For all you male golf tragics out there with a non-golf playing wife, there is an angel. Her name is Jo Ellis.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
You see, Jo and her Melbourne-based husband Tony, who have three children, retired at the end of 2019, so they planned to hit the road for the next few years.
Tony, who turns 53 on January 3, had been a member of The National Golf Club for 20 years and loves his golf. Dreams about it.
So Jo suggested he set himself the goal of playing 100 courses in 2020.
"Hello, the golf widow speaking," Jo laughed when The Border Mail caught up with her on the phone at Coolac, near Gundagai, in NSW's Riverina.
I put it to Jo that Tony is the only male golf fanatic in the world whose non-playing wife would say to him, 'I think you should get out and play more'.
(Laughs) "Well, a couple of things. Tony's a bit of an itchy rat, he doesn't sit still very well and doing our travelling I like to have downtime, so I suggest, 'why don't you go and play golf for a couple of hours'," she explained.
"I just potter around, I've got a dog (Kingston) that I love and we go for walks in the morning.
"He's also very considerate, he's always up super early and hits the golf course at daylight and is always back by 11 and then we've got the rest of the day to ourselves."
Yes, Ellis is living the golf dream.
"There's always something different, I suppose the thing that gets me is the personal challenge," he offered.
"When you're a finance guy and crunching the numbers, there's always something finite to measure yourself against.
"At the start I thought I would get as much joy out of playing a little country course (Junee, Harden) that has some unexpected gems as playing a top city course and that came through stronger than I thought it would."
IN OTHER NEWS:
Like Gundagai's effluent ponds that you have to hit over.
"Absolutely, I was surprised when I turned up and saw those water hazards, but two or three of their strong holes are just fantastic and they've also got some quirky holes," he praised.
Or there's the suggestion box in the middle of an inaccessible dam on Mildura's Riverside course.
But not everything was so quirky, as you might imagine, particularly during the height of Melbourne's COVID-19 lockdown where a Victorian number plate was like a pariah.
"There were some people in country (NSW) areas, and I must stress not many, who couldn't quite get their heads around somebody with Vic number plates could be legally where they were," he suggested.
Back in the ACT, the two-handicapper (so yes non-golfers, he's a gun) fired his best round at Royal Canberra, where he shot a stunning four-under par round of 68, while he also played Federal on the same day.
"They call Royal Canberra the Augusta of Australia because it's got the big pines, pine straw, it's beautifully manicured," he proposed.
"Federal is like a snapshot of the Aussie bush, at this time of the year things have turned a little brown, it's a great layout."
He started his campaign in Avoca, Victoria, in 42 degree heat on sand greens and completed the century on sand greens at Tipperary, Young.
"Just getting used to that bump and run and leave everything with more loft than a seven iron in the bag, I really struggled, some of those courses you think you would shoot five-10 shots better than you did," he admitted.
But Tipperary also provided him with one of the highlights.
'" played Cowra on the Sunday and stayed in my swag and then rocked up at Tipperary (around 65kms away) at 8am on the Monday," he said.
"Unfortunately the gate was locked, although the sign said it opened at 8, so I rang the number on the sign.
"Adam, who was the president, answered and I said, 'hi, I'm Tony and I was just wondering what time you'll open today please'?
"He said, 'oh, probably about 8.30'. I said something like, 'well I'm here and the sign said you're open at 8'. He said, 'I'll see you in half an hour then' (Tony laughs)."
IN OTHER NEWS:
With just one course to play, he realised he needed a new tact, so told Adam his story.
"I'll be there in three minutes," he told Ellis.
"As soon as I hung up, a bloke appeared, his name was Max and he was 93.
"He opened the gate and I rang Adam back to say, 'it's alright Adam, Max is down here' and he said, 'no, no, I want to meet you'.
"They took a couple of photos near the signature hole and then a couple arrived, they were going to play, and Adam said, 'how would you like to play your 100th with these two'? I said, 'no worries'.
"Adam left but rang back later to say, 'do you mind if I send my media people along'? To put it in perspective, on the day before, they had one of their best comp turnouts for the year, it was 10 (laughs).
"So a couple arrived and they were social media and took photos and put in on Facebook. The bloke says, 'start talking', I said, 'what, are you going to ask me questions'? He said, 'no, you just talk' so I spoke for a couple of minutes and I said, 'how was that'? He said, 'oh, I forgot to press play' (laughs). When they put the video on there, within 24 hours there were 1000 views, it was bizarre."
Ellis's adventures are available on Instagram (@nomadic_golfer) or webpage: australiangolfcoursetourbycaravan.com.
"I'm going to try and go back-to-back, play 100 different courses," he laughed.
Tony Ellis, coming to a golf course near you.