As most of you are aware Greg was invited to once again caddy for Canberra-based touring professional Matt Millar at the Australian Open held last week at Victoria and Kingston Heath Golf Clubs on the Melbourne Sand belt. Many people have been asking me about the week and I thought it would be easier to put a note out to the members detailing an extremely memorable week in my golfing life.

Beginning on the Tuesday at Kingston Heath Matty had a range session, did some short game stuff and then had a practice round with Australian Pros Josh Younger, Andrew Martin. Also in the group were Frenchman and PGA tour player Victor Perez. During the practice round the players regularly hit multiple shots into greens and spent considerable time around the putting surfaces. They do this chipping and putting to different parts of the green in anticipation of where the pins will be.

Whilst the priority was watching Matt go through his process it was nice to witness other players do their thing. Andrew and Josh played nicely with Andrew finishing 54th whilst Josh missed the cut. What I will say about the practice round is that Victor Perez has some serious game, and whilst he also missed the cut this week, he will feature on world tours in the next few years and probably play Ryder Cup.

After the practice round we went back to the range and spent some time with the tour team at Ping. Matt is sponsored by them and with new drivers about to be released the plan was to try the new gear. Matt was struggling at this point trying to control the spin on the driver and the session was basically a mini lesson with Colin Field from Ping trying to spin the ball less and find a few extra metres. Matt would be one of the shortest hitters on tour with a Driver averaging around 240 metres.

On Wednesday we went back to Kingston Heath and spent some time on the Range working on things, he did some chipping and putting and, just prior to the practice round tee time we had a storm come through, and players were told to seek shelter. Play from here was abandoned and the day was done.

Day one of the tournament being Thursday Matt had the honor of leading off the tournament. First group at 6.55 am this time at Victoria Golf Club. I was staying in the City meaning it was 3.30 am wake up to get to the course and prepare. In the group were Italian Renato Paratore and Queenslander Brett Rankin. From memory Renato finished a couple over and Brett had a fine round of 4 under par. Matt birdied the first, holing a great putt which was one of many for the week. From here though Matt didn’t get much out of the round and finished with a pretty ugly bogey on 18 for a 2 over par round. To say Matt was not happy is an understatement. If there was a kid on the way to the car, the chances are they would have been given a set of clubs. In the car heading to the train station there was not a lot of discussion.

Day 2 is a new day and with a midday tee time at Kingston Heath there was time to work things out. This warm-up session was a highlight of the week for me. Matt asked me whilst putting to go and get him a spot on the range. In doing so I picked a spot that was fairly central on the range but without any big names. By the time Matt got to the range that had changed. In a line we had Marc Leishman, Cam Smith, Steph Kyraciou, Victor Perez, Minjee Lee, Matty, Lucas Herbert and Jiyai Shinn. It was a great seat to watch all these players do their thing.

On the course Matty played with freedom knowing he needed a good score to make the cut. After a bogey on the tough 10^th , which was his first hole things were getting harder. A birdie on 12 helped and he backed that up with another on 13. On the 14^th Matt made the most of the Par 5 being down wind and two cracking shots gave him a look at eagle. From 20 feet he poured it in to get to 1 under par total. From here it was solid golf and with few mistakes. Matt returned a score of 6 under par for the day to finish at 4 under tied for 28^th and safely making the cut.

Onto the Saturday paired with Curtis Luck and Frenchman Adrian Saddier and this time in the final group of the day off the 10^th tee. Matty didn’t have his A game today but posted a score of 3 under par to finish at 7 under, tough conditions with wind a several downpours meant the caddy was wet as well. It was a round that he could have shot a few better but easily could have shot a lot worse. One of the highlights was the Par 3 15^th in which there is a BMW up for grabs for a hole in one. Matt went within inches of holing it with his ball just trickling past the hole. The crowd went nuts which was cool to see (pity it didn’t fall in). The score of 3 under was highlighted by a short game that is simply world class. It was unbelievable to watch with Curtis Luck standing and applauding on numerous occasions. On the last hole of the day Matt hit a tree just to the right of the teeing ground, the ball somehow went forward onto the start of the fairway. We still had 316m to the green. No probs, a hybrid down the left to 60m out, pitch it to 6 feet to a tight flag and roll the putt in for par.

Like Victor Perez, Curtis Luck is a man to look out for in the future. Curtis has been injured for some time but is on the mend and no doubt we will see him on world tours soon. His score of 6 under was a clinic highlighted by fantastic ball striking and a very pretty pitch game, he had chances to post a score even better than 6 under.Starting Sunday at 7 under tied for 20^th Matt was paired Daniel Gale and German Freddy Schott. The wind was already blowing quite hard by the time we tee’d off. Matt was solid all day in really hard conditions. Turning a couple under for the day we knew he would be sneaking up the ladder in those conditions. A long birdie on 11 followed by another on the Par 5 and another on the 16^th (I think) meant Matt was 5 under for the day and 12 under total. Walking up 17 I assumed he was in the top 10 confirmed by the leaderboard on the 17^th green Matt was sitting tied 8^th. After an average chip by Matt’s standard, he faced a 15-foot par putt. Another great putt hit the edge of the hole, did a lap or two, and thankfully dropped in.

Onto the 18^th and in the top 10. 18 is a 440-metre Par 4 uphill to start and playing into the wind. A good drive up the right found the fairway but also found an upslope. The problem here was Matt had over 220 metres to the hole and a 3 wood would balloon into the wind. He took on the challenge, hitting the driver off the deck but turned it left on to the gallery walkway. A tough 40-metre pitch was next off a tight wet lie and with no green behind the pin, hitting it close was tough. Matt ended up about 25 feet and unfortunately one missed meaning he made his only bogey of the day, a round of 68 and a total score of 11 under to finish tied 11^th.

What a week, with lows to start and highs to finish. To witness ball striking and Matt’s short game on world class courses was something I will not forget in a hurry. To give all the members an insight into his putting, I can only recall (after Matt reminded me) 1 putt inside 10 feet missed all week, I have no doubt he would have led the field in putting statistics for the week. There were some long ones that found the bottom of the hole as well.

Great job to Matty Millar and I hope you all enjoyed the read.

Greg