New South Wales alternate green?

[David Stewart]

I was looking through Ran's New South Wales profile today and checking out the aerial on google maps. From the aerial, there appears to be an alternate green behind the 16th. I have never played it, and couldn't find any reference to this in previous threads. Is it just an alternate "19th hole" that could be played from the 15th tee?  Or does it have some other purpose? Thanks!

[Scott Warren]

Hi David,


It's a 19th hole. The tee is about 100m further south, just west of the 15th tee.


It's a really fun hole -- a back left plateau that's really tough to access and a front right bowl that's ripe for holes-in-one.

[David Stewart]

Hi David,


It's a 19th hole. The tee is about 100m further south, just west of the 15th tee.


It's a really fun hole -- a back left plateau that's really tough to access and a front right bowl that's ripe for holes-in-one.

Thanks Scott!

[Jason Topp]

A number of Australian Clubs seem to have an extra hole, presumably to allow the course to take a hole out of play for maintenance or other purposes.  Generally they seem to be par 3's and often the holes are of high quality (see Kingston Heath).  Not many American clubs have such a hole.

Should the practice be more common over here?

[James Bennett]

They are the A-holes Jason.

Lost Farm has a 13A and an 18A.
Royal Adelaide has a 17A.

It is a long list.

James B

[John Mayhugh]

A number of Australian Clubs seem to have an extra hole, presumably to allow the course to take a hole out of play for maintenance or other purposes.  Generally they seem to be par 3's and often the holes are of high quality (see Kingston Heath).  Not many American clubs have such a hole.

Should the practice be more common over here?

This may be unfounded, but when I was in Aus I began to wonder if having the alternate hole makes it too easy to make alterations. Norman's activities at NSW are the first thing that comes to mind.

[Mike_Clayton]

John,


We built the spare holes at Kingston Heath,Metro and Victoria.


Metro and KH built theirs because over a few years they were regressing greens. Metro's hole was a restored hole lost in the 1960s. KH played temporary greens on the 4s and 5s but there was no way to make them on the short holes. We are redoing the 19th how - moving the green a little to the left. Given it's now a part of the tournament course it need to be a better hole - something close to the quality of the other three.


Victoria built their to double as a practice chipping area and it's been in play all year because they are redoing the driveway and car park - and with the opening hole playing along the driveway it was deemed to be unsafe.


Woodlands,Royal Melbourne and Yarra Yarra also have spares - although they rarely seem to be in play - not compared with the other three anyway.