Dinner last night at Lost Farm was excellent.  The Brisbane lads encouraged me to try the dozen mixed oysters (2 each of six different presentations, 3 cooked and 3 raw) which were truly excellent and paired well with the Tasmanian Riesling they had ordered and I followed it with some delicious and beautifully cooked local lamb, which again went well with the Shiraz they ordered.  After dinner we went down to the Sports Bar, where we had a couple of drinks (well, I did, they were still going strong when I left).  The bar was packed and raucous.  A very informal place and unlike anything I have seen at any other golfing venue.  I spent a little time talking to members of the team which had represented Cypress Point Club at the Mackenzie Cup at Royal Melbourne, who had just arrived and were looking forward to playing Barnbougle.  Barnbougle and CPC are both wonderful golf courses with stunningly beautiful locations.  I couldn’t help thinking, though, that the Sports Bar at Barnbougle on a busy Friday night was about as far from CPC as you get get in the world of golf.  Both utterly wonderful, though.

This morning I set off from Bridport for the 3 1/2 hour drive to Royal Hobart, knowing that the weather forecast was not good.  I had a ‘phone converastion with my eldest son, who was looking forward to palying rugby for his university’s colleges rugby 15 (effectively the 3rd XV) tomorrow (or today, over here) and was confident of getting to represent Cambridge in their annual match against Oxford (albeit at 3rd XV level) in a couple  of weeks.  That call was accompanied by the drive through Northern Tasmania, which is very attractive.  The latter half of the drive was made more pleasant by listening to the Australian cricket team struggling against South Africa, a game being played in Hobart.

I arrived at Royal Hobart with only a few minutes to spare before our tee time.  I met  the TGF group and my playing partners Rich and Dieter.  As we set off the forecast rain had not arrived.  In fact, it never did, and we enjoyed pretty good conditions for the whole of the round.  Hobart isn’t as storied a club or course as most I am playing on this trip.  It’s a parkland course and a decent one but it was great to play with two tidy golfers (Rich plays off +2 and Dieter off 4).  Sadly, in a par competition (what we would call a bogey) I didn’t play well, though scoring was tricky, as was demonstrated by the fact that the competition was won by a score of level.  Hobart is the sort of club that would be good to be a member of.  A very decent course and a nice vibe about the place.  We shared a couple of jugs of beer between the 10 of us while presentations were made to the competition winners.

I’m struck by how much competitive golf Australians play and how popular the competitions are.  There was a field of 145 for todays comp, lower than the usual 200 because of the poor weather forecast.  Most clubs have at least two competitions a week and fields of 150-200 are common, even midweek.

I drove into Hobart to find my AirBnB, and to change for dinner tonight, which I’m having with the TGF group.

 

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