Tasman Trench of Thrills and Tremors
Mark, thanks for this photo journey, and Sven for the video. As I stated in my diary thread, I had hopes for some good HD video, but alas - that may be a lost cause now. We do have a few snaps from a tablet cam that aren't bad. But I won't be adding anything to the photo library of previously well photographed posts from Mark and Kyle and a multitude of others, even other non-gca member offerings you can find on YouTube.
What I'd like to add is just the amazing feeling of pure golf nirvana that one feels at the BD and LF facility.
Yes, as Tom Doak gives praise, I want to add my uninhibited enthusiasm for the playing sward of fescues on Barnbougle dunes. lost Farm is coming along nicely, and maybe another season or two from the condition of BD. Mr. Hill is a genius, indeed. I don't really have the playing skills to just have these few exposures to the course and make an intelligent assessment of the golf strategy on a real player's level. As a fellow of great enthusiasm to combine what I have learned and experienced of great golf architecture to the modest extent I have, combined with my personal joy to play, Barnbougle with the Renaissance team and Mike Clayton have created an indisputable 10 (if we must rate). It was not an easy walk and carry, not the toughest I've ever had, but enough of a workout for this senior. But, it is one of the most enjoyable walks I can imagine on a course. It can be no other way for the architect to give us the 'Full Monte' of thrills and spills that such coastal dunes can offer. Tom Doak's course here at the BD-LF complex is decidedly more difficult or brawny, in my opinion. I might liken it to the Prairie Club outside of Valentine NE where the Leyman course is brawnier than the Marsh course, yet both are thrilling and enjoyable in their own right. In my mind as I mentioned earlier, I simply don't see the need to approach a series of rounds at BD as just competitive low score seeker. For average golfers, despite wide and option filled fairways, a fellow is occasionally going to be ball-in-pocket from errant shots to the snakeland thick native dunes-coastal grasses that are there. You must learn to enjoy and have a good chuckle at a ball you think is hit nicely into a green complex and catches a nose or false front, and ends up running away for a real challenging recovery. And, while some of these features give you the undesired result with a runaway, they offer just as many good rubs of the green with backstops and slopes that get you closer to the hole than you deserve. And, for those that will often 'just for fun' seek to make the putt on a line not readily apparent yet with multiple slopes and contours gives you an entirely different way to get the ball to a hole position, you will be endlessly entertained. The real firm and fast fescue surface is the ultimate I have experienced.
I petered out a bit and ran short of time as explained on the diary thread and did not complete my second 9 of second round in at Barnbougle Dunes. I intend to make a goal to go back there, long flights and all, if the bounces in life are so fortunate. I can only rate the experience of Sand Hills, and BallyNeal, and hopefully Dismal River 5th major as close to the feeling one has at BD-LF. But for a Norte Americano as Ron would say, the idea of half-way around the world to a magical place like Tasmania is just exceptionally thrilling. To have a bona fide top tier world class course waiting there is the stuff of an epic odyssey for golf course architecture and just golf playing fanatics.