There are fans. And then there are the blokes who drive 27 hours across the country, sleep behind a servo and call it a warm-up act.
Meet Ash Humphreys, Jack Downard and Brandon Wright. Three mates from Rockingham, south of Perth, who decided that if you’re going to do LIV Golf Adelaide, you may as well really do it.
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The plan started six to eight months ago. Ash had been to LIV Adelaide last year. That was all it took.
“Brandon’s fiancée just said, ‘You boys should just go again,’” Ash laughed. “And then as soon as she said that, we jumped at the opportunity and just started booking everything that afternoon.”
Flights were never really considered.
“We probably looked at flights for a total of 10 minutes,” Ash admitted. “Then we just said, ‘Let’s drive. A drive would be more fun.’”
Jack didn’t hesitate. “Always a road trip, yeah. Why would you not want to go and see this country?”
So on Monday, they packed the car and pointed it east. Twenty-seven hours of bitumen, four-hour stints behind the wheel and the kind of memories you can’t get from Row 18A.
The first stop was Balladonia in central southern WA.
“We took a goat track on the way and a bit of a two-hour detour,” Jack said. “But we got there eventually.”
Accommodation?
“Behind the servo,” he grinned. “Just in the swags. A couple of beers. It was good.”
From there it was Sceale Bay on the Great Australian Bight, where expectations of a pub were cruelly dashed.
“We were expecting a pub at Sceale Bay,” Ash said. “Turned out it was just a little beach campsite. Not much food. We had a few beers, but probably not enough.”
Jack came to the rescue. “I sorted the boys out with a few toasted sangas.”
Then came Coffin Bay. Oyster farm tour. Waders on. Living their best lives.
“For me, it was definitely Coffins,” Ash said. “Shucking the oysters, doing the farm tour. That’s been on the list for a while.”
There was also the night they ditched the camp chairs and lay flat on the ground staring at the sky.
“I hadn’t seen stars like that ever,” Jack said. “It was awesome.”
And yes, they managed the driving with military precision. Four-hour shifts, flexible swaps.
“If you’re not feeling too fresh two-and-a-half hours in, just call it,” Ash said. “I was a little bit seedy after Coffin Bay, so I had to have a good little ‘zzz’.”
By Thursday they rolled into Glenelg, dusty, sleep-deprived and grinning. It’s the first golf tournament for two of them. No regrets.
Nestled into the famous Watering Hole today, the boys found themselves in the best seats in the house. In came a quick text message from Australian Golf Digest asking, “Having fun boys?”
The reply was instant.
“It’s better than Lego!!!”
High praise from three blokes who just spent three nights in swags.
And that’s the thing about LIV Golf Adelaide. It’s not just about the golf. Its now a bucket-list tick on the Australian sporting calendar.
“You walk in and you feel like you’re walking into a festival,” Ash said. “There’s a lot of energy. You can feel it.”
“Yeah, you’re living,” Jack added.
They’re here for the Aussie Ripper GC boys, to watch fairways get dissected by elite talent and to soak up the concerts because, as Jack put it, “It’d be rude not to.”
When asked what they’d say to others thinking about making the trip, the trio didn’t hesitate.
“Do it. Just pack the car and hit the road,” Brandon said.
“Stick to your maps,” Jack added with a smirk.
Twenty-seven hours. Goat tracks. Servo carparks. Oyster tours. Stargazing. And now the fairways of Adelaide.
Better than Lego?
You bet.
