Sunday 18th April 2010

We had a huge week on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. We stayed in very comfortable cottages at Rosebud sharing three cottages among 12 people. Each cottage had three bedrooms and two bathrooms with plenty of room for everyone.

Saturday 11th April 2010 Sam drove us to Newcastle Airport in her new Nissan X-Trail with the golf club trailer holding all our luggage and all the golf clubs for those of us that were flying from Newcastle. We travelled with Col & Lauren & met Mark & Anne, Bruce & Gwen at the airport.

The flight to Melbourne was quick & had us there in plenty of time to pick up our hire cars (two tarago vans) & drive to Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula & still have time to do grocery shopping etc. We had dinner that night at the Rosebud Hotel. After dinner we returned home to have the first of our nightly "500" card challenges.

Sunday 12th April 2010 we played golf at Moonah Links. Wendy, Vicki & myself were the only girls to play today so we played as a team & came in Runners Up. We were booked to play the "Legends" course but when we arrived that had been changed to "The Open" course as there was a corporate day at the "Legends". It was a freezing cold windy day with on and off showers. I wore every vest, coat & jacket that I had and I was still cold. The course was great - very open (as the name implies) with plenty of run on the course and some huge bunkers to contend with. Wendy scored an eagle shot into the hole at the 18th that made our day. We could hardly stand up in the wind & it reminded me of Barnbougal without the sand. I came in runner up with 25 points which I was happy with given the circumstances of the day. Wendy Stapleton was our captain and event organizer and the golf rules were that if you won on the day you lost two strokes off your handicap & if you come in last then you gain one stroke back. This was to even up the trophy winners. Col won the Men's Singles and Wendy won the Ladies Singles. We had dinner again at the Rosebud Hotel before returning home for our nightly "500" card challenge.

Monday 13th April 2010 . Given that the weather was so unkind we decided to swap our "rest day" from Tuesday to Monday as the forecast did not show any improvement on Sunday. We filled the day in by having a long 3 hour lunch at the "Morning Sun" winery at the Mornington Peninsula where we had some wine tasting and a nice lunch. Afterwards we all separated to do separate car tours of places of interest on the Mornington Peninsula. We had a look around the "Arthur's seat" area & finished up the day at the Rye Hotel in front of a roaring wood fire which was very comfortable after a very cold day. We finished the night with a game of "500".

Tuesday 14th April 2010 we played golf at "Eagle Ridge" which was a beautiful course. Very manicured with difficult holes. The bunkers were huge and there were plenty of them. Peter & I won the singles on the day. Our playing partners on the day were Bob & Vicki Morris & we won the team event. We had a pavlova to celebrate Mark's birthday before our card challenge.

Wednesday 15th April 2010 we played golf at "Portsea". Our playing partners were Col & Lauren Matterson. Col was not well and could not play so he came along as team coach. We enjoyed playing Portsea. It was also a wide open course with plenty of run & bunkers. It was not as unforgiving as our previous courses & easier to play. Peter, Lauren & I won the team event & Peter & I won the singles. It was still a cold, with some strong winds and odd showers.

We had dinner at the Rye RSL which had a good selection of meals for everyone.

Thursday 15th April 2010 we played at "The Dunes" which is another lovely course. Again very open, lots of unfriendly bunkers and slopes. Wendy & I were the only two ladies to play so I ended up winning the singles again which meant I lost another two strokes of my handicap which took me back to 20 with one more difficult course to play. Peter won the singles for the men.

We had a BBQ dinner at home before our card challenge.

Friday 16th April we played at the Sorrento Golf Course which has a beautiful Clubhouse. Our playing partners were Mark & Anne Stimpson. Anne could not play but came along as scorer and action photographer. The weather finally turned on a beautiful sunny day & we could take off all our wet weather and wind chill gear. It was a beautiful course to play & not as unfriendly with the layout as some of the other courses. Lauren won the Ladies Singles with a huge 40 points and Bruce White won the Singles with a wonderful 43 points, Col, Lauren, Wendy & Ray won the Team Event. The week overall winners - Peter won the Men's Singles, Lauren won the Ladies Singles. I came in runner up which I was happy with. We had dinner at the Rye RSL which gave us time to play our final round of "500" for the week with Vicki Morris being the winner and Bob Morris Runner Up.

Saturday 17th April 2010 we were ready to leave for Melbourne by 7.45 am to give us time to drop the cars back & check in for our flight home by 11 o'clock. We had a Tom Tom to guide us but had one small hic up getting onto the main highway so we had a small detour on the way to the airport. We arrived in plenty of time to have some lunch before flying out of Melbourne.

Sam was waiting for us on schedule & we had an uneventful trip home and arrived in good time.

Catching up with everything at home took some effort including updating the local golf results for the blog.

We had a great week away & enjoyed all the courses we played. Moonah Links "Open" course, Eagle Ridge, Portsea, The Dunes & Sorrento were all new courses for me so it was a good experience. We were a bit unlucky with the weather the first few days. We did not get soaking wet at any time but the strong cold wind made golf a little difficult a times.

Sunday 18th April 2010 was a recovery day. Rod, Anne & Joel came over for lunch so we enjoyed that. The rest of the day was R & R after I made a brief attempt at some gardening & only got as far as trimming one of the hedges. Now it is back to reality.