Flinders is one of the older courses on the Mornington peninsula and today was a pure example of an old fashioned course that was built before golf clubs that resembled spaceships were invented but has withstood the test of time. Admittedly in Flinders GCâ??s favour today was a very stiff breeze â?? probably the second windiest day of puregolf â?? but when you build a golf course right on the ocean what can you expect. Flinders spat us out. Remarkable when you look at the card and see some seemingly meek mild and red-tee-esque lengths to the holes. All the yardages went flying out the window courtesy of the easterly that wipped up over the beach (which had a fair surf crashing onto it) and across the small peninsula of land on which Flinders sits.
Upon arrival we were looked after by Gav and Scott - the pro and trainee pro respectively. Gav hailed from Scotland and he and Jamie quickly started sharing football and golfing stories from the homeland - a quick coffee later we decided it was time to face the music and stepped up to the easy going first hole (a 235m par 4 playing across the wind). Scott joined us to make up a three-ball which allowed us to endulge in a wee split sixes competition and learn from some of his local knowledge.Â
Some shots at Flinders GC can be pretty tricky. Take the second hole which has a green barely three metres wide with bunkers on either side. In a cross wind like today where the ball wont even stay still on the green it is tough work hitting a chip shot onto the green let alone a full wedgeâ?¦ Or the fourth which infamously has two 'coffin' like gully's between the tee and the seemingly reachable green.  The coffins are some of the more unpleasant places to try and get out of - although today they were sheltered from the wind and from down there you are very close to the stunning beach - silver lining I guess.. And then a couple of beastly holes follow which play into the wind and uphill and require two (or three) clean strikes to get anywhere near the green. The par threes were immense â?? three of them playing into the teeth of the wind which meant Jamie had to hit a driver on one of them â?? big girl. To be fair at least he hit a number of them in regulation â?? more than can be said for me! (NB he hit all the par threes in reg yesterday and did pretty well again todayâ?¦)
The course spat all three of us out and our scoring was poor. A par 69 and only Scott (barely) managed to break 80. Three birdies (all on downwind holes) coming home gave me the split sixes win and the honour of writing todayâ??s blog.
After golf we went to the Flinders hotel where we eagerly sat and watched our wee story on the Fox Sports Golf Channel. It is pretty strange watching yourself on tele! After our big screen performance we headed around the corner where a friend â?? Nigel Bruce (who we previously had caught up with in Rotorua) and his golfing mates from Rotorua are currently staying. They are on a boys golfing week away and are playing the best courses around the Mornington peninsula. Judging by last nights antics they are having a pretty good week! We had a stunning meal, a couple of irish single malts, and plenty of good conversation.
So I have crafted this blog and the video below at 4am after barely a few hours sleep â?? in the car. Hope you enjoy it. Itâ??s fair to say that sleeping in the car is a far cry from our big screen performance a few hours ago. I guess thatâ??s life on the road and on a shoestring budget. To be continuedâ?¦
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What is the song playing in the video, I like!
Posted by J, 10/03/2010 9:56pm (3 years ago)
Chisholm Park
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