This is the new course down here on the Mornington Peninsula. I had a hit/walk around most of it today.
It's a fantastic piece of tumbling land upon which it hardly looks as if a golf course is there - even on the tee! Following our unseasonally cold and wet winter the fairways still appeared a way off, but it was really fun just hitting around.
The bunkers are more like rugged, eroded sand pits than bunkers, many of which appear, from the tee, to appear either way out of range, or alternately, too close, but are right on the money. Hopefully Tom will see fit to remove several rather nasty grassy knobs from some of them in December
The fairways are plenty wide, especially for such a windy part of the world, yet good strong driving will be needed, because shorter or wilder hitters will be partially blocked off on some holes, or facing a lot of tricky lies. The eighth, a brilliant 335 m par four from a high tee over rolling, wave-like ridges, to a tiny green invisible from the bail out left side of the fairway, is a case in point.
The greens too are really neat. A variety of sizes, although most looked smallish to me, and plenty of room to bounce and roll approaches in around contours to get at certain pin positions, and plenty of swales and hollows to one side that will accompany the bad miss or deliberate hedge, but require a Seve-like touch with chipping to keep your score intact.
One hole in particular, the 325m ninth, was especially terrific. A high drive down a broad valley, to a green, that even from the second shot landing area, appears to be a forty or fifty yard WIDE green, but is in fact aligned from right to left vertically.
The fourth too, is a 190 m par three over a hollow to a green set on a ridge, that, from the tee, appears difficult to see and find - yet there is enough room between the bunkers to play a long running approach, or a long chip if you decide to play short for fear of missing what you can't quite see.
All in all, it appears to be a course that will have everyone slightly off balance as to exactly what is required, and will need a lot of imagination and thought to post a score. Is this an accurate description for anyone else who has had a hit around?
There are four great short par fours, and two of Ran's medium length par fours, with only two par fives, one of them, the first, with an awe-inspiring tee shot from a crest fifty feet or more above the fairway over a moonah tree in the bottom of the valley. Shot after shot looks to be something you really look forward to playing, no matter what position, or how far back, you will be in the fairway.
It will be really interesting to follow the evolution of it as it grows in and evolves, as it is a course that, despite what I've said, doesn't immediately knock you over with eye candy. It's much more subtle, and hopefully forever interesting, than that. It is really going to be something. And to think there is still one more course to go, and a composite routing from those... incredible.