The drought was yet to break the day we played Greg Norman's new golf course in the Hunter Valley. The Vintage at Rothbury is a $450 million development that sprawls over 200 hectares, meandering through natural eucalyptus bush and around wetlands in the midst of some of Australia's finest vineyards.
Seen from the lofty heights of neighbouring Bimbadgen Estate, the 18 championship holes fan out from a $5 million clubhouse - an oasis of green ribbons in a corduroy landscape of brown, undulating hills.
Bimbadgen was hosting a Jackson Browne concert on the Saturday of our weekend escape to the Hunter and over a long lunch at a balcony table, the lure of the Great White Shark's latest creation nibbled at plans for a lazy Sunday morning sleep-in.
As the hot afternoon rolled on James Reyne and Wendy Matthews took to the stage, a southerly breeze blew dark clouds across the sky and some of Bimbadgen's best wines increasingly complemented the idea of tackling what, for golfers, is The Vintage.
The arrival of a posse of Channel 10 identities including news reader, Sandra Sully, Sports Tonight presenter, Tim Webster, and the station's golf expert, Sports Tonight producer, Jon Underwood, then sealed our fate.
Webster and Underwood, who play up to five of Australia's top courses a week while televising the pro tournament season, had challenged The Vintage that morning.
A low single figure handicapper, former golf magazine editor and author of Golf for Dummies, Underwood said it was a "fantastic" course but "too new" to be rated higher than Australia's top 50.
Still, he ranked it in his top 10 for a new development and expects it will rank in the country's top five residential golf communities after the next construction phase, scheduled to begin mid-2003.
"The front and the back nine are very different and that's a good thing," Underwood said.
"I much preferred the front nine because it's very tight with lots of irons off the tees - you really have to think you're way around.
"The back nine is more of a resort-style layout where you can bang away with drivers off the tees."
Underwood hopes to return to The Vintage when more trees mature, but remains impressed by Norman's ability to design great golf courses... "Take Brookwater in Queensland where we played last week..." he said refilling his glass from a bottle of fine Bimbadgen red.
We left the Channel 10 crew on the balcony and wandered down through the vineyard to hear Jackson Browne's last few numbers.
The storm that threatened earlier had passed without watering the parched landscape surrounding the course in the valley below. The moon occasionally peeped through remnant cloud, making the green ribbons shimmer while casting deep shadows in bunkers that yawned like open jaws... The Shark seemed hungry.
Sunday dawned clear and bright and we arrived at the clubhouse just in time to tee off.
The Vintage has an official par rating of 71, but we were determined to get our money's worth. That was apparent from an airswing or two on the tee, and the three shots it took each of us to get close to where we should have been for one.
But we hadn't played for a year or two so we figured we were doing okay when confronted with the following challenge:
(Hole 1, 327m, Par 4) "The opening drive is downhill (not downhill enough to make my drive go a decent distance) across a pond (which swallowed two of my three new balls) to a wide fairway (not wide enough) that slopes to the left. The hole also doglegs to the left around some large eucalypts (great, more obstacles) and the short second shot must carry a creek (naturally) to the green just beyond. The right side of the green is partly blocked by a group of trees on the right side of the fairway (which I reached with a great shot only to discover...) The drive needs to be placed along the left side of the hole in order to get at this pin spot... A natural wetland (stocked with piranhas trained to attack cheapskate hackers trying to retrieve lost balls) swings down the left of the hole making the most desirable tee shot more risky."
We decided not to score the first (having lost count) and after a stocktake of our remaining balls - and a quick trip back down the fairway in search of a lost driver cover - approached the 350m par 4 second's "dense casuarina forest" with a more appropriate sense of gay abandon.
The Great White Shark had mauled us severely, but we were still standing and by the time my partner chipped in from a bunker on the third, we were as happy as we had been on the balcony at Bimbadgen.
In fact, by the time we played the 193m par 3 eighth, we were laughing: "The eighth is a beautiful downhill par three that looks straight down the valley across the back nine holes, the vineyards, the early stages of the residential development and to the hills in the distance that lead to Barrington Tops" No complaints there!
After lunch at the clubhouse we tackled the back nine - "banging away" with our drivers off the tees. The friendly marshals paused to admire our airswings before for wishing us well and driving off.
The Vintage was good to a couple of hackers. And now that the drought has broken, Norman's latest conquest is set to mature at the optimum rate...much like fine wine.
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4WD
