Picked up the latest copy of Golf Australia today, and was pleasantly surprised to see a seven-page interview with Tom Doak, conducted by Paul Daley.
Hopefully this will increase recognition of Tom's work in these parts and lead to him winning more jobs, since so many pieces of great land have been squandered in recent times.
There was also a letter from an Andrew Presnell, which reads:
I read with interest your rankings of the top 25 courses in Australia.
One comment which made me sit up and take notice was that of your managing editor, Nigel Wall, who made the wise observation that: "...far too many designers...are attempting to out-lengthen each other to combat technological advances."
I immediately began thinking of the two Moonah courses - Moonah Links and the Greg Norman-designed course at The National. For readers' interest the last five holes at The National (Moonah Course) measure: 422 metre par-4, 524 metre par-5, 447 metre par-4, 204 metre par-3 and 412 metre par 4.
Amazingly, Nigel then preceded to rank this course as No.7 on his list!
Was this a temporary loss in concentration or are we to believe that 6576 metre courses are really the future of golf in Australia?
Andrew Presnell
Via email
(I certainly take your point on board in regard to the Moonah course at the National. However, the other elements of Greg Norman and Bob Harrison's design - the routing of holes, the natural bunkering, the shaping of the greens and the excellent conditioning - were more of an influence on ranking Moonah so highly. Also, it must be noted the Moonah course at The National has some wonderful short holes to balance the brutes - Ed.)
Nice letter Andrew.
What do you think?