Just thought I’d like to get down a few thoughts from 4 days of what turned out to be a wonderful tournament on a new version of Royal Melbourne Composite. The change in routing was to get the 9th tee nearer the clubhouse to facilitate a 2 tee start.
This meant the order went
1W, 2W, 7W, 10W, 11W, 12W, 16W, 17W, 18W (1-8)
3W, 4W, 5W, 6W, 1E, 2E, 3E, 16E, 17E, 18E (9-18)
This version adds 16E at the expense of 4E. It’s worth listening to the recent podcast from Australian Golf Passport for a discussion on the pros and cons of this and many other things related to RM Composite
https://assets.ctfassets.net/cw4trwjq5q03/54rKIP9JPVokJa55itIiAk/22d7f3b7c134ce52a4b7409867e692eb/AAC_2023_Course_Map_FINAL_10.11.pdfThe result as you can see from the map are ever changing directions of the holes. The first 2 days the wind was from the South (top of the map as you look at it) & SW about 2 clubs in strength, gusting to more and also fluctuating direction frequently. For about half the field coming from sub tropical 30deg high humidity to 8-14deg and an Antarctic wind must have been something of a shock. Kobori’s 66 on Thursday was exceptional.
On Saturday the wind shifted to the North and blew harder. Sheng’s 65 in these conditions was remarkable
Sunday brought the genteel side of RM with the wind still from the North but under or around 10km/h most of the day. The low round for the day was 68 and about 4 players had 69s, so genteel but still a great test.
This routing means the front 9 contains 8 Par 4s & 1 Par 5. The flow felt good even with 6 of the holes between 433-476 yards there was no sameness to what was being asked. On Saturday & Sunday 4 (10W) was reachable with hybrid or 3 wood for most players, even if that wasn’t a very adviseable ploy.
The back 9 therefore had 2 Par3s and 2 Par 5s. The 17th was straight downwind on days 1 & 2 so one of the few great birdie opportunities. Straight upwind on day 3 but still reachable for many/most
11 & 16 (at least for me) were a nightmare to club on Saturday due to a combination of pin & wind
Along with changes of direction of both holes and wind, what made club selection so hard was that often you could see there was plenty of wind but couldn’t accurately determine the direction because you were in a hollow or low point sheltered from the wind.
I’m told the greens were running at about 12 which seemed perfect for the conditions. I didn’t see any situations where the combination of wind and green speed made playing conditions at all dicey.
This group of amateurs really got to see the three main faces of RM and at least from the players I was exposed to relished the challenge.
On a personal note there is something very gratifying about setting a plan with your player and watching it play out at such a high level of performance - something as an average club golfer I’m just not capable of. Occasionally I think I even added value
Also credit where it’s due to whoever was responsible, they organised and especially fed us volunteers very well