Australian Open Update #1- The Sitemans Take Australia

It’s been quite a busy past few days for us as we got to the Gold Coast for the Australian Open. The day after we got into the country, we hit the greens for the Mermaid Beach Pre-Australian Open 2 Day Pairs. Though we finished 1-4, we had 3 of our 4 losses within 3-4 points (so all very competitive results which could have gone either way). The last game was fun as we faced a local team who were quite enjoyable to play with as both of our teams made some great shots (fortunately best for us on the day). We were lucky enough that in addition to paying down to like 6th place of 42 teams- they also had 8 lucky draw winners of $100 which we ended up taking home some prize money (a first for me in Australia!). On the Friday, we headed to Club Robina for their Winter Triples. On their greens (which run fairly similar speed to that of Dartmouth or maybe slightly faster)- we ended up with a 2-1 record after a great day on the greens to finish 17th out of 42 teams! That night, we headed to Broadbeach to cheer on our Canadian National Team member Ryan Bester in his Worlds Gold Medal rematch against Ireland’s Gary Kelly (which I encourage all of you to watch the live stream of the game as it was quite entertaining). Yesterday, it was a tricky day on the greens for me at Benowa Bowls Club for the Men’s Singles of the Australian Open (the largest event of the tournament with 1,312 players from around the world). In my section, I had three tight battles with some top young players from all over Australia- unfortunately ending off on the wrong end of the scoreline on all of them. Fortunately there are lots of bowls left to go throughout our adventure here in all the events! Tomorrow, we head down to the southern Gold Coast for my mom to start her campaign with the Women’s Pairs of the Australian Open. Thanks to everyone back home for all of the support as we compete down here in the World’s Biggest Bowls Festival!