We started slowly in Sydney with time to take in the improvements brought by

We started slowly in Sydney, with time to take in the improvements brought by the 2000 Olympics that have made the city even more attractive.The New South Wales course was the first we played, and it justifies its standing as the 43rd best in the world. Apart from being a demanding test of golf, the views on some of the holes are staggering. They are particularly proud of their sixth hole which, says the brochure, has its tee on an island in the Pacific and its green on the mainland. Sadly, golfers have a fisherman's inclination for exaggeration. The ordinary tees are on the mainland and only the championship tees are on the island Even then the island is firmly joined to the mainland. It's a lovely hole but not an atoll at all.NSW is a very exclusive club, with restricted times for visitors and a dress code the snootiest clubs in Britain would admire. Most members' clubs in Australia are faithful to the British tradition, and I fully approve of that, but, as you might expect, there is far more relaxation about the resort courses, and in not every case is there a drop in quality.From Sydney we flew to Brisbane and then drove an hour north to Coolum, where the Hyatt Regency complex boasts a superb Robert Trent Jones Jnr course.

The range of accommodation includes villas and studio suites sprinkled around the tropical gardens, and the main restaurant, bar and spa block contains those essential aids to any successful golf holiday: two good snooker tables.South of Brisbane, at the Gold Coast, the links course at Hope Island is rated Australia's top resort course. It has the friendliest clubhouse I've been in for a while, in addition to a lively test of golf designed by the great Peter Thomson and well worthy of him. That other great Australian golfer, Greg Norman, hasn't neglected the drawing board, either, and we played one of his creations, the Glades, early one sparkling morning. A tough new course, with greens like lightning, the Glades is not as pastoral as it sounds.Both these courses are easily reachable from the Sheraton Mirage, which is the only five-star hotel right on the beach. You can either float around languidly in the hotel's garden pools or step out on to the beach, where the sea beats hell out of the sand.There are 79 courses within an hour's drive from Melbourne, and once more the range of choice is impressive.

Royal Melbourne is the top-rated, ninth in the world at the last count, but there are so many worth playing. We played at the Commonwealth, another exclusive members' course, but very welcoming and hard going along fairways lined with an impressive gallery of trees. If you're a hacker, the consolation is that if it's a hot day you'll get plenty of shade.As a way of seeing Australia, golf provides a perfect passage through many aspects of the country Even the kangaroos are not bad when you get to know them.. Most customers feel they have an inalienable right to free banking.

At no time was this demonstrated more clearly than last year's angry reactions to attempts by certain banks to charge us for withdrawing our cash from ATMs. Quick and easy online searches for all yoursaving needsMost customers feel they have an inalienable right to free banking. At no time was this demonstrated more clearly than last year's angry reactions to attempts by certain banks to charge us for withdrawing our cash from ATMs. Yet the banks believe a growing number of people are prepared to pay about £10 a month for their services. So convinced are they that these clients – never customers; they're labelled as the "mass affluent" – are a money spinner that they have been pouring resources into wealth management.