RJ: Thanks for the kind words. I have high standards for my pictures, and those that make it into my final cut--the ones I would consider putting in a calendar for friends--are very few in number (a much, much smaller number than make it into my GCA photo tours). My choices have nothing to do with my performance on the hole (although I did par Victoria's 13th, getting up and down from the left greenside bunker), but rather composition, lighting, and uniqueness. From my Sandbelt trip (i.e., not including Barnbougle or NSW), only four made the final cut: (1) this one of Victoria's 13th looking backward up the fairway from the green, (2) the expansive, aspirational tee shot at Kingston Heath's 1st, (3) the sunlit tree and bunker to the right of Kingston Heath's 17th fairway, and (4) the tee shot at Royal Melbourne East's 16th.
I chose the one of Victoria's 13th for several reasons: the lighting is perfect, the content captures everything I love about the Sandbelt (the sand, the turf, the incredibly varied colors from a relatively restricted palette, the vast, sweeping playing corridors, the beautiful trees and other flora that frame those corridors without interfering with play, the surprisingly rolling topography (at least at Royal Melbourne and parts of Victoria)), and the composition works very well (especially the mimicry between the lobes of the bunker in the foreground and the bunches of dark-green trees in the background). I could go on, but hopefully that helps.