asked for a better finish!

We were able to get some good footage of the 18th hole here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6njOWPFCRYs&feature=youtu.be

Australian Open

Posted on January 18, 2013 by robandlinds

We splurged on tickets to the Men’s Semi-Final match at the Australian Open and the weekend did little to disappoint! We purchased tickets well before Sara decided to come visit and (luckily) there were still enough left to buy her one as well. The downside was 1 person had to sit apart. We decided to rotate seats every set which turned out to be somewhat annoying since the seats weren’t all that close. Even worse, the single seat was just behind a giant (see picture below)!

The 5-set match was the best of the tournament. Andy Murray vs Roger Federer. Federer/Murray 4-6, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 2-6. Murray took the last set after a 4+ hour match! Stats: Murray and Federer have played 20 times to date with Murray winning 11 times. But Murray only has 2 Grand Slam titles (and one Gold medal) vs Federer’s 17 (an all-time lead in titles)!

We decided to buy ground stadium tickets for the final – which involved watching the final match on a big screen just outside the stadium. We had a number of our friends join us; including Keth, Will, Annie, Geoff and the kid-Os! It was a lovely evening with an enthusiastic crowd!!

During one of our free days, we rented a car and drove ~3 hours southeast of Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula. We saw an echidna (curious? check out this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQEU32TjRWg) and the location of where the Prime Minister of Australia at the time, Harold Holt, was never to be seen again after going for a swim and drowning (Year: 1967).

Australian Open FINALS!

Posted on January 29, 2012 by robandlinds

WHAT A MATCH!!

We started watching it at ~7:30 PM on Sunday evening and it didn’t get over until after 2 AM on Monday morning! We were fast asleep before the game finally ended, but watched the rest of the game Monday night.

It was unreal. Just amazing tennis..

Nadal vs Djokovic

Posted on January 28, 2012 by robandlinds

MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic’s remarkable 2011 season included a 43-match winning streak, three Grand Slam tournament victories, 10 titles overall and a 70-6 record. But the most mind-boggling number of all was this: The Serb went 6-0 against Rafael Nadal, all in finals and twice in majors.

(Crazy to think that Djokovic just started beating Nadal last year… And he beat Nadal 6 times in 2011!! Djokovic came outta no where to become No.1 Men’s tennis player in the world)

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