New South Wales was a course that I fell in love with during my teens and early 20s - Sydney's only world class course (at the time - I hear Mike Clayton's new course at The Lakes is in the discussion) and one I was fortunate to play once or twice each year.
Then I went overseas and saw so many great courses that often in the back of my mind would be: "what if I get home and NSW doesn't live up to what I thought it was?".
Yesterday I got the chance to look at it for the first time with some perspective on board and the result was the opposite: I have an even greater affection and respect for it than ever before.
It posesses more "weak" holes than many other courses I'd rate alongside it - the new 18th built in 2008 by Greg Norman's design firm is far poorer in my view than the hole it replaced and out of character with the rest of the course, the 2nd green complex is inappropriate for a hole of 185m on a windy site, the 12th is perhaps a bit too similar to the 5th/8th (5th with wind assisting, 8th with wind hurting) in shot requirement but weaker than both and the drives on 13 and 16 are not all that engaging...
BUT
By the same token it boasts more thrilling shots than many courses of its ilk. The 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th holes all present shots as engaging and exciting as any course I have played. Just as noteworthy are the 11th, approach to 13, 14th, 15th and 17th.
The course is also extremely elastic, with the shifting wind directions all accommodated thanks to the ample width present. That being so, many of the longer holes could perhaps use a bit more interest on the drive in the form of the waste bunkers that have begun to be utilised around the course. It would be nice in a few instances (3, 13, 16) to have something a bit less fatal than the native vegetation flanking the fairways to challenge with your drive. And while I enjoy a course having restraint when it comes to fairway bunkering, there aren't the natural features in a couple of spots to render a bunker as unnecessary.
The waste areas on 4, 9, 10 and 12 add greatly to the course and as fairway hazards offer a greater chance to advance the ball or even go for the green than pot bunkers, which feature in the 1st, 10th and 18th holes - though there is a plan to remove the LHS fairway bunker on the 10th and replace that area with waste, which will tie into the waste on the LHS of the 9th. The waste areas are also a welcome addition aesthetically.
Some pics and thoughts about those shots and holes mentioned above:
The tee shot on the 3rd has recently seen some clearing on the ridge 50m in front of the tee. Love it or hate it, you can't say this isn't memorable. It won't appear so on the first few plays, but the shot is a fairway wood drawn off the leftmost of the two trees you can see sticking up to the left of the path. It's a terrifying shot and one that demands you commit to the swing - far too easy to go in with second thoughts. If you don't want to commit, there is an area the size of a cricket field (two football fields) to hit into down the right, but then you leave a mid to long iron into a skyline green. The ballsy golfer will have a wedge.
Here's the approach showing a ball in the ideal spot following a gutsy - or lucky - drive.
Viewed from the 8th fairway shows just how pulpit-like the greensite is, sitting up above all else around it.
The green has some of the most movement on the course, but is to be reshaped late this year when the greens are resurfaced. The view is the first of many on the course that take your breath away on a clear day.
This waste area down the right of the 4th shows how mantural these areas look and in this instance it guards my preferred line in, particularly in the prevailing summer north-easterly.
The approach to the 5th, which could be a 4i for your second to the par five, or in different wind maybe a mid iron third shot. The land and bunkering short is really cohesive - rewarding a long approach played with a draw to use the land and avoid the traps and protecting the preferred lay up down the left.
The par three 6th. Aesthetically, it could be better. As a golf shot, it's wonderful. A cut needs to fly all the way there, but a narrow avenue short right, adjoining the fronting grass bunker, allows a draw to run onto he green.
The 7th runs back uphill to the wildest green on the course, cpmplete with false front. It can often demand a long iron approach, with lots of slopes to work the ball off.
The 7th green (photographed from the 5th fairway) also offers a range of recovery options.
The 9th green is another that has recovery options aplenty, and the right kind of internal movement for the short approach you will have.
A tree was recently removed on the left of the 10th that has improved the hole immeasurably. You can also see where the bunkering will be altered into waste area, which can be carried for the best line in from the left-hand side.
The par three 11th, a slight dropshot with an expansive view over the course. This may be a case of seeing something that isn't there just because you want to, but I see a variation on Braid's par three template of a mid iron shot to a green surrounded by bunkers. In this instance the bunkers flank the green and the front hazard is a false front and at the back the green falls away steeply as well. A brilliant hole with an expansive view to boot!
The approach to the 13th, an example of the wonderful elasticity. It challenges equally the golfer armed with a wedge decising whether to loft the ball up into the wind or try for something lower and also he with a 4i in hand looking to run the ball up the slight slope short of the green and working R-to-L with the land.
The dogleg left 14th is just a tick over 300m. The drive offers three distinct options on how to encounter the ridge that runs across the fairway, a longer carry the further left you play as well as the miss short of the steep ridge being punished progressively more harshly the further left your line. Line A leaves less than 60m, B is more like 100 and C, with some kick off the back is likely be around 130m.
This shows the ridge from 45 degrees right of the line of the tiger tee, illustrating the role of the ridge, looking up the the bunkerless green perched up high.
The 14th green viewed from the 15th tee, showing the grass hollow short right.
The 15th tee shot is as terrifying as they come. Fairway corridor or lost ball, and if you don't hit it 220m, the second is blind and more than 180m. However, if you can hit a draw the corridor plays much wider than its width.
The par three 17th. Steep fallaways either side of the green are hidden from view at the tee, and as one of the highest points on the course, the wind is almost always a factor. The 16th is also a tough hole (long dogleg left par four through the vegetation to a well-bunkered green benched into a hill), which means 15-17, playing to a par of 11 is more like a par 12.5 for even the mid-single-figure player.
So that's that - the course I love so much. Great golf courses need memorable shots, variety (even within the one hole), challenge (that isn't always built on length) and fun. NSWGC has them all in spades. The more great courses I saw overseas I began to doubt - relying on memory - that NSWGC deserved to be spoken about alongside the Royal St Georges, Walton Heaths and North Berwicks of the world, but having revisited it, I'm more certain than ever that it belongs.