New South Wales and more

[Matt_Cohn]

Hi everyone,

In the last 6 weeks I've been fortunate to play at Royal Melbourne West, Newcastle, and New South Wales. I think after I get home, or at least when uni is over, I will have more time to write, but here are some quick thoughts.

Newcastle: We know Ran loves Newcastle! And it is a very good course, particularly from 4-11, where the topography is best. The rest of the land is flatter and more open and not quite as good. The stretch of 5-7 is really fantastic. I'm surprised 6 and not 5 was in the 500 Greatest Holes! Overall Newcastle is not a showstopper, but it is a good solid golf course that is playable by all and easy for none - the kind of course we need more of.

Royal Melbourne: My real observation about RM is that, wow, here's a course that was designed to be fun! It's such a simple concept but who really designs courses that way today? (Thankfully people like Doak and others!) RM is a great test of golf, and it's certainly not easy. The greens were sanded when I played but they are still amazing. The great thing about RM is it just makes you want to play golf. Every shot is engaging, interesting, challenging, beautiful...and just plain fun.


#5 at New South Wales

New South Wales: NSW is so different than anything I have ever seen before. It is so opposite to Torrey Pines or Pelican Hill! It's very uncomfortable the first time around: there are blind shots everywhere. It is extremely "old-style". Of course it's gorgeous but not in a Fazio kind of way. Sometimes I felt like I was in Scotland, sometimes I felt like I was on the moon. I think you need more than one round to love NSW! But it was easy to see that only a very, very complete player can truly play NSW well.

I have completed a website which has all of my pictures and letters from my trip so far. In particular there are a lot of pictures of NSW as well as other golf pictures and the usual "tourist" ones. The address is:

http://www.student.unimelb.edu.au/~macohn

I hope you visit it, enjoy it, and send me any feedback you have. I'll have a few pictures of RM posted soon. Thanks for reading!!!

Matt Cohn

[Ben Cowan-Dewar]

Great to see the pictures and hear of your exploits in OZ.

Best,
Ben

[bakerg (Guest)]

Matt,

Awesome pictures.  I am completely envious.  I wish Australia was closer to the states.  

Gary

[Ran Morrissett]

Matt,

What do you make of the pot bunkers at NSWGC?

They are a recent addition in the past 5 years and they contribute to the links feel that the club was pursuing. Plus, they make a hole like the 1st a heck of a lot harder than it ever was before. Finally, given the severe wind/rain at La Perouse, they are much, much easier on the Green Keeping staff to get back into play the next morning.

Conversely, artistically, they don't exactly remind one of the sand belt bunkering nor of MacKenzie's genius at Cypress.

Cheers,

[MikeClayton]

Ran
How do you think a sandbelt style of bunkering would work at NSW ?
Certainly there is nothing of the flair of Melbourne.

[Matt_Cohn]

I loved the revetted, pot-style bunkers at NSW. Partly because I'd never seen them before - but I think they fit the "links" feel, and I liked them visually. I never hit in one so I don't know how they play! Hehehe...but they look appropriately difficult, like real pot bunkers.

Artistically, I think maybe the artistry at NSW comes from the shapes and the land more than from the bunkers as it does at RM. That said, I did wonder if a hole like #6 might look a little better from the tee with some sandbelty bunkers:



It's amazing from over the green



but surprisingly plain from the tee with those little pot bunkers. So you could definitely argue that side of things - but what might benefit #6 would I think detract from the rest of the course and the maintenance budget as well!

[Ran Morrissett]

Mike,

Take the top photo of the 5th hole. As a guess, if you were working on the course, wouldn't you recommend that the bunker down the left be less formalized and more of an extension of the sandy scrub down the left?  

Having bunkers originate from their sandy surrounds and blend in with the environment - as opposed to always being distinct and standalone - seems preferable. Certainly that's the case at such supremely bunkered courses as CPC, Royal Melbourne, and Kingston Heath.

One problem with pot bunkers is that the course is robbed of the contrast that the sight of sand offers to the green, rust, and brown colors throughout a course. Instead, the golfer's eye just sees a dark wall of a pit  :-/ And in a sandy, dunes location, I hate masking what nature has provided.

Cheers,

PS  Matt, could you post a picture of the 8th green at NSW? Benched in against a sand dune, I would be curious to see how well integrated its greenside bunker are to their environment.

[Shane Gurnett]

How much of the credit for NSWGC truly belongs to Mackenzie? Several golf commentators, notably Tom Ramsay, have questioned his involvement in the orginal design. Who deserves the credit?

Matt, can you post the Pic of the 5th at RM West, which shows I think what Ran is referring to with the greenside bunkering evolving out of the srcub and heath.

Shane

[Matt_Cohn]

I will, I have a picture of NSW #8, but I need to do somethings with it and the RMW #5 picture first.

But, I thought #8 was the least-well-blended-in of any of the greens at NSW. Maybe because it's a curvy, diagonal green at the end of a dead straight fairway with a hill dead straight behind it.

[Justin_Ryan]

Matt
Looks like you are having plenty of fun.  You should be aware that Australia is home to most of the worlds deadliest creatures, and they often reside in habitats such as the bushland and scrub you have been visiting on our great courses.  Please take care, its not worth dying for a ProV.  Also, who is the big guy you are walking down the fairway at RM with?

[Matt_Cohn]

Justin,

Just for you:


The guy at RM is Jason Perry, one of Shane's friends and a pennant player at RM.

Sorry everyone that it's taken me so long to post the requested pictures of RM and NSW. I've added one of Commonwealth too just for comparison's sake. Three ways of bunkering a green in a hill:


NSW, #8


RMW, #5


Commonwealth, #8

Interesting comparison!

I played Kingston Heath last week. Thank you to Mike Clayton for organizing that! As usual it will take me a bit to post something substantial about the course...but my overall impression is, I'm continually surprised how different all the sandbelt courses are from each other. KH, RM, and CGC look and feel nothing alike! More soon.

[Paul Daley]

G'day Matty,

Good on you for posting these pics, really enjoyed our lentil burgers and mango smothie's in Brunswick. Hard to tell from still pics, but I'll trade-in my "hackneyed old lurch" for yours anyday!

You're right about NSW, it isn't like anything else. It's not links, nor parkland, nor heathland, but has shades of cliff-top, headland, and everything else going. It also stands testiment to the fact that the best courses don't have to be in the best condition to be considered great; in fact, NSW is often in poorish nick compared to the Australian; but then again, so is everything else in Australia.

[Shane Gurnett]

Matty, what did you think of the greens are KH? Were they rock hard as usual? Was the first green back in play? The restoration of the width off the tees at the Heath has made an enormous difference to the quality of the course, not to mention the conditioning. So many more options now than before.

[Matt_Cohn]

KH was definitely firmer than Commonwealth...you got that first big bounce, sometimes 2 of them.

The first green and the third are both in play with the new grasses. They didn't play any different but Mike said that the new greens are probably a lot easier to maintain.

I definitely noticed the open feel because of where I was hitting my drives most of the day. Example: #3, I hit an iron off the tee right of the fairway. At Commonwealth, I would have been facing a chip out probably. But on #3 at KH, I was in a weird sandy lie with a halfway-overhanging tree.

So because they don't have those low shrubs everywhere, 1) I could find my ball, 2) I had an interesting shot instead of a boring one, 3) Instead of a guaranteed 5, I could have made anything from 3 to 6, and 4) It was more fun.

Go go gadget chainsaw...

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Matt,
Please tell me that now, after seeing this stuff you are ready to understand just HOW bad of a golf course PGA West Norman really is?

Great pictures and have a great time down under. What a thrilling experience all of this must be.

[Shane Gurnett]

Tommy, just out of interest, have you been to Melbourne and seen any of our courses. If so, what did you think?

[Matt_Cohn]

Sorry Tommy, I really didn't mind the Norman Course that much. It's slipping from memory a bit as far as the green contours and stuff.

Remember that the Norman Course is a one-off kind of place...it's nobody's home course. It's built for a different purpose than the private clubs here in Melbourne. I mean, Kingston Heath is awesome, but I'm not sure how effective it would be as a resort course at US$200 a pop. It's just different...

[Glen_Fergo]

Tom Ramsay lives in the past (as does his reputation) and has a set against certain people in Australian Golf.

I regularly play at NSW and with members of the club 2-3 times per week.

The club recently was given evidence from a Melbourne club that had Dr A M as an advisor with drawings of the course by the great man.

How much of the credit for NSWGC truly belongs to Mackenzie? Several golf commentators, notably Tom Ramsay, have questioned his involvement in the orginal design. Who deserves the credit?

Matt, can you post the Pic of the 5th at RM West, which shows I think what Ran is referring to with the greenside bunkering evolving out of the srcub and heath.

Shane

[NAF]

A couple of things to add since Matt was down playing these courses. One is Commonwealth is now faster than KH as the latter is getting their fairways scarafied (like aeration) and they were running the slowest that I played in the Sandbelt.

Jim Reilly and I played NSW yesterday and it is unlike any course I have played other that RCD for saying what planet am I on.  We played the front 9 in benign conditions and as I made the turn I turned to Jim and said how is this course not a classic or a 9 on the Doak Scale.  The topography, routing and beauty interweave with a forgiveness to the layout that make it a joy to be out on.  Room to drive the ball, strategic turning holes like #3, #13 or #14 or just plain fun holes like blasting it on #5 over the hill and gaining 60 yards of roll made it a special experience.

Like Matt we liked the pot bunkering, I did wonder what the course would look like it Dr. Mac had his CP bunkering style here but if you look in the clubhouse you can see original pictures of the layout and the sand-duneish landscapes look awfully like CP in spots to me..I wonder how great the course could have been if he lavished the time he spent on CP at the course but with the military taking over the land and all the work done on it I guess you can only credit the good Dr. with the routing.  They are about to also change the 7th hole green complex there according to what I saw in the clubhouse.

One caveat. On the 10th hole we encountered a gale that came out of nowhere with winds in excess of 40mph and gusts that I thought were going to knock down flagsticks..This front came out of nowhere and we went from dead flagsticks to ear bashing winds.  It made the layout play like a tiger into the wind.  Bullet drives went 210 yards and downwind you could launch stuff easily 300+.  We saw guys playing #5 into the wind who could not even reach the hill and had to layback in the valley with driver.  The exposed headlands of this course really add teeth to the layout and luckily the course gives you ample areas to spray the ball around (except in spots around #14/15) to get by.