Cathedral Lodge

[Kevin Pallier]

Having recently played Cathedral Lodge - I thought I would share my views with GCA ers.

Cathedral Lodge is a secluded private golf course two hours NE of Melbourne CBD. It is owned by David Evans, a merchant banker who lived every golfers dream by establishing a golf course on his own property.

I am led to believe membership at Cathedral Lodge will be capped at around 150-200 people. David engaged the services of Greg Norman to design him a course that he hopes might host a pro tournament one day.

Cathedral lodge is probably the most “restrained” Norman design I have seen. Unlike the layout Norman (& Harrison) built for the Packer family at Ellerston where close to 100 bunkers were created and dominate the layout, Cathedral lodge has one third that and most of those are on the B9.

Comparisons with Ellerston will undoubtedly occur though they are two completely different designs. Whereas Ellerston was built to be a strong and demanding test of golf Cathedral Lodge is built with the member golfer in mind with around four sets of tees on each hole. Ellerston’s holes snake across a mix of flat and undulating land throughout its property. Cathedral Lodge on the other hand moves into a large canyon with a ridge running through it. Cathedral Lodge’s fairways are very large and many of them are shaped to funnel the ball to specific areas. Like Ellerston, the designers have used natural creeks to flank and cross in front or behind many of the holes.

Cathedral Lodge has an interesting layout with five P3’s and five P5’s and some short P4’s with very testing greens.

The course officially opened only a few months ago and was in very good condition. The region where Cathedral Lodge is located had over 300mm of rain the week before I played it and you wouldn’t have known as there were only a few wet patches on the fairways.

It is 6,330m (6,924 yards) long from the back tees.


1st = P4 (309m) "Mulligan": wide fairway with common single Norman tree located in middle of the landing zone. Angled green with steep dropoff back and one large bunker right

[Kevin Pallier]

2nd = P3 (198m) "Box Gum" = I'm not a big fan of this hole as for mine there isn't enough area of a "safe miss" for such a long hole. The ground in front of the green short is deceiving as it cambers left towards the hazard.The is absolutely no room whatsoever for a miss left and the only "safe miss" is long right. I believe more long grass should be cleared short and left to improve this hole. The worst P3 on the course IMO.

[Thomas Dai]

Reminds me of some Tom Roberts paintings, only with a golf course in the middle!
Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to seeing the rest.
atb

[Kevin Pallier]

3rd = P4 (402m) "Cathedral" = very wide fairway with first bunker an ideal target off the tee. A deep greenside bunker front centre / right will capture weak shots into the green.

[Kevin Pallier]

4th = P3 (140m) "Fallen Snag" = the green is benched into a hill - I didn't mind this hole. Do not be afraid to go long as the grassed banks can feed the ball back towards the green. Definitely do not be short as the ball go down the steep slopes leaving an awkward uphill chip

[David Davis]

Kevin,


Thanks for posting this interesting tour. There is a fair bit of talk of this course now amongst my friends in the Melbourne golf arena. Seems a decent track though most don't feel it's going to crack the Aussie Top 10. Which of course would not be a shame given the strength of the competition.


Really enjoying the tour and your candid comments. Look forward to the rest of it.


Norman seems to lean towards fairly penal design preferences and from some of your comments this course seems to follow suit so far to a certain degree.


Regards,


David

[Adrian_Stiff]

I have been looking forward to seeing the pictures of Cathedral Lodge. My first thoughts are it is a little bit of a wasted opportunity. The routing looks sympathetic but the bunkering does not quite fit for me. Though only 4 holes gone, I might change my mind but I am thinking the architect selection might not have right given the site.


What is the soil? What is sown on the greens and fairways? Does it play F&F?



Still looking forward to seeing 5-18. Thanks Kevin for the pics.

[Mike_Clayton]

I'm interested to see the pictures of 6 and 7 with the unique feature of playing 6 then driving off the 7th tee straight back down the 6th fairway.
There have been a lot of things tried in architecture over the years but surely a first?

[Kevin Pallier]

Norman seems to lean towards fairly penal design preferences and from some of your comments this course seems to follow suit so far to a certain degree.

David,


CL is actually the most restrained Norman course I've seen. I've played 12 Norman (Harrison) designs in Australia and CL - other than a few holes - is the most "playable" design for all levels of golfers.


Having played Ellerston which is by far his most penal design IMO - CL is at the other end of the spectrum.


By way of comparison - Ellerston has around 100 bunkers and I believe CL doesn't even have 30. 4 holes at CL are bunkerless. Norman has really tapped into providing chipping areas in this design.

[Kevin Pallier]

What is the soil? What is sown on the greens and fairways? Does it play F&F?

Adrian,


It's on clay. I cant recall the specific grasses - but I think the fairways were Santa Ana and the greens bentgrass.


F&F not really - though one can use the ground / slopes to shape balls into various greens.

[Kevin Pallier]

I'm interested to see the pictures of 6 and 7 with the unique feature of playing 6 then driving off the 7th tee straight back down the 6th fairway.
There have been a lot of things tried in architecture over the years but surely a first?

Mike


Very unique - only a private course like CL with a small number of following players could possibly get away with it.


Royal West Norfolfk has a few criss-crosses but not like CL. Our group of players stayed in the middle of the fairway on 6 and waited for the group in front of us to finish putting out and teeing off on 7. I can tell you from personal experience - it a necessity to do so as shots really do cross paths. 

[Kevin Pallier]

5th = P4 (250m) "Norman’s Climb" = I think this will become one of the most talked about holes at Cathedral Lodge as it has a VERY STEEP uphill climb.


I heard a lot of effort has gone into this hole by Norman reshaping and rejigging same.


Basically, one can use any club off the tee (with the exception of a putter!) There are in essence two landing zones and pretty much all balls will feed directly into catchment areas.  One bunker protects the green which is quite small.


I respect the fact that Norman chose to route the course up a ridge to get to land on the other side but I think he could have built a better hole by traversing diagonally across and up the ridge.

[Kevin Pallier]

6th = P5 (567m) “Ray’s Paddock” = after the steep climb of the 5th Norman created a tee for the 6th that has a wonderful vista over the property. A downhill drive to a wide cambered fairway it also intersects with the 7th fairway. A large lone bunker protects any approach that is attempted from the left with a small creek right flanking the last 150m to 200m of the hole.

[Kevin Pallier]

7th = P4 (437m) ”The Pines” = is Index 1 for a reason – it is by far the hardest hole on the course.
The tee is situated behind the 6th green and given it’s a private course that won’t have the volume of following groups the routing can get away with that.
The shared fairway bends and narrows to the left. The golfer is then faced with a long shot across the creek with trouble right and a green placed hard against a natural hill. It’s a long narrow green with a crop of Pine trees as a back drop.

[Tim Leahy]

Really looks like the foothills of Northern California in late summer.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Looks like the Costa del Sol to me.


Flagsticks are nice.

[Sean_A]

Jeepers....seriously heavy rough with fairways that don't look terribly wide and are sloping and (I bet) battered by wind. 

The course looks okay though...in a refreshingly toned down sort of way.

Ciao

[Kevin Pallier]

Sean A


The pictures dont do the fairways justice - they are wide and tilted more often than not to assist funnelling the ball away from the rough

[Kevin Pallier]

8th = P5 (532m) “Graeme’s Paddock” = has a bunker left for no reason other than a sighter IMO. The fairway moves and narrows downhill to a creek that crosses in front of the green. The green itself is very wide with not much depth.

[Kevin Pallier]

9th = P3 (200m) “The Washout” = unlike the long 2nd this downhill P3 has a “safe miss” area short or right.

[Kevin Pallier]

10th P4 (336m) “Andrea’s Creek” = a dogleg left the fairway is quite large and cambers strongly to the left. The 2nd shot is uphill to green that is tiered. One warning – don’t go left of the green as the ground falls away steeply.

[Kevin Pallier]

11th P4 (498m) “Rock Face” = is the shortest P5 on the course. I quite liked this hole as the aptly named natural rock face provides an interesting contrast and target off the drive. The second shot bends and narrows downhill to the left. The green is unbunkered and is sent against the creek.

[Kevin Pallier]

12th P4 (288m) “David’s Hole” = has an extremely large fairway for reasons I am unsure. The green is very tricky and slick.

[Kevin Pallier]

13th P4 (383m) “Bunker” = has the most bunkers on the course 5 in total most of which are close to the green. This hole doglegs left and has no room for error long.

[Kevin Pallier]

14th P5 (541m) “The Nose” = is a relatively flat P5 with only one bunker on it. That lone bunker is situated greenside left with a creek protecting the right side of the hole all the way to the green.