Question: Does it snow in Australia and prevent Karl from playing on the course?
Answer: Yes, it does snow in Australia. In fact, Australia's snowfields have more snow that Switzerland has. We only have snow in winter though, and only in our highlands/mountains in the south-east region of the country.
As such, it doesn't snow on our courses, but depending on where you live in Australia, the weather can vary greatly. We live in Melbourne, which has a very wet, windy and cold winter, so training is difficult in our winter that falls between June-August.Our fairways become very "thin", so hitting the ball cleanly is a challenge. We also don't have a Driving range where Woods are allowed to be used, and that Driving range (on a scale of 1-10) with finding any grass to hit off, would rate real low. However, our club has a good putting practice green, so that's why Karl's a good putter.
That means that Karl rocks up to San Diego in July a week or so before the Junior Worlds and is way under-done in terms of golf, so he can't possibly play his best golf in that tournament.
By the time we've gotten to Pinehurst for the US Kids Worlds 2 weeks later, his game is back to around 90%. This year his long game was at around 50%, but his short game was smokin, and it was that which helped him to win.
In 2012 we intend to get to San Diego a little earlier to give Karl time to get his game up to speed after coming out of our winter. 2012 is Karl's best chance in The Callaways due to him playing in the same age division as he did this year, but being bigger, stronger and longer.
