Indooroopilly's Gold Nine ( with photos) - a fine stretch of holes

[Emil Weber]

This morning I played the Gold Nine at Indooroopilly (Brisbane, QLD, Australia) with my golf team and I was impressed because I have can't think of many more strategic courses I've played. Strangely, the gold nine is confined to the least interesting part of the property, yet it yields the best holes. Its weakest link are the greens, which are mostly flat. The short grass around the greend could be shaved a liitle shorter, but in 80 % of the cases you can easily play via ground game around the greens.

On the first hole, a good drive is required in order to get a view and a good angle into the green. The 2nd is a solid, long par 4 where a drive to the left side reveals that there is a lot of space to the right of the green thatn you'd think from the right hand side of the fairway.
Now where it really starts is the 3rd, a magnificent par 5 hole somewhere around 510 metres off the tips.
On the tee you have to decide wether to play safe and right of the bunkers or to play aggressive, either left of the bunkers (maintained as semi-rough, but easy to play) or carry them. IF you play aggressive you will be left with a clear view of the now reachable green. If you play safe, your second next shot´is obstructed by bunkers in the lay-up zone and trees. It is always better to play close to these bunkers, as you will have a better angle into the green.

The view of the tee:


View after a sliced drive to the right hand side of the fairway, with obstructing trees and bunkers placed exactly where you want to lay up:


This is what's left after a drive that carries th fairway bunkers, with the elevated green in the distance


View of the green from the lay-up bunkers:


The 4th, a 150-metre par three is bunkered at the front and both sides and features a front-right to back.left sloping green. The bunker short right is actually a fooler, as it is 15 paces short of the green. For the not that skilled player there are several options (trying to carry the bunker and reach the green or lay-up short-left or right), while the skilled ones have to decide wether to attack a left pin position (as pictured) or trying to draw and bounce it in from the right. (sounds redan-ish?)


In order to gain a good angle into the green and not having to deal with a swale and bunkers, the left fairway bunker at the 5th has to be carried or skirted. A swale gurads the front and right side of the green. Tee shot:


Approach from the better left side of the fairway:


The 6th features the same scenario, just the other way around. Here a tee shot has to flirt with the right-side fairway bunker in order to get a good angle into the green. Running balls from the left side of the fairway will run into a short-cut swale. If you can play the ball high, left pin positions are actually better approached from the left side of the fairway. Tee shot:


My favourite hole on the course, the 7th is another highly strategic par 5. In case  you need a birdie, your drive should flirt with the right hand side fairway bunkers, from where you have a better angle into the green. If you decide to make it a 3-shotter, bunkers come into play from 80 metres from the green. Depending on the pin position, go left,right, short of the central lay-up bunkers or carry them. Tee shot:


Lots of bunkers and even more ways to get to the green. For this day's pin position, you should lay up right of the fairway bunkers. The small entrance really tempts you to attack the green although a running fairway-wood shot has very little chance to hold the green, which is not very deep and has a swale behind it.


The 8th is a solid, short par 3 with some interesting pin positions and dangers if you miss the green.

The 9th is a shortish par 4 of 327 metres. If you want to have an easy approach to the green, your drive must somehow find its way between a lake and several fairway bunkers. A lay-up off the tee leaves a really hard shot to a green tightly defended by water on the left and bunkers on the right. It can be either a birdie or a double-bogey hole (or something in between xP), and this is the view after a safe lay-up:


I will live in Brisbane for the next 5 months and hope to post pictures of some more courses of the area. (with a new camera)

[Duncan Betts]

An interesting course Indooroopilly, my parents house actually backs onto the Red 9 there but both my father and I play our golf on the other side of town.

The West course, Red & Gold, has undergone significant change in the past 18 months, apparently with the sole and unfortunate purpose of securing themselves an Australian Open.  It would have been a great venue using an ad hoc combination of holes from the old layout featuring both east and west course (red, green, blue and gold) but instead they have spent what appears to be significant funds making changes to the West Course.  This used to be the members only course, but recently this restriction has been limited to say the least, but I think the members are happy as long as they have 18 holes to themselves, 7 days a week.

Back to the holes themselves that you have played, the Gold 9 was once my favourite of the 4 there, but some of the changes have been good and some I'm not such a fan.

1 Gold is a good hole as you have described, and one of the few examples I can think of where tree encroachment has actually been a positive.  The narrowness of that green is not apparent until you get up there and its a great little opener (even though usually played as the 10th).

2 Gold is a good effort on a long straight flat bit of uninteresting land, with the ground level green a welcome change from most holes at Indooroopilly and the little hollows that surrounf, creating a bit of interest.  They certainly come into play regularly as most people would be approaching with a long iron at best.

3 Gold has undergone great change, with a brand new green and the addition of the centreline bunkers replacing the bunkers previously protecting the left-side (already protected by a great big river!).  The first 300m of this hole are exceptional, and whilst I don't have great issue with the new green, it is far inferior to what it replaced.

4 Gold has had the tees moved and is poorer for the change, but it is a magnificent green that thankfully remains untouched.

5 Gold is essentially a brand new hole and a very good one, also replacing what was a pretty poor one - which is always a good result.  The drive is key and includes a variety of options and the difficulty of the approach doesn't reveal itself fully until you see your ball deviate wildy off the front of the green with that subtle little hump.  You can take a dangerous driver over the corner bunker and trees to give the 100% best angle and take the deep bunker out of play, but also take the softest option of all (yet still hit driver) and go out to the right paddock, but then leave yourself a longer approach over a deep bunker and the hump at the green entrance.

6 Gold - the less said the better, some people may have different tastes to me - but to essentially cover a fairway in sand, and then surround a green with more sand, isn't exactly creative.  Not a good or enjoyable hole at all, if they had to change this hole, they should have left the old green as it was and merely adjusted the drive.

7 Gold - strong Par 5, but low on strategy and recent changes have made lvery little difference to how 90% of golfers would play it.

8 Gold - lovely little Par 3 with a big green that is probably 4 clubs in length, so pin positions and the wind coming off the river make this shot that appears to be quite simple, actually quite difficult.  Not many Par 3's in Brisbane that demand a 5 iron one day and 9 iron the next, without moving the tee!

9 Gold - the old hole was a classical risk/reward short 4, although perhaps outside the hitting zone for most, which was always my query on it.  Would have been a wonderful hole as the 18th for an Australian Open though, genuine chance of eagle/birdie, but not a great margin for error depending on the pin.  The new hole seems to suck the ball left, and they need to clear the trees in front of the dam to open the view.  I'm neither a fan or not of this hole just yet, but I will find it hard to like given what it replaced.

Emil - I'd be interested in your thoughts on some of the other courses in Brisbane, have you subjected yourself to the 'resorts' of our coastal neighbours to the north and south?

[Emil Weber]

Duncan,

Thanks for the extensive reply, I was hoping not to get an zero-reply-thread .
I have only played Keperra,Indooroopilly (green,blue,gold) and today I had a competition at Royal Pines. I think Royal Pines is basically a boring course with little variety and few good holes although the condition was exceptional.

I hope I get to play Brookwater but from what I see and hear the new Royal Queensland seems to be outsanding. I've already made some friends who are members at RQ, so I will peobably play there in the near future. Of the SUnshin / Gold Coast resort courses, Hope Island seems to be the choice?

Emil

PS.: I think hole seven is a HIGHLY strategic and enjoyable hole