After our glorious tour of Barnbougle and the Melbourne Sandbelt, we made our way to Sydney. We focused mostly on culture, even managing to catch an opera at the Opera House (yes, I have a whole set of pictures of it if you're interested). But I couldn't pass up Australia's Cypress Point, so we took a taxi on our final day out to La Perouse to play the famed New South Wales Golf Club. We played in the afternoon (my preferred time to golf), so most of my pictures are of holes, or vistas, where the sun was setting behind me. That means I didn't photograph several holes from certain angles, including the renowned par-3 6th from the tee, as it faced directly into the sun (but I did photograph it from behind the green, with the sun at my back).
Before I get to the holes and my take on the course, two conditioning-related comments. First, NSW was the first course we played where we could tell it was winter--the greens, as you'll be able to tell in the pictures, were a different shade of green than the fairways and tees. Second, the bunkers at NSW are an altogether different animal than the bunkers in the Sandbelt--at NSW, most are Scottish-style pot bunkers with revetted faces, and the sand is far, far softer than the virtual hardpan in the Melbourne bunkers. To say I had trouble adjusting would be an understatement.
Wind is ever-present at NSW. When we played, it came off the ocean hard (I imagine this is the "prevailing" wind, but can't confirm), so the holes routed away from the ocean (1, 6, 7, 9, 15, 17, and 18) played incredibly short and those routed toward the ocean (in particular, 2, 4, 5, 10, 13, 16, and, yes, the driving range) played incredibly long. The routing is such that, as at Muirfield, the wind affects no two holes the same way--for example, each of the four par-3s plays in a different direction. NSW has three distinct areas, each covering approximately one-third of the holes: (i) the area in front of the clubhouse (covering holes 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, and 18, all without views of the ocean), (ii) the area in the middle of the course (covering holes 4, the tee shot on 5, the green on 7, 8, 11, 12, the tee shot on 13, the approach and green on 15, the tee on 16), and (iii) the area by the ocean (covering the approach and green on 5, 6, the tee shot on 7, the approach and green on 13, 14, the tee shot on 15, the approach and green on 16, and 17). Although the course doesn't look like a true links course (with the exception of Castle Stuart, I can't think of another links course with such hilly and grand terrain), it walks and quacks like one, so that's good enough for me.
Despite the wind, NSW is very playable (and fun to play), owing largely to its wide fairways and minimal rough (at least when we were there). The green are relatively flat, but they are surrounded by falloffs--especially at the front--and pot bunkers galore. Few of the greens are "framed" well, but I assume that was intentional to allow for maximum exposure to the wind. The all-world 5th and 6th rightfully get most of the attention, but the course has several other tremendous golf holes--in particular, 7, 11, 13, and 16, although 13 and 16 probably each lose some acclaim because they are so similar in how they look and play. The course feels somewhat cramped at the start--largely on account of the relatively narrow, but very solid, 1st, and the blind tee shot from amid the bushes on 3--but opens up significantly beginning with the approach on 3. Overall, NSW is a great golf course in a stunning location, but I think it is properly ranked behind Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, and Barnbougle Dunes in the pantheon of Australia's greatest golf courses. MacKenzie might well have said that the setting at NSW was rivaled only by that at Cypress Point, but, to me at least, he did not take advantage of that setting as well at NSW. The views are indeed spectacular, but, with the exception of 5, 6, and 13, the routing of the holes to maximize the land and the views leaves at least something small to be desired. But as MacKenzie once said, "Beauty means a great deal on a golf course, . . . and there are few first rate holes which are not at the same time, either in the grandeur of their undulations and hazards, or the character of their surrounds, things of beauty in themselves." At NSW, it is the latter--i.e., the "character of their surrounds"--that does most to make the course and its holes beautiful.
New South Wales, Hole 1 (fairway)
New South Wales, Hole 4 (fairway, looking backward to the left with the par-5 8th's fairway (working up over the hill) in the middle and the par-5 12th's fairway (working down from the hill) to the left) [N.B.: This is the very open "middle" area of the course.]
New South Wales, Hole 4 (green)
New South Wales, Hole 5 (tee)
New South Wales, Hole 5 (fairway immediately beneath the top of the hill)
New South Wales, Hole 5 (fairway upon cresting the hill) [N.B.: Like the first time I played Bethpage Black and turned around to look at the 4th while standing on the 3rd green, this view is one of the great "wow" moments in all of golf.]
New South Wales, Hole 5 (left fairway bunker) [N.B.: As I understand from the official 2004 course review here on GCA, this sandy area to the left of the 5th fairway has been restored in recent years. I can attest that it now looks and plays perfectly.]
New South Wales, Hole 5 (green) [N.B.: Like the center-fairway bunker at Barnbougle Dunes's 3rd hole, these two Principal's Nose-like bunkers are actually set a ways from the edge of the green, making any shot from them far longer, and more difficult, than it first appears.]
New South Wales, Hole 6 (view behind the tee)
New South Wales, Hole 6 (green, looking backward)
New South Wales, Hole 7 (green, looking back down the fairway, with 5 fairway on the left)
New South Wales, Hole 10 (green)
New South Wales, Hole 11 (tee)
New South Wales, Hole 13 (fairway)
New South Wales, Hole 14 (view to the left of the fairway and backward)
New South Wales, Hole 14 (view to the left of the fairway and forward)
New South Wales, Hole 15 (fairway)
New South Wales, Hole 15 (looking back down the fairway from behind the green)
New South Wales, Hole 16 (right rough, with green off in the distance on the left)
New South Wales, Hole 16 (fairway) [N.B.: This hole looks and plays very much like 13, with the sole material difference being that the green is slightly more sheltered from the wind off the ocean.]
New South Wales, Hole 17 (view looking right from the tee)
New South Wales, Hole 17 (green; not pictured are bunkers left and right of the green)
New South Wales, Hole 18 (green, with the fairway off to the right)
