Fore! The Love Of Golf
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday July 13, 2002
Whether it's palms in the tropics or gums on the Murray, there's a course for all seasons, writes Jim Webster.
All golfers, myself included, are completely irrational. They will try with all their might to hit a mischievous ball way into the ether then eagerly go searching for it. Nothing will stop them in this mindless pursuit, be it searing heat or intense cold. The hit-and-hunt instinct is relentless.
And not content with their own backyard, golfers will venture far and wide to find better groomed and ever more demanding courses. Every player has the occasional urge to abandon familiar surroundings and head somewhere different in pursuit of the errant white ball.
If you put aside whether you're going golfing with family or friends, the reality is that you simply cannot bounce up to the front gate of any golf club you fancy, pay your few (or many) dollars and whack away to your heart's content. There are private clubs and public clubs, but unless you're invited to a private club by a member you won't get within a bull's roar of the greens. Members spend a small fortune on joining fees and annual fees to keep these places to themselves so they can enjoy elegant clubhouses, uncluttered fairways and superior conditioning.
The only problem for the golf-aholic is that the very best of the Australian courses are private; you can forget about tearing strips of turf from places like Royal Melbourne unless you are related to/a colleague of/a close friend of/have strong influence over one of the landed gentry who belongs there.
But it's not impossible to gain entry to such hallowed places. There's one avenue for doing so - if you belong to a registered golf club and write a month in advance asking to play on a given day most private clubs will allow it, so long as your round doesn't interfere with their competitions. And, naturally, you must be prepared to pay for the privilege.
Take my word for it, as someone who has wormed his way onto Royal Melbourne a number of times, that its renowned composite course (12 holes from the West Course and six from the East) where so many big tournaments have been played thoroughly deserves its ranking among the world's finest.
While private clubs such as Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, Royal Adelaide and their ilk remain the most coveted playgrounds, recent years have seen a growth in Australian resort courses, many of which are near the quality standards of those elusive private clubs.
Not only have design teams been able to fashion alluring courses, developers have positioned them in far more picturesque settings. Indeed, in some locations exactly where your efforts occurred is likely to be remembered far longer than the embarrassingly high score you signed for at day's end.
If scenery plays such a strong part in your golfing dreams, then there's no better location than Laguna Quays near Proserpine in North Queensland, where the course sweeps along the edge of Repulse Bay with views stunning enough to distract even the most resilient golfer trying to decide between a four or five iron.
It's isolated up there, 20 minutes' drive south of the airport, but there are a hotel, 100 fully self-contained villas with course frontage, and lots to do on site.
Also up north and enhanced by magnificent scenery is Paradise Palms, about 20 kilometres from Cairns. On the site of a former sugar cane plantation, it sits amid rainforest at the foot of the Great Dividing Range and if the views don't deter you then maybe the six lakes and 94 bunkers (at last count) will.
Capricorn International at Yeppoon, near Rockhampton, also has two terrific courses, a variety of accommodation and the bonus of 8800 hectares of wildlife sanctuary.
For more sedate but still impressive views, and wonderful courses, travel to Victoria's Mornington Peninsula at the opposite end of the eastern seaboard. This windy expanse of Bass Strait boasts exposed, slowly undulating and sandy terrain with a flimsy ground cover - not unlike the setting of golf's ancestral home in Scotland.
Down here The National's Moonah course, the work of Bob Harrison and Greg Norman, makes fabulous use of the rolling countryside. It's the Shark's best design to date in the Southern Hemisphere and, off the back tees in the wind, it's about as difficult as any golfer (even the professionals) could ever hope for.
Also definitely worth playing while you're in the area is The Dunes, which wanders through waving coastal land entirely exposed to the elements. It's another magnificent design, but try it on a still day, if you're lucky enough to strike one, or the wind might blow you away.
Designed by the same person (Tony Cashmore) and at least as good is Thirteenth Beach, on the opposite side of Port Phillip Bay, south-west of Melbourne. Different countryside here - it's full of gentle dunes, previously given to cattle. Before leaving the area, allow an extra day to play neighbouring Barwon Heads, a blissful coastal gem.
For scenery of another kind entirely try Joondalup, 25 minutes north of Perth. Every golfer should play Joondalup at least once in his or her lifetime - it's that unusual. There are three nine-hole layouts - the Lakes, the Quarry and the Dunes - and not only is there a picturesque bush landscape, but parts of the course are built over an old quarry. Players encounter majestic limestone amphitheatres and a wayward shot can have you trying to extricate your ball from a bunker over a sheer 30-metre quarry face. The game doesn't get much more daunting than this.
Joondalup's that rare kind of course, like Pine Valley, Pebble Beach and Augusta National in America, and St Andrews in Scotland, that you'll remember long after your score. You can stay on site here at the 70-room resort hotel or in 30 self-contained villas.
Two others not to be missed in the west are The Vines (Lakes course especially) in the wine-growing hinterland and The Golf Club at Kennedy Bay, by the sea.
More typical Australian countryside can be found by lugging your cart beside the banks of the Murray River. Our most famous waterway has plenty of golf locations on offer - not that I've counted them, but I'm reliably told there are 28 courses along 1000 kilometres of its banks.
They were built to lure poker-machine-free Victorians to the gambling dens on the border, but business dropped dramatically when Victoria introduced pokies in the 1990s. To survive and attract customers, the clubs had to cut rates and the golf resorts there now offer perhaps the best value for money anywhere on the continent.
Yarrawonga and Border is the finest example of what's on offer: comfortable rooms in cabanas spread around the perimeter of its two-and-a-half courses, making it the largest golfing complex in the Southern Hemisphere.
The opening four holes of the Murray course take you to the river's northern bank, where the rump of the fifth tee nudges the river. Look for a swagman boiling his billy on the other side, or at least a few roos. This is quintessentially Australian bush and the only regret on my last visit was that I was riding an electric cart, which tended to block out the raucous cries of the circling cockatoos.
Cobram-Barooga is another of the Murray courses worth playing. There are 36 holes here, and the Old Course is both a golfer's and a nature lover's delight. Its fairways are framed by majestic red gums and pines, shelters wisely avoided but frequently visited unless you have exceptional accuracy with your tee shot. Corowa and Murray Downs are also highly recommended on any Murray golfing tour.
If history suits your swing more than scenery, then Tasmania's Bothwell Golf Club, 20 kilometres off the Hobart-Launceston Highway, is the answer. This is where golf began in Australia, but don't expect a five-star resort or an imposing driveway entrance. Quite the opposite.
There were no signs even indicating its existence when I was last there. You need to spy the flagsticks poking up in the middle of paddocks. There's a small parking area just off the road, then walk through the gate and over the course (you might well mistake it for grazing land) to the clubhouse.
An honour system operates if it's closed, so just pop your green fees in the box outside the front door and away you go.
If the family has ambushed your golfing holiday, and it's not just you and the boys or, increasingly, you and the girls, then accommodation and non-golfing options need more careful consideration.
The best places to look are the Sunshine and Gold coasts and surrounds. The Hyatt Regency Coolum and Twin Waters Resort on the Sunshine Coast are both first-class resorts complemented by courses of exceptional quality. Which is the better course is the subject of much conjecture among golfers.
Sanctuary Cove and Royal Pines on the Gold Coast are two standouts for accommodation/ golf, or there's the Radisson Resort. There's no course on site but it's an ideal spot to base the family, with five excellent courses no more than 15 minutes' drive away. Try Hope Island, The Glades, Lakelands (Jack Nicklaus's first Australian design) and Robina Woods. And if time's not an issue to the Gold Coast holidaymaker, then a visit to the hinterland course of The Kooralbyn is well worthwhile.
Magnificently crafted through valleys, dips and around lakes, it set the standard for Australian resort golf when it opened for play in 1979. Many other resorts may have caught and even passed it, but its allure is still well worth experiencing.
CHOOSE YOUR CLUB
Best for the golf-aholic (if you can get a game)
Royal Melbourne (West and East Courses), Victoria; phone (03) 9598 6755.
Kingston Heath, Victoria; phone (03) 9551 1955.
Royal Adelaide, South Australia; phone (08) 8356 5511.
The Metropolitan, Victoria; phone (03) 9579 3122.
New South Wales, Sydney; phone 9661 4455.
Best for the family
Capricorn International, Yeppoon, Queensland; phone (07) 4939 5111, toll-free 1800 075902.
Sanctuary Cove, Gold Coast; phone (07) 5577 6108.
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast; phone (07) 5555 7700.
Laguna Quays, North Queensland; phone (07) 4947 7777, toll-free 1800 812 626.
Twin Waters, Queensland; phone (07) 5448 8000, toll-free 1800 072 277.
Hyatt Regency, Coolum, Queensland; phone (07) 5446 1234, toll-free 1300 66 1235.
Royal Pines, Gold Coast; phone (07) 5597 1111.
The Vines, WA; phone (08) 9297 0777.
Best for the scenery
Barwon Heads, Victoria; phone (03) 5254 2302.
The Dunes, Victoria; phone (03) 5985 1334.
The National, Victoria; phone (03) 5988 6666.
Yarrawonga and Border, Victoria; phone clubhouse/units (03) 5744 1911.
Bonville International, NSW; phone (02) 6653 4002.
Tura Beach, Merimbula, NSW; phone (02) 6495 9002.
Long Reef, NSW; phone 9971 8188.
Narooma, NSW; phone (02) 4476 2522.
Laguna Quays, North Queensland; as above.
Secret Harbour, WA; phone (08) 9524 7133.
Joondalup, WA; phone (08) 9400 8888, reservations 1800 803 488.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald
Share This