I had the fortune of spending a few days at The National Golf Club outside Melbourne in February, playing the brand new Gunnamatta course by Renaissance Golf Design.
The course has stuck in my mind -- and being locked up in isolation for the past five weeks has given me plenty of chance to reflect on it!
Mostly, I feel like photos don't do it justice, although some of Will Watt's drone shots for Caddie Magazine go close:
https://www.instagram.com/caddiemagThe pictures below were chosen top give a bit of a taste of the course, and perhaps for those on here more well-placed than I to expand on some of the really special holes and features.
The flow of the course is a real highlight, not just in the routing across the property, but how and where the moments of real difficulty and challenge are placed, punctuating a lot of birdie chances loaded with fishhooks for those who don't correctly strategise or execute.
I didn't play the back tees, but glancing around to them made clear that those who lament "it's too easy" from the blue tees can easily solve that problem. For me, this was a course where the occasional comparison between golf and surfing stands up: just a perfect place to go out, have fun and work with the day's conditions to try some things that may or may not come off but will put a smile on your face either way.
1 -- a reachable par five in the right conditions or by using the speed slot down the right hand side. Though I came to find that if you pursue that RHS kick forward and don't reach it, it's a hell of a tough layup or hero shot to the green for your second swing of the day. The first tee is a wonderful place to stand, take a deep breath of the salty air and feel good about the walk you're about to take.
2 -- an opportunity to start eagle, eagle. This hole is very much driveable, but the risks are clear in the form of the bunkering short of the green and the OOB fence snug to its left. The expansive use of fescue around the greens shows off its value here, bringing slopes up to 30 metres off the green into play for second (or third...) shots to access certain pins. On my first round, my playing partner and I were within five metres of one another but he chose to use the kicker slope toward the back right to get at the flag, while I opted for the one on the front. So many choices, depending on the shot the player wants to hit.
3 -- the hole above all others on this course that can't be explained in photos, but here's two anyway. Put the pin on the lower front-left third and you want to drive it way right, but shift it 50 feet away on the back tier and a drive to the left flank is A1. In between, there's probably 50 other permutations that I'll need to keep playing this hole to discover. And with the combinations of angles at play, the slopes around the green can be your friend one day and an enemy the next.
4 -- long uphill par four and one of two occasions (along with 14) where the course interrupts your quest for birdies to find out just how good you are at hitting two really f**king good full-swing golf shots in a row and then reading subtlety in a green.
7 -- the only uphill short four I have ever cared for. The simple but brilliant green is the key, resembling -- to steal a friend's description -- a castle in the front front-right position surrounded to the left and back by a guarding moat. The smart drive is going to vary wildly, and often take you away, if you can bring yourself to, from the line of instinct
8 -- the combination of the incremental downhill slope and shifting winds means that you'll approach this hole with as little as a half wedge or as much as a mid-to-long iron. The green is brilliant in how it accommodates the long approach while also requiring precision or creativity to get close from inside 100 metres. I am not convinced the feeding slope at the rear of the green is quite tilted enough to properly feed the ball to pins left of the bunker around which the green is built. Perhaps as the turf matures it will come to do so, and if not, it's probably only a liberal topdress or three away.
10 -- the landscape of the Mornington Peninsula "Cups Country" presents itself here. Maybe not as dramatically, but as you move out to the far reaches of the Gunnamatta and Moonah courses, there's a hint of Sand Hills or Ballyneal in the scale, expanses of rolling dunes and general solitude. There's acres of fairway right of the drive bunker, but it's just so tempting, so as you stand in it trying to find a way to save par, you'll know in your heart that you were pretty stupid to take it on.
12 -- I've not encountered another design firm that builds as many iconic greens as Renaissance does. This is as good as any of them, on the end of a stout par four. And as with the second green, the slope you use to feed your ball to the hole is dependent on your imagination and shotmaking ability moreso than what the architects intended. It seems to me this green wasn't built with right and wrong ways to approach it in mind, but rather a handful or opportunities to express yourself and have fun. It's a shame the shaggy grass left of the fairway is such a ball-eater (a minor quibble that I am sure as the course matures will be addressed).
13 -- rollicking is the only word to describe this par five. One of the more dramatic moments on the course.
16 -- longish par three. Late afternoon, meet the ocean! The imposing nature of the bunker left of the green will mean that a lot of shots end up in the front right collection area, and the fantastic green contours will mean that a lot of recoveries from the collection area will end up in the bunker! It's "just" a mid iron to a reasonably large green, but those features combined with a reliable crosswind and its placement so close to home will -- I am confident -- make this a regular cardwrecker.
17 -- another short four, probably the most driveable of them all, and another where those with enough brains and discipline will often ignore the line of instinct and play right and short for a reasonably simple pitch on. There's enough going on either side of the green to make X without much even going wrong. And then once that's in your head, good luck swinging freely on that aggressive tee shot.
When isolation is over, flights resume and the state borders reopen, I reckon the first tee at Gunnamatta is one of the first places I will find myself.