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Sure. Not sure anyone suggests they are anything more than opinion, particularly since the sample size in terms of raters is relatively low.
The rankings are a discussion starter, a good marketing tool for clubs, courses and architects and a way to learn about new places to play.
Not sure I agree that pros and scratch markers should have sole domain. Golf courses are for all and most are probably too short for pros these days. The classic courses were designed for the distances in their day, which are now close to how far the average player hits it with the newer technology equipment.
And the newer daily fee courses need the cash so keep their options open.
A good test of a course in my view is whether it’s playable and enjoyable for the average player. Not the same as easy.more uplifting result
Stableford at Rossdale off 16 had 39 pointsWhen are you moving to Capital??
Have you had a game with Spade yet??
Is it still the friendliest club on the planet??
Did they sell of part of the car park??So many questions, so little time..
Not sure but is still being considered
No but I have met him
From my experiences it is a very friendly club suppose it is who you deal with
Yes and no part of possible overflow carpark was sold years ago and we are talking to developers about a possible reocationSo Rossdale aren’t moving to the Henry St tip site?
Sandy Links (FKA Sandringham Golf course).
Played the first 9 holes of the re-designed Sandringham golf course yesterday. This is a public course directly across the road from the main paddock of Royal Melbourne, and it shares a boundary fence with the RMW holes that are not in the main paddock.
The renovation became necessary to accomodate the “centre of excellence” and driving range on part of the property.
OCCM (now OCM) were hired to re-calibrate the course, and create a new 18 hole course (using the existing corridors).urlhttps://www.planetgolf.com/news/the-sandbelt-s-best-public-golf-course-to-shrink-for-another-centre-of-excellence
The available holes to play are 1-2-3-12-13-14-15-16-6.
Hole 1 follows is the old #2 in reverse. (with a new green and fairway bunkers) Hole 2 plays backwards as a par 3 along the old #8. Hole 3 plays the old #6 in reverse. Hole 12 plays off the old #14 tee, but instead of a par 5 its a downhill par 3 to the bottom of the hill. Hole 13 (the standout for me) has a tee box offset to the right behind a chute of trees and plays on the rest of the old #14 corridor. Looks like the greenside bunkers have been brought a bit closer to the front left of this green, providing only a narrow landing area for the approach. Hole 14 is the old #15. Hole 15 is the old #16 but instead of a long uphill straght second, the fairway snakes around to the right near the water storage dam, making that a feature of the hole, where trhe best play is to play as close to the dam as possible to give the better angle of approach to the green. Hole 16 plays a par 3 up to what looks like the old site of the 16th green. Hole 6 plays from the old #17 teeing ground around to the right, and the green sits on the crest of the hill.All in all a fun course to play, accuracy and strategy seems to be more deliberate that the old layout. OCCM have done a fine job.
Some interesting cavernous bunkers on #3, #12 and #13 that dont seem to be in the line of play, not sure why they were created although they would look great on a drone. Use of a lot sandy waste area as well rather than rough to define the corridors of play between the ti-tree. And lots more bunkers than previously. With the re-design only being able to fit par 3’s and 4’s, fairway bunkers in particular are used to hold up the longer hitters.Full layout of 18 is due by end of year. Will definitely be back for a quick 9 as well as the full 18.
I’d post the full layout as a pdf but it seems too large to attach.
Cheers
CSThe full 18 has now opened at Sandy. After 4 or 5 goes around on the initial 9 that has opened, I played the official front 9 today. Its being billed as a quintessential sandbelt experience open for all to enjoy. And indeed it is.
The re-design was done by OCM, and the works undertaken by the Royal Melbourne ground crew, using the famous “Suttons mix” bent. RM has the lease and will continue to maintain the course.
The first 3 holes are as they were since the initial 9 opened, although on the first they have opened up a back tee which brings the fairway bunkers into play for most hitters. Trick here is to keep the ball up on your approach (the bunkers play tricks with depth perception) and stay away from anything short right as it will roll back down. The other thing to note is that the first plays due east – tough looking into the sun at 7am – make sure your playing partners assist with the line of the shot.
The “new” fourth is the old 11th, with a new set of bunkers on the left of the green.
The “new” fifth is the old 12th, with a new double green shared with the 10th (old 4th). This is a tricky hole – unless you take on the dogleg a good drive is going to run through under the tee-tree on the outside of the corner.
The sixth is what was the 9th on the initial 9 (and half of the old 17th), a short dogleg right with sandy waste all along the RHS. Nicknamed “temptation”. The best line is as close to the sand as possible, so that you are hitting your approach up the green. Be careful of short as there is a false front to the green. Anything on the left side of the fairway means taking on the LHS bunkers. If you make it over, your shot will funnel down to any pin center or right.
The seventh is a 145m par 3 with no bunkers, but a swale infront of the green. Narrow but wide green. A birdie chance.
The 8th is the old 18th, #1 index playing uphill and close to 390m. Fairway seems to have been widened a bit on the right, with a more formal waste area created about 100m short of the green on the RHS. New bunkers on the left.
The 9th is the old 10th, opened up a bit on the RHS by removal of some trees. Green slopes quite considerably back to front.
The greens on the newest holes (4, 5, 7, 8 and 9) played considerably slower than the more established holes (1, 2, 3, 6) – but in a few months time would expect them to quicken up.
Talking to one of the groundsmen he says wait two years and the course will be brilliant – I reckon it already is.I’ll try to post the layout (not sure if it will work)
Cheers
CS
The “how did you play” threads should be taken out of the”golf course” category. Perhaps a whole new category can be created for these.
1 user liked this post.
Driving to the golf club might mean a trip to a supermarket or chemist on the way home, hence further spread or risk of infection.
Which is the greater risk?? The drive to the course on your own in your own car? The round of golf where you are virtually isolated in fresh air? Or the trip to the Chemist, Supermarket, Workplace, Petrol Station which you will do more often?
My perspective may be slightly askew in your eyes, but I don’t believe so. If I believed that attending a golf course to play with my son was more of a risk to myself and my family than visiting a supermarket for 15 minutes that would put me in closer proximity to 20x’s more people, then I would not play golf. As it is, I do not think that is the case, so I shall continue to play while I can.
The whole point of this is that the power for individuals to make their own risk assessment is being diminished, rightly or wrongly, because people kept doing dumb stuff.
People are supposed to stay home.Even if you obey ALL the restrictions and advisings, you stand more chance of becoming infected by going to the Doctors, supermarket, chemist, petrol station, WORK!!! than you do of playing golf in a group of two touching nothing but your own gear, which you have cleaned with alcohol wipes pre and post round…
You are looking at it from the wrong perspective in my view. It’s not about what’s more risk it’s about what’s appropriate. Cricket practice nets and golf practice cages in parks are being closed too. It’s a principle – stay home unless it’s necessary to go out. I love golf. But I can’t say that it’s necessary.
I think this is really poor by the NSW body. The PM has repeatedly said people should stay in their homes unless they have to go out for necessity. Exercise is allowed, but the exercise part of golf is the walk, not the playing of the ball. If people live close to a golf course by all means go and walk it. But the purpose is people stay near their house for exercise to limit movements. Driving to the golf club might mean a trip to a supermarket or chemist on the way home, hence further spread or risk of infection.
The AGD rankings were released in full this week. Having not played many of these and recognising that everyone values different things (including play on the day) I wont opine on merits. I also havent read the article to see the criteria or number of raters etc, nor reasons why some werent ranked. But perhaps some observations in comparing the AGD and GA lists:
StAndrews beach ranked 14 places higher in GA than AGD (12 vs 26)
National Gunamatta not ranked at all in AGD
Port Fairy ranked 26 places higher in GA than AGD (31 vs 57)
Concord ranked 14 places higher in GA than AGD (32 vs 46) – maybe AGD played the pre-reno version?
Portsea ranked 18 places higher in GA than AGD (34 vs 52)
Joondalup quarry/dunes 19 places lower GA than AGD (37 vs 18). Is Joondalup a top 20 course in Aus??
The Australian ranked 19 places lower on GA than AGD (40 vs 21) – is the Australian a top 25 course in Australia??
Eastern South ranked 39 places higher on GA than AGD (55 vs 94)
The Cut ranked 23 places lower on GA than AGD (59 vs 36)
Sanctuary Lakes ranked 30 places higher GA than AGD (60 vs 90)
Healsville ranked 25 places higher on GA than AGD (61 vs 86)
The two most glaring:
Ranfurlie not ranked at all on AGD, on GA its 60
West Australian not ranked at all on GA, on AGD its 56
The common theme in a lot of these seems to be GA ranks a lot of Victoria courses higher than AGD does. Some state based biases here one way or another?
Sandy Links (FKA Sandringham Golf course).
Played the first 9 holes of the re-designed Sandringham golf course yesterday. This is a public course directly across the road from the main paddock of Royal Melbourne, and it shares a boundary fence with the RMW holes that are not in the main paddock.
The renovation became necessary to accomodate the “centre of excellence” and driving range on part of the property.
OCCM (now OCM) were hired to re-calibrate the course, and create a new 18 hole course (using the existing corridors).urlhttps://www.planetgolf.com/news/the-sandbelt-s-best-public-golf-course-to-shrink-for-another-centre-of-excellence
The available holes to play are 1-2-3-12-13-14-15-16-6.
Hole 1 follows is the old #2 in reverse. (with a new green and fairway bunkers) Hole 2 plays backwards as a par 3 along the old #8. Hole 3 plays the old #6 in reverse. Hole 12 plays off the old #14 tee, but instead of a par 5 its a downhill par 3 to the bottom of the hill. Hole 13 (the standout for me) has a tee box offset to the right behind a chute of trees and plays on the rest of the old #14 corridor. Looks like the greenside bunkers have been brought a bit closer to the front left of this green, providing only a narrow landing area for the approach. Hole 14 is the old #15. Hole 15 is the old #16 but instead of a long uphill straght second, the fairway snakes around to the right near the water storage dam, making that a feature of the hole, where trhe best play is to play as close to the dam as possible to give the better angle of approach to the green. Hole 16 plays a par 3 up to what looks like the old site of the 16th green. Hole 6 plays from the old #17 teeing ground around to the right, and the green sits on the crest of the hill.All in all a fun course to play, accuracy and strategy seems to be more deliberate that the old layout. OCCM have done a fine job.
Some interesting cavernous bunkers on #3, #12 and #13 that dont seem to be in the line of play, not sure why they were created although they would look great on a drone. Use of a lot sandy waste area as well rather than rough to define the corridors of play between the ti-tree. And lots more bunkers than previously. With the re-design only being able to fit par 3’s and 4’s, fairway bunkers in particular are used to hold up the longer hitters.Full layout of 18 is due by end of year. Will definitely be back for a quick 9 as well as the full 18.
I’d post the full layout as a pdf but it seems too large to attach.
Cheers
CSWhats interesting to me is the fall of the StJohn Course at Heritage, the one designed by Jack Nicklaus. Only 8 years (and 4 ranking cycles) ago in the 2012 rankings it was ranked as 57. Its now not even mentioned in the top 125. I wonder if this is all down to conditioning, and change in criteria or changing tastes/ideas as to what makes a good golf course.
The historical ranking has always been Moonah then Old then Ocean. Seems the transformation of Ocean to Gunamatta has elevated it to the best of the three.
Drilling down, quite a few courses with renovations in last 10 years or so have been elevated – common denominator seems to be a Doak/RGD or OCCM renovation, see the likes of Royal Canberra, Peninsula, Concord, National Gunamatta, port fairy, Curlewis, Bonnie Doon.On PK and in particular PK north, Mike Clayton has often said that it has the second best land (RMW having the best) of all the sandbelt and samdbelt-adjacent clubs. So not surprised it’s come out so well,both in the rankings and among people who have played it
Flinders Golf Club, Flinders Victoria.
Doesn’t get the plaudits or the publicity of the other courses on the Mornington Peninsula, whether they be private (The National, Sorrento, Portsea, Rosebud) or the pay for play (Moonah Links, St Andrews Beach, The Dunes, Cape Schanck).
A shorter course than most (11 x par 4s, 5 x par 3’s, 2 x par 5’s) par 69, 5500 odd yards.
A really fun course, experience is like a traditional links, with a few holes running along the clifftops, providing views across Western Port to Phillip Island and Bass Strait. The wind seems like its always up, so this maintains the challenge of the course.
Hole 4 (the coffin) and hole 5 (the beach) as well as Hole 11 (Fairly Dell) and 12 (Aunt Sally) were the more memorable holes, but overall i found the variety of directions off the tee and subtle elevation changes kept the interest up despite the poor weather at times on the day I played.
I had wanted to play here for a while, played on a random Friday in November, weren’t too many people around but was welcomed by pro staff, other players and green staff.
If you are in the area its worth a consideration for a round or two, if you want a different type of experience to the “dunes” of the other public/public access courses in the area then its worth a shot – an easier walk and price competitive.
Website is a good one too – has flyovers and descriptions/tips of all holes.4 users liked this post.
Not sure why there are 3 different feeds for people to post their scores/how did you play, plus the journey threads in the “practice range”. Perhaps these can all be consolidated into one feed. It amuses me that people post how they played in the “golf course” feed but half dont even say which course they played let alone make any kind of comment on the course.
That lack of joy is also evident – not too many posts say they enjoyed the game or the course etc despite the score.1 user liked this post.
I think what surprises me most about the forum is the lack of discussion about the playing field, ie the golf course, and the amount (a lot) of discourse about what people scored.
The ISG forum had a specific place for golf course discussion, albeit it wasn’t heavily populated compared to the days/weekend score updates.
Do people care what other people scored? What’s with the obsession with this?
Even more startling is the lack of discussion about tournament/professional golf. Do people care about that at all? We just had the most significant tournament ever held in the country and barely a word.
Do people actually like golf? Or just play it for the score/handicap?3 users liked this post.
