David

It's a MacKenzie redesign from his trip in 1926.They implemented some of his suggestions but not all which was a pity.His routing changes looked terrific.
One hole went from the 10th tee to the 11th green which could have been spectacular.
The best holes include the short par four third up and over a saddled fairway (at about 180 off the tee) to long thin green.It is drivable but very dangerous.
6 is a wonderful par four up to a green and 7 a good short 3.
14 is the best hole on the course - a long dogleg right with beautiful looking bunkers into the inside corner of the dogleg.
It's a small green considering how long the second can be.
16 is a really difficult little 3 - 160 about - with a tabletop green that will be really hard to hit on Sunday afternoon when players come there with a chance to win.

A report on MacKenzie's visit to RA was published in the Australian Golf Course Architect's Journal. Its on their web-site.  Interesting to see the turmoil proposed changes caused amonst the members 80 years ago.  Funny thing history, things don't change much.

http://www.sagca.org.au/journal2000/mackenzie.html

This was one of the most pleasant surprises of my trip to Australia in November. The course is clearly celebrated, but it was also one that had drawn a lot of mixed reviews. The conditions were among the best I saw last year and I thought the holes on the other side of the tracks were great, while the closing holes were better than I had anticipated.

Some photos from my round.


The third hole, which really does not do this great hole justice.




The tee shot, followed by the approach to the fourth.


The tricky seventh, from the front right of the green.


The great setting of the 11th green.


The approach to the tough 14th.


The treacherous bunkers on 16.

Thanks David,
I do have shots of the entire course, so let me know if you want them.

Too bad such a great course at RA cannot generate more interest on the board - perhaps you should have put OT in front of it.  

Great photos - good to read about it, too.

Ben

My assumption is the members would never stand for the green moving but you never know!
The tee shot is not that great and nor is the blind shot over the hill at 10 which makes it disappointing the MacKenzie hole was never done.

The course is unquestionably in the top 6 in Australia.
The West course at Royal Melbourne stands apart but Kingston Heath Royal Adelaide,NSW,the East at RM and now Barnbougle Dunes make up the next tier.
There were some alterations made for the 1998 Open which have always looked odd to me - bunkers at 8,9,11,15 and 18 which were at odds with the original work - IMO.

Ben,

Great pics!  The picture of the third green is interesting for me in that it looks in some ways similar to a hole at the Meadow Club, ironically its third hole as well.

Some quick questions...
Does the hole play uphill?


Was there ever any bunkers short left of the green in that mounding?


What kind of contours are on the green, does it have a lot of movement on the right side that steps down to the fairway?

Do you have a picture that shows the contours of the third green?

This is getting weird, I just looked at the picture again and saw the structure to view the 4th fwy from the tee.  We have the same type of structure on the fourth tee as well with some subtle differences.

If I have my history correct Mackenzie was at Meadow Club first as he was on his way to Australia.  It could be possible that some of his work at that time could have been repeated, which makes some sense.

I enjoyed the drawing of Royal Adelaide it is wonderful I wish we had one for the Meadow Club.  I had a hard time making out the specifics, is there any other sources of that routing besides the SAGCA website and going to the clubhouse?

Sean

Mike,

Excluding the Gold Coast, which of the three cities has the best golfing weather....year round, Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide?

Bob

Ben

you are obviously a man of perception and taste!

I was at the golf on Sunday, walked the 18 holes with an early group in the morning and watched the last 5 holes by the leaders.  The greens were very firm, true and reasonably quick.  If you were playing a shot down-wind, or from any of the roughs, heaven help you if you landed on the green.  Into the wind, a 60 metre (yard) pitch could be made to back-up.  Down wind, the first bounce was a good 15 feet, followed by a second bounce before the check.  Most of the last holes were played with a 20 knot cross-breeze, the typical S-W sea breeze.  A shot held-up into the wind (a fade) would hold #16 par 3, a straight shot or a draw went long.

The pins were reasonably tight (apparently the Nationwide tour set the front 9, and the Australian tour the back 9!).  In typical MacKenzie/RAGC fashion, any attempt to cut the inside of the dogleg, and remaining on the inside was left with a nigh impossible shot to get near the pin.  A shot played to the far side of the fairway would leave an accessible pin, with a good shot.  #17 was played from a forward tee, with a shallow dogleg of fairway available.  #18 was played from the middle tee.  These tee's are required because of the public access and interaction with adjacent holes.

Looking forward to 2006

Even the Jacob's Creek red wine ( form the Braossa Valley an hour up the road) tasted lovely, and the Cooper's Pale Ale delightful (for those discerning beer-drinkers overseas, Adelaide is the home of Cooper's Ale).

Ben
you are obviously a man of perception and taste!

Thank you! With the cheap flights into Adelaide, the Magill Estate restaurant, RA and the city the NY Times called the best designed city, it is easy to take credit for good taste, so I will.

Were the higher scores Sunday due to the tougher pins, or general firmness? There were certainly not the same number of scores in the 60s on Sunday, as there were on Thursday.

Mike and Ben

Thank you for the information on the third hole and the photo from the other angle. I was really reaching on that, but you have to ask some questions to get some answers. The routing done by Mackenzie looks awesome and I only wish that we had something like that to go by! Im still looking and maybe something will come up.  We just had a member give us a routing for Bell's Stanford course dated 1928, so you never know what you'll find.  

The event was played early in the day, to improve the timing of the feed into the US.  

James,

Could you talk to the cricket folks about this?  The day/night ODIs tend to finish about 5 am Central [US], late even for this vampire.

Seriously, thanks for all the great info about the course/event.  Good for Bowditch, the way he steadied the ship on the back nine.

Jason

ps.  I had a really nasty cold a couple days ago, and it definitely helps with my Jack Newton impression.