Newcastle golf club, commonly called Stockton, located in Fern Bay, NSW, has been described as a hidden gem, primarily, I would guess, because it is located in a somewhat hard done by part of the country. Even the woman behind the car hire counter at the airport didn't know there was a golf course there, despite the course being ten minutes away. On the main road. With a not-easy-to-miss sign.
It's routed over a series of ridges that venture from mild to wild, which, when coupled with the ever present fierce wind, ensure a lot of control is needed into the generally small greens. The greens are modestly contoured, yet would be brutally quick in any sort of dry weather, which of course rarely happens in NSW, the rain capital of the world.
First hole is a middle-length par four. It's important to place your teeshots the correct length on many holes. Here, it would be be either around 200 metres, or around 260. Anything in between leaves a horrible shot off a sharply downsloping fairway to a knob green.
Coming up short at Newcastle often means a long bunker shot to an elevated green.
Missing right isn't much fun, either.
The third hole is a long 218 metre par three played downhill. A brilliant half-par hole, and the epitome of a strategic par three for the average hitter, who has to carry this bunker some 170 metres from the tee for a straightforward chip down the length of the green.
Missing wide right isn't the best idea.
The fourth hole is a 418 metre par five. Fairly flat for the first couple of hundred metres, the tee shot must flirt with this nest of bunkers.
With the terrain around the bunkers sloping a little right to left, missing left in these bunkers again means an imposing uphill bunker shot to a barely visible pin.
The fifth is a 367 metre or so par four over some wildly tumbling land. Best line is left off the tee. One of the more famous holes.
Going right leaves this rather unpalatable affair.
From behind.
The sixth is of a similar length, and running in the opposite direction. A tee ball nestling close to the dune on the left offers as flat a lie as you are likely to find on the first 14 holes.
From the ideal landing spot.
Missing the green short again leaves a difficult uphill pitch or bunker shot to a barely-sighted flag.
Seven is a justly famous par three around 150 metres, playing slightly downhill and generally downwind to boot.
Ten is a fantastic par five played over some of the most voluptuous dunes imaginable. Around 480 metres, carefully placing the drive the correct distance gives you this view for your second.
Looking back from the last dune before the green toward the tee.
Eleven is another mid-length par four. Played from a chute of trees, the club are lucky to have a greenkeeper on top of his game, even if one of his assistants does think Metropolitan is the best course in Australia. There was a lot of work going on trimming back tree lines that may affect teeshots.
Highlighting Tom Doak's "perfect rolls" in the fairway.
Twelve is a terrific par three of around 170 metres. The first bunker is quite adept at hindering depth perception.
Thirteen is a short par five of around 445 metres. Intitially I thought it may be one of the best holes on the course, but I changed my mind the next day. The fairway falls off beautifully on the right hand side into some wild territory, but there is absolutely no reason to flirt with the drop off, as the green is bunkered both sides, as is the lay-up area.
The layup.
The course loses a little of its lustre after 12. The bunkers are a little more simplistic, and often placed in strange spots, like on the sides of dunes away from play. However, the club do manage to incorporate some native wildlife into the routing.
Eighteen is a fine finishing hole that returns to the rumpled dunesland after the previous few flattish holes. It's around 380 metres back into the prevailing wind.
There was quite a smorgasbord of international tourists playing the course the two days I was there, which is terrific. Given that it is a two hour drive north of Sydney, it is a course you must really want to play as opposed to just notching up another one.
Since it is a course of almost perpetual blindness, either from the tee, or into the greens, it really is an old-fashioned test. Now if they could just get rid of the carts...