There's a lot of talk about NSW here on GCA but I couldn't find a complete photo tour, so here we go...
Despite being the only cloudy day we had while in Sydney, the day at La Perouse was one of the most fun and pleasurable golfing days of my life (so far). The course is fantastic - a great routing, cool mix of strategic and penal holes, and stunningly beautiful. All the par 3s and par 5s play in different direction, and generally there are hardly 2 consecutive holes playing in the same direction, so the course plays great in almost any wind. The way the course flows in and out of ocean, bushes and wide open spaces is simply magnificent and probably makes it the most varied course I've played so far.
One thing that is unique to NSW are the bunkers. Most of them are sod-wall pot bunkers, but recently the club restored sandy, "natural" blow-outs which are NOT raked. Both the pots and the blow-outs are places you don't want to get into. Whenever I found such a blow-out, I hardly got it out because you seem to always get a bad lie in them.
Weaknesses? not really, although the greens are not too imaginative, approaches 13 and 16 are a liiiittle similar and the contrast of yellow couch-grass fairways and lush, green bent-greens looked a bit strange. That said, the fairways played nicely firm&fast while giving the average player the possibility to get his wedge under the ball.
But who cares about weaknesses if there are 10 times as many strengths that make up to it? Just get out and have some fun on the links, and NSW's
adventurous routing and
great holes certainly give you that fun.
The first , a 293 (278) metre, par 4 is a nice opening hole with a diagonal ridge that you can carry whereever you dare. The most aggressive line is over the cluster of bunkers which guard the inside of the hole, but the green is severely elevated and a short pitch might be harder than a full wedge. Sorry I didn't get a decent pic of No. 1. The tee shot is actually more diagonal, this pic is taken from the fairway.
There's been a lot of criticism on the 2nd, a 184 (165) metre par 3, but I couldn't figure out exactly what's wrong with it. A testing long iron to an elevated, angled green bunkered left and with a sharp drop off right.
In fact the only hole I didnt really like (might be because I made Quadtriple-bogey...) was the third, a par 4 of 380 (342) metres. A blind tee shot that doglegs almost 90 degrees to the left at an odd distance. The seconf shot is played uphill to a green bunkered short on both sides. For the average player, there is a lot of room, so I thought I'd play a safe long iron through the gap only to find a nasty, lonely bush.
This pic was taken from the 8th green and does NOT show the real angle of approach, which is more from the left. A great skyline green.
The fourth is a long straight par 4, the further you go, the more your tee shot is encroached by bunkers and the more you see of the flag. The green slopes left to right.
This is one of the natural sandy hazards that have been restored, on the right side of the 4th. Sorry, no good pics of the hole.
The famous 5th is probably the best par 5 I've ever played as it's both a strategic delight and of spectacular beauty. The hill can be carried, but lay-up is much safer and plays to a wide fairway that's shared with the 7th....The front part of the fairway is hidden by bushes, making the shot look more difficult than it is, and tempting more players to attempt the carry.
Once over the ridge, this is the view that waits....
Looking across the 7th fairway, 13th green and 14th hole....
The one-shot 6th is a another hole that combines great strategy with beautiful scenery. The ocean on the left gets most players to play to far right, which they think is safe. The green slopes extremely right-to-left and anything right of the greenwill have a really, really tough approach. There iis about 20 metres of space between the green and the ocean and while it looks dangerous, the chip or pitch is much easier from there. This pic is the view from the rear of the green towards the championship tee out on the rocky island. Make sure you play off that tee!
The drive at the 7th is a bit of a respite, as the fairway is bowl-shaped and gathers everything slightly off-line towards the middle. The 2nd shot thoguh is one of the hardest on the course. Starkly uphill, long, mostly into the wind, to a false-fronted, tricky green...This is the view from the tee with the tumbling 5th fairway at the right and the 7th fairway on the left.
Looking back the 7th, revealing the shared fairway with the 5th (the wide lay-up area I was talking about at the 5th)
The 8th is a great par 5 with a ridge at over 300 metres, which is virtually impossible to carry but still makes you think. A long drive simply smashed out towards the fairway will be blocked by the ridge and sandwiched between two bunkers, so the smart play is a lay-up.
The sandy blow-out to the right of the 8th fairway with the ridge;
Once over the ridge, this is the approach to a nicely-framed, back-to front sloping green:
The 9th is a tricky par 4, with a fairway that feeds anything longer than 190 (or so) and shorter than 250 metres into one of those nasty blow-outs...
Hole number 10 is a shortish, straight par 4 and the farher you go, the more trouble awaits. As viewed from the 18th in the evening:
The 11th is the 3rd of 4great par 3s and plays about 149 off the tips to an exposed, well-bunkered and large green. The intimidating bunker that guards the 12th fairway is directly in line....
The 12th follows the same strategy that the 5th possesses, with either a dangerous carry over a ridge bringing the green into reach or a safe lay-up with a troublesome 2nd.
Looking back n°12 (it was windy...):
Hole number 13 is a great par 4, with a bite-as-much-off-as-you-can strategic tee shot and one of the most spectacular approaches in the world to a right-to-left sloping green.
I strongly recommend playing off the back tee of the 14th, as there is a much cooler "Cape" angle to the tee shot. The fairway gathers everything that just makes the ridge at any point and the approach is played to a rather exposed green. There is a really cool back-right pin position which will be interesting to watch at the 2009 Australian Open, held here.
The 15th is a penal hole with the tightest fairway on the course. A tee shot that goes about 210 metres will make the green visible, but the 2nd shot has to be navigated across rolling humps and bumps. Looking back:
At the 16th, you need a solid drive to make it to the corner of the dogleg, from where you are presented with many options to approach the green. Approach as viewed from the 12th fairway:
The 17th may not be the longest, but into the wind it is the hardest par 3 on the course. The tee-shot is deceiving, as the sandy blow-out hides about 30 metres of fairway between it and the green.
The blow out can be frustrating for some players...
This is how much space there is between bunker and green: The green has sharp drop-offs to the left and right, and into the wind, you need a dead straight shot to stay safe.
The 18th is a little bit over-bunkered, but still a good strategic finioshing par-5 for an Australian OPen. As viewed from the 10th green:
And close-up from the 11th tee with Sydney Skyline in the backround:
For more details go to Ran's review!
Cheers,
Emil