Commonwealth Golf Club: A pictorial!!! (18th hole posted)

[Tom Kelly]

Shane,

Have you got any pics of the old 7th? As with the old 1st it is another hole I have heard much about but never seen!

Cheers

Tom

[Matthew Rose]

When I played there, #7 had a small pond well short and right. Is that gone?

[Mike_Clayton]

Matthew,

The pond is gone.

[Shane Gurnett]

Sorry Thomas, I don't have a picture of the old 7th.

[Kyle Henderson]

#8: 376. Par4.


The 8th will greatly reward players able to sling a big, hooking drive (excuse my right-hand bias) that runs around the corner. The fairway bunker appears to nearly touch its greenside soul mate – a nice touch.


The uphill approach favors a fade to another deep (~35 meters front-to-back) green. My guess is that long misses result in the most strenuous recovery efforts.

[Shane Gurnett]

Kyle, from the back tee, it's actually rare to see a drive finish past the LHS bunker due to the tightness of the landing area. And until recently, when the club finally started to cut the rough in between the bunker and the green, there really was no advantage in hitting over or around it. A drive that finishes close to the bunker, once again, will see the best line into the green. Approaches from the right side of the fairway are longer and must carry the full extent of the sprawling artistic rhs greenside bunkers.

The green has a severe back to fron and left to right slope. Above the hole to pins cut in the front half are very demanding. It's a great hole.

From the 2010 Ladies Open:

[Kyle Henderson]

#9: 133 meters.


The green-hiding nature of uphill par 3s can be a bit unnerving, especially when fronting bunkers are prominently displayed.  I missed pin-high left and had a relatively simple up and down effort, but the green is sloped quite aggressively and most will not be so fortunate afer a poor tee shot.

[Mark_F]

Best par three in Melbourne by a mile. Craps on Augusta's 12th, too.  Doesn't have a contoured green as good as Yarra's 11th, but the slope on Commo 9 is more deceptive. And the overhead drawing shows the unique green shape that ties in with the bunkers perfectly.  Just genius.

Would be an even better hole if the club had let Cashmore deepen the bunkers are tad.

[John Mayhugh]

Kyle,
Thanks for another great course tour.  I wish I could have seen Commonwealth.  Hopefully can take care of that in a few years.

[Shane Gurnett]

Mark the bunkers on 9 are plenty deep enough you cheeky boy!

Another view of the excellent green from behind and to the right looking back to the tee.



The left hand side of the green is now mown as short grass, with any miss likely to finish up some 15-20 metres away and facing a difficult uphill chip. This simple change adds a different perspective to the left hand side pins with any miss left liklely to result in a soft bogey 4. A great short hole as Mark suggests.

[Matthew Rose]

#9 is a beast!

I had a serious case of back-and-forths on this one. I ashamed to say I had a pickup on this hole as I criss-crossed about three or four times. The sand was wet and I just could not keep my ball on the green.

It was a real humbling lesson in what sandbelt golf is about, I tell you what.

[Kyle Henderson]

#9 is a beast!

I had a serious case of back-and-forths on this one. I ashamed to say I had a pickup on this hole as I criss-crossed about three or four times. The sand was wet and I just could not keep my ball on the green.

It was a real humbling lesson in what sandbelt golf is about, I tell you what.

I had a feeling luck was on my side...

[Kyle Henderson]

#10: 503 meters. Par 5.
 

With bunkers protecting the outside of the dogleg, this hole feels a bit like something from nearby Woodlands Golf Club. My guess is that better players would benefit more by staying to the inside to shorten the hole.


This foreground bunker (picture from the CGC website) protects the lay-up zone 60-90 meters out. A wedge from just left of this hazard is played along the green’s deepest axis. Staying short of the flag will yield an uphill putt.

[Kyle Henderson]

#11: 373 meters. Par 4.


The 11th hole makes an off-camber turn to starboard around bunkers. Playing safely away from said sentries is best done with less than a driver, as the fairway runs out quickly down the left-hand side.


A peek at the fairway bunkers provided by the CGC website.


The uphill approach is best played with a little extra club and a reminder to shift one’s weight forward during the swing.


A look from short/right demonstrates the wisdom of playing for the aft half of the 11th green.

[Mark_F]

Excellent shot, Kyle. 

11 and 16 must surely be the two best mid-length par fours in the country.   The need for precisely placed and shaped drives is paramount, but then it appears you have relatively innocuous second shots into greens that slope far more than you realise.  Always a joy to play them.

[Shane Gurnett]

Mark I agree they are both wonderful holes.

Here's another view of the 11th green and bunkering, taken from the RHS near the 12th tee (featuring GCA's Mr Kelly from a couple of years ago). Recovery from that bunker to a front pin is all but impossible.

[Kyle Henderson]

Mark, the 11th and 16th are superb, but you are the first person who has told me they rank as the best of their kind in Australia. I was interested in the earlier comments about a pond on the old 7th at CGC, as the current 16th hole featured the only true water hazard I saw in play throughout the sand belt (Victoria and Commonwealth have recently-added holding ponds that are not meant to be in play).

[Kyle Henderson]

#12: 408 meters. Par  4.


A downhill tee shot at the 12th offers sight of a flattish fairway bordered by bunkers on both sides, though the first trap on the left is the most consequential to proficient golfers.


Matching the fairway, the 12th green is of the low-lying variety, as seen in this image from the CGC website that also features a surprisingly shallow bunker (by CGC standards) in the foreground.

[Mark_F]

Mark, the 11th and 16th are superb, but you are the first person who has told me they rank as the best of their kind in Australia. I was interested in the earlier comments about a pond on the old 7th at CGC, as the current 16th hole featured the only true water hazard I saw in play throughout the sand belt (Victoria and Commonwealth have recently-added holding ponds that are not meant to be in play).

Kyle,

Similar length holes would be 8 at RMW, 3 RME, 11 Vic, 7 Woodlands, 11RA, 15 BBD, 4,8 and 12 Pen North, 1 and 4 at The Lakes, 9 and 15 at NSW. There are some pretty good holes in that short list, but that length hole is kind of an afterthought distance.

There is water in play on 1,3 and 5 at Pen South. 

[Shane Gurnett]

12 was "reworked" in the mid 90's when the club extended the 6th, 7th and 12th into the vacant land at the southern end of the property. This allowed 6 and 12 to be lengthened, and the new 7th to be built. This is what the tee shot on 12 looked like in the mid 80's:



The right side had become incredibly overgrown with tea-tree and the playing corridor very narrow. The club added (or restored, depending upon which aerial you refer to) new bunkering down the right side, and built a new green. The hole is not one of Commonwealths strongest, mainly due to a rather uninspiring green, however into the southerly requires two very solid hits.

[Kyle Henderson]

Thanks you for that peak at the old 12th, Shane. I prefer the look with fewer bunkers and the slight angle provided by the original tee.

[Kyle Henderson]

#13: 444 meters. Par 5.


This hole works up and over the small rise featured on the adjacent 6th tee shot but in the opposite direction, thus ensuring a mix of wind conditions on these three shotters. Mind you, the 14th is 85 meters shorter.


A long drive over the crest will set up a potential 2-putt birdie, while shorter hitters must contend with bunkers littering the lay-up yardages.


The kidney-shaped green works around a right-hand trap, with another bunker at the front/left forcing running approaches to come in from the right (photo from CGC website).

[Matthew Rose]

Mark, the 11th and 16th are superb, but you are the first person who has told me they rank as the best of their kind in Australia. I was interested in the earlier comments about a pond on the old 7th at CGC, as the current 16th hole featured the only true water hazard I saw in play throughout the sand belt (Victoria and Commonwealth have recently-added holding ponds that are not meant to be in play).

The same lake comes in play on the right side of #3. I know.... because that's where I hit it. 

Huntingdale has water alongside the last par-3 (15?) and you tee off over it once or twice. Metropolitan has a holding pond which is behind one green, though I think you have to skull one pretty bad to find it. Other than that, I don't know of any significant water elsewhere on the sandbelt. I know Royal, KH, and Victoria don't really have any.

[Matthew Delahunty]

Mark, the 11th and 16th are superb, but you are the first person who has told me they rank as the best of their kind in Australia. I was interested in the earlier comments about a pond on the old 7th at CGC, as the current 16th hole featured the only true water hazard I saw in play throughout the sand belt (Victoria and Commonwealth have recently-added holding ponds that are not meant to be in play).

The same lake comes in play on the right side of #3. I know.... because that's where I hit it. 

Huntingdale has water alongside the last par-3 (15?) and you tee off over it once or twice. Metropolitan has a holding pond which is behind one green, though I think you have to skull one pretty bad to find it. Other than that, I don't know of any significant water elsewhere on the sandbelt. I know Royal, KH, and Victoria don't really have any.

In addition to the abovementioned, water comes into play on the following holes on Sandbelt courses (albeit lower tier courses)
Huntingdale 13 (LHS), 14 (drive)
Kingswood 8
Keysborough 3, 4, 5 and 13
Spring Valley 13
Southern 2, 5 and 8
Numerous holes at Capital



 

[Kyle Henderson]

Matthew R,
I meant to write Metropolitan in the original post, not Commonwealth, with regard to holding ponds.

Matthew D,
I didn't see any of those courses!