Kooyonga - Jacobs Creek Open

[Shane Gurnett]

Anyone been there lately, hows it looking? Mr Crafter perhaps?

Interested to hear if its been "fiddled with" for this weeks event.

[MikeClayton]

Shane
15 to 25 yard wide fairways and couch rough so thick they will have 5 spotters a hole and it wont be enough.
Maybe 3 or 4 drivers a round
There is absolutly no element of strategy left .It is simply an exercise in keeping it between the 'white lines'
It appears the lessons of Carnoustie didnt quite get to Adelaide.
Back Peter O'Malley this week.

[Chris Kane]

If POM can make some putts....

[Chris Kane]

Mike,

I assume that the tournament committee make a decision on how a course will be set up, but where do they get their advice from?

The AGU have TWP for the Open, but apart from that tournament, do organisers use professional advice on the setup, or is it usually an internal decision?

Whatever the case, sounds like they got it wrong this week.

[MikeClayton]

Chris
I dont know who is responsible  -the tour have guidelines but they rely on the sense of those setting up the course.Someone ,however, is trying to prove a point this week. Not sure what it is but I  dont the club ever got over Gary Player shooting 2 62's in the 1965 Open.

[Shane Gurnett]

A great pity because the course, despite what has been done to it over the past 10 years, really has some great holes. Why would you grow thick rough on this style of course? Simply bizzare.

Should I be having a few bucks on any of the American guys this week?

[Justin_Ryan]

I can understand the powers that be growing the rough long and narrowing the fairways for the Open Championship, but this is very much a secondary event, even in the context of the Buy.Com tour.  It sounds like we are in for a repeat of what occurred at Lake Karrinyup.  It would appear that Australian tournament organisers feel that they have to prove how tough Australian courses are in these co-sanctioned events to the foreign competitors/world media, although why I don't know.  It looks like we will be in for another week of boring golf on the telly though.

[Chris Kane]

Maybe after the Heineken (where the perception that RM is "obselete" took centre stage), they became fearful that their golf course might also fall victim to apparantly low scoring (I don't see what the problem was about the scoring at RM, but thats another issue for another thread).

So they ensured it won't happen, and by Mike's account wrecked the design intent in the process.

[Ran Morrissett]

What are people's favorite holes at Kooyonga - 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, and 12? Is the 17th with its relatively new greenside pond (built in the last 20 years I would guess) held in high esteem?
What version of the 18th are they now on?

My five year old recollection is of being mightily impressed through the 14th but then, somehow, it doesn't quite bring it home in a tidy fashion. 15 is more hard than appealing, 16 is just a hole, 17's fairway bunker is a stunner cut into the hill like that but to see a greenside pond appear from nowhere seems disingenuous, and the 18th was too convoluted/out of character with the rest of the course.

Still, a very appealing course, despite the let down at the end. Sorry to hear about the crummy course set-up.

Cheers,

[MikeClayton]

Ran
You got all of the best holes however there is a new 15th played diagonally away from the houses.Its 227 yards with an elevated green good bunkering and tough.
17 is always wrecked for the tournament because the sponsors tents around 18 stick out so far they have to move the 17th tee forward 25 yards so the bunker is not really relevant and its tough to avoid driving through the fairway on the right.Just a 2 iron for most. The pond is just awful.
18 has those stupid bunkers that they built into the wonderful sandhill. Now its 2 iron 9 iron.Crazy thing is they have 8 yards of rough between the edge of the fairway and the bunkers so the is no point cutting close to the bunkers to set up the ideal angle.

[Greg Ramsay]

Mike, is Kooyonga on a very undulating site?  Aside from the great site that Royal Adelaide was once, are any of the great South Australian courses (RA, Kooyonga, The Grange,any others?) in land with any great movement?

I thought Mackenzie did a lot with a pretty dull site at RA, did he look at any othere courses in Adelaide?

Greg Ramsay

[Mike Clayton]

Greg
Kooyonga is easily the most undulating site in Adelaide especially the front 9.Unfortunatly they planted pine trees on the two big sandhills on the front and lost the effect
9 especially would be much better if they cleared the hill and gave you a reason to drive to the inside of the dogleg.
Kooyonga is probably the 10th or 11th best in Australia and only NSW is more undulating.

[Chris Kane]

Am I right in saying that Newton Grant & Spencer are the present consultant architects to Kooyonga at the moment?

I think I remember Neil Crafter expressing his frustration with the goings on there.

[Shane Gurnett]

I see Baddeley knocked it around in 84, and said the following:

"Obviously I didn't play very well, I didn't drive well and obviously the bad shots got extremely penalised," he said. "I tried my guts out on every shot, I had 84 shots and I tried my guts out on all 84 of them.

"I was trying to think 'make a birdie', I was just trying to get it back, I trusted every golf shot. I didn't hole any putts but overall I think mentally I was fantastic out there. Walking down the last I said I can't believe I have tried my guts out on every shot and I'm 13 over."

Whats going on with the boy?

[David_Elvins]

Shane G,

"I trusted every golf shot. I didn't hole any putts but overall I think mentally I was fantastic out there. Walking down the last I said I can't believe I have tried my guts out on every shot and I'm 13 over."

Sounds like  hes been studying G.Norman101.  

[Neil Crafter]

They have been trying to grow rough for the SA Open (Ford as sponsors or now Jacons Creek) evry time they've played it in recent memory but they have had far more success this year due to a very cool and wet winter followed by an all time record cool summer. As a result I think the rough was able to be grown longer than it could otherwise be. However I agree with Mike that the fairway widths in many places were unfair and took away the angles on a lot of holes. I layed there last a couple of months before the event and the fairway lines had been defined already. I took particular note of the fairway widths and set ups on holes 6 and 18 and mentioned these to Bob Tuohy, the tournament organiser but it seems nothing was done. If I was still the architect there perhaps I may have had a little more relevance!
18 fairway needed to be in tight to the bunkers on the left as Mike said as this spot here next to the bunkers is the premium but most risky location for your tee shot as you get the best view of the green of any spot short of the ridge.
At the 6th, the rough was grown in at least 15m from the trees at the right. When we redesigned the green here some years back we realigned it and bunkered it to encourage a preferred approach from the right side of the fairway, thus tempting the player as close to the trees as possible. Previously on this hole the best line into the green was after a snap hook left of the fairway bunkers!  But the new rough took away any option from the tee. Oh well!
The 15th was totally redesigned by Newton et al, on the premise sold to the menmmbers that it would totally replicate the old green but in a new location further away from the boundary. I won't say too much but I wonder what the difference would have been if they were given a brief to make it totally different? Not much.
The 17th was redesigned in the early 80's by Mike Wolveridege. No lake was there before and the green was moved back and across a little against an excavated pond that feels right out of keeping with the rest of the course. Still, with all the NGS changes, the place feels quite schizo to me. Not happy Jan!
cheers
Neil