AERO Golf Club, Lavender, February 2014

Golf really isn’t my forte, inasmuch as I’ve always sided with Mark Twain – or at least what he is attributed to have said: that golf is a good walk spoiled. However, Second Life gives us opportunities to try things we can’t or wouldn’t try in real life. In my case, that means things like taking wing in a Spitfire (which I’d actually love to do in real life), scuba diving, and skydiving. And now, thanks to Jeff Goodnight, I’ve actually tried my keyboard at golf – and I like it.

But, before I wibble on about SL golfing, if you’ve not come across Jeff Goodnight before, you really should check out his Flickr stream and his blog. I did, and had to gather my jaw off the floor after seeing images like this one.

AERO Golf Club, Lavender, February 2014

In his blog, Jeff provides an entry for the AERO Golf Club, a region-wide 18-hole golf course, complete with club house and places to simply sit and relax. Intrigued, I set off to have a look.

Surrounded by the mountains of a sim extender, the region is beautifully landscaped and very photogenic, so even if you’re not into golf, it’s worth taking the time to visit. Just make sure you keep an eye open for golfers and avoid trundling across the greens and fairways when any are in use!

AERO Golf Club, Lavender, February 2014

If you do fancy a round yourself, you’ll need to join the club, a simple matter of signing-up in the clubhouse by joining the group associated with the region. Once you’ve done that, and with the group active, walk through the back of the clubhouse to the rear terrace, where you can collect your clubs and HUD (which is optional when playing, but cuts-down on using a menu). These are free, but for the keen golfer, a scorecard can be purchased for L$250, which is a lot easier than trying to remember things. There’s also a map showing the best way to play the holes.

The course has been carefully arranged to make full use of the region, with the first tee directly off of the rear terrace of the clubhouse, and the 18th hole to one side of it, making it an easy walk to the 19th for a drink.

Play instructions are clear, concise and easy-to-grasp, so I won’t bore you with those. Suffice it to say, you have a choice of three clubs, have sand traps, water and trees to negotiate and the wind to contend with. One thing I will say is that if you use an over-the-shoulder camera offset (as I do), you might want to centre your camera up when playing a round.

AERO Golf Club, Lavender, February 2014

Along the way there are places to sit down, take a break and enjoy the view. If you prefer to forget the walking bit, there are golf buggies you can use to drive around in, but I found the terrain a little too much for the one I tried. Besides, the scenery is much too pretty to simply roll right past it, and you might even miss seeing the tiger …

If you don’t fancy a slurp at the bar after playing a round, there’s a pool and spa area off to one side of the region as well.

The work of Kaja Ashland / Kaja Lurra, AERO Golf club is beautifully conceived and executed and well worth a visit. If you do, show the little donation buckets a little love along the way. for those who might be interested, I have a few more snaps on my Flickr stream.

AERO Golf Club, Lavender, February 2014

What was that? Oh, my score? Umm… well I ended-up nine over par after things went a bit wonky after the 7th …

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