Tom Doak once told me he didn’t want there to be a “Tom Doak golf course”.
Judging by the three courses associated with this year’s Renaissance Cup, including Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, St. Andrews Beach on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, Australia and Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania, Tom has “no worries”. Clearly, these are three very different sites and three very different golf courses. The only consistent theme is how each design seemed to fit the landscape, very well if I may say.
For quite few years a trip “Down Under” has been in my “five year plan”, but time constraints always got in the way, in part because I couldn’t imagine how I’d get to see all I wanted to see just with golf not to mention all the other things one might do on holiday. Having often preached slowing down and NOT trying to see everything, I decided to practice what I preach. So, beyond the three venues cited above, I only took time to visit Australia’s two most renowned courses, Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath. But, strange as it may seem, I also played the Sandringham public golf course because I was dying to see what muni golf was like in Melbourne and the fact the entrance is directly across from Royal Melbourne had me a bit intrigued.
Rather than attempt to detail each course, I’ll try to give my overall impressions as a first time visitor, including my impressions of the golf courses and “the experience”, the latter being important, it seems to me, as still not too many American golfers have made it “Down Under”.
Cape Kidnappers was first up and what first struck me was how relatively easy it seemed to get there. Yes, the flight from Los Angeles to Auckland takes 12 hours, but like trans-Atlantic flights I’ve taken to Ireland many times, it was a red eye flight. From Auckland, there is another one hour flight to Napier and then maybe 45 minutes to the entrance to Cape Kidnappers. The entrance road then leaves its own lifetime memory. A pretty amazing 10-15 minutes up to the clubhouse. No wonder the road itself reportedly cost more than the golf course.
Once up top Cape Kidnapper’s doesn’t immediately reveal itself, but like Ireland’s Old Head, it is obviously in the “8th Wonder of the World” category. I expected that, of course. But, still wasn’t prepared for the sheer scale of the place. Awesome is all I can say.
But, Cape Kidnappers differs from Old Head in several key respects: the routing is not all about placing tees and greens at the edge of cliffs, the quality of the greens and bunkers is much greater and there simply is far more fun golf to be played. Cape Kidnappers also features many forced carries due to the many ravines throughout the property.
After touring and playing the course a few times I struggled to sum up the architecture, but found truth in the summary comment Bruce Hepner made. “Everything fits”, said Bruce, going on to say to say the design was guided by “restraint”.
I agreed with Bruce, but wondered how I could convey what this actually means to interested folks at GolfClubAtlas. After all, I thought, I could narrow the focus and point out a green or bunker design that hardly seemed to demonstrate “restraint”. Yet, when you step back and take a wide, big picture view, the theme of “restraint” becomes clear. Simply put, the golf course architecture doesn’t try to compete with the amazing canvas.
The same thing can be said of Cape Kidnapper’s clubhouse. It may be the most perfectly understated clubhouse you will ever see.
On to Melbourne I went where I encountered perhaps the most pleasant surprise of my trip: Kingston Heath, a venue we in the states don’t usually talk about, but a golf course we could learn a lot from. Kingston Heath proved to be an essay on what is wrong with so much of modern design. Do we really need an ever expanding playing field? Kingston Heath weighs in – all 140 acres after a 20 acre expansion for new practice facilities – with a clear “no”. Must all property be blessed to provide interesting golf? Again, Kingston Heath says “no”. Do we need massive clubhouses to compliment the golf course? “No” again, Kingston Heath says.
Kingston Heath is simply exquisite with perhaps the finest bunker work you’ll ever see, with a tie in to the surrounding vegetation like I have never seen. Then, too, Kingston Heath has in Paul Rak, the Secretary-Manager, one of the finest gentlemen you will ever meet in golf. Tom Doak has his “31 Flavors” and while Kingston Heath doesn’t make his list, it would make mine. It simply is a place that must be seen and studied if you are in to golf architecture.
With all the accolades I give Kingston Heath, I have to acknowledge Royal Melbourne sets a higher standard for a golf course. Royal Melbourne has many of the good things found at Kingston Heath, but the topography is simply far better, at least on the West course. I’ve long wanted to see holes like #4-6 and #10 and they lived up to their billing. But, many other holes cried out “this is a course both good and average players would enjoy everyday”. The philosophy of Mackenzie comes through pretty clearly.
I mentioned playing the Sandringham golf course just to get a feel for public golf in Melbourne. Let me just add two points: affordability and some pretty good golf. Sandrington can be played for just 23 dollars on both weekdays and weekends. The “pretty good” golf is found on the back nine after a rather pedestrian opening nine holes.
Okay, on to St. Andrews Beach, perhaps the most difficult property to describe of the three Renaissance Cup venues. No report would be complete without mentioning that the Mornington Peninsula has what seems a wealth of good golf property. To stand out, one must build something really good and I believe Tom Doak and his team has done so at St. Andrews Beach. We played the course several months short of a completed grow in, but one could already tell this will be a fun, interesting and challenging course to play. The 1st hole has an interesting contradiction: the tee shot is well elevated providing a panoramic view, but the approach shot on this par 5 is likely to be blind without a well positioned 2nd shot. There is lots of width here, but actually not much room to set up the ideal shot to the green.
What quickly follows is a great 2nd hole with an obvious hint of the famous 9th hole at Cypress Point and the 2nd at Pacific Dunes. Tom Doak borrowed, but didn’t copy, it is fair to say.
The 3rd hole completes an impressive opening trio with a tee shot that won’t impress a first time visitor, I suspect, but play the hole once and the golfer will quickly understand the importance of a tee shot “well placed”.
I could mention quite a few other holes that I believe will prove fun to play over and over again, but perhaps the long par 4 10th, par 3 16th and the closing hole are most worthy of mention. The good news is that one could debate which of many holes will offer the most fun to play. The more the merrier, I say. St. Andrews Beach may not be a true seaside golf course like the name implies, but it will provide a boatload of enjoyment for members and visitors alike, I suspect.
Last but certainly not least, my “Down Under” golf adventure ended at Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania, an hour flight from Melbourne and a 1 to 1.5 hour drive to the village of Bridport. There you will find a great piece of property, a great golf course and – I have a hunch – what will prove to be a great place to hang out if just getting away for golf is what you are after.
After hearing marketing spin over hype a property like Doonbeg in Ireland, I was very happy to find Barnbougle is the real thing. Mike Clayton described the course as already one of the two or three best in Australia and judging by my experience at the big two – Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath – I doubt many people will challenge Mike’s observation. Then, too, the American developer Mike Keiser boldly predicted Barnbougle will reach the Top 50 in the world level within a few years. He can’t be far off, I have to think.
Barnbougle itself doesn’t make a strong opening statement. The first two holes offer a pleasant, if not exciting start. What makes Barnbougle really special are three excellent short par 4s, the 4th, 12th and 15th holes. I also enjoyed the contrast of #7 to #8 and going from a “little devil” par 3 to a brute of a long par 4.
Part of what made Barnbougle special was the people side, including finally meeting and playing with author Paul Daley, photographer David Scaletti and Barnbougle investor Jonathon McCleery. Together they introduced me to Aussie golf, a little banter, more than a few drinks, in short, the closest thing to Irish golf I’ve experienced. Putting people like Paul, David and Jonathon together with the Barnbougle golf course and the outstanding 19th hole site made this the venue I most look forward to visiting again
Speaking of people at Barnbougle I must conclude by taking my hat off to Greg Ramsay. Sure Tom Doak and his team have a passion for building golf courses people will enjoy playing for a long time. But, creating great golf venues takes more, a passion that goes beyond the course itself. Greg believed in Barnbougle when others didn’t or thought it was impractical. I have a hunch that years from now people will look back and think Greg’s vision was a no-brainer.