The Fifth Annual Mornington Peninsula Golf Classic was a huge success over the week of 5 to 10 October. Almost 220 players travelled from around Australia and New Zealand to play the four tournament courses in this year’s Golf Classic – The Ocean Course at The National, Portsea, Flinders and The Dunes. Many golfers also enjoyed the opening day’s golf at Sorrento as well as the final day of golf at Mornington. Forty five percent of this year’s golfers had played the MP Golf Classic previously and were able to catch up with friends from previous Classics as well as make many new golfing buddies!
Groups of golfers from clubs such as Cronulla, Hawks Nest, Pennant Hills, Royal Canberra, Sanctuary Cove, Shortland Waters, South Lakes and Yowani joined with other golfers to play in the graded tournament.
The Men’s winner was James Rutter (7 handicap) from Hawks Nest with a score of 143 points. The runner up, with a score of 142 points, on a countback at The Dunes, was Steve McCosker (10.4 handicap), from Ryde-Parramatta. The women’s winner was Netti Buchanan (12.1 handicap) from Pennant Hills with a score of127 points. The runner up was Sarah Hodgkinson (21.9 handicap) from New South Wales, with a score of 125 points. Sarah was the runner up also on a countback at Portsea.
The overall winner was James Rutter and the overall runner up was Steve McCosker. The winners were presented with their prizes at the Presentation Dinner on the last night at The National Golf Club – a truly gourmet dinner and a great night.
Five of our golfers were also presented with their “5 Year Participation” awards and to really join in the spirit, a couple of the 5 year golfers also wore their previous years’ Golf Classic polo shirts throughout the week.
There was also a hectic social program as part of the MP Golf Classic – The Welcome Party at Sorrento Golf Club, complete with jazz musicians; a superb Gala Food and Wine Dinner at the 1 Chef’s Hat Flinders Hotel (attended by 5 of the well-known local winemakers) and the local produce themed Celebrity Dinner at Eagle Ridge. Diners at the Celebrity Dinner experienced the best of golfing talent anywhere – Peter Thomson AO (5 times British Open winner), Ross Perrett (golf course architect) and golf professional David Good and Leon Wiegard was the very entertaining MC.
Many golfers managed to also take in the many other attractions of the Mornington Peninsula by visiting a number of the wineries, the Peninsula Hot Springs, the Archibald Prize as well as sampling the great cafés. Some golfers were also keen enough to play other courses.
The spring weather was mild with only a couple of showers on the first day for the morning field at Flinders and also at The National on the morning of the second day. All said and done, everyone really enjoyed the experience and many will be back next year with other golfing mates. The overwhelming feedback was that October is much better to hold the Classic so make sure you put an entry in your diary for 5 – 8 October 2015!
To register your interest in next year’s Mornington Peninsula Golf Classic, send an email to info@golfmorningtonpeninsula.com.au with your contact details.