Australia--Much More Then The Other Side Of The World

[laddy]

Seeing the sandbelt and the rest of (worthwhile) Australian golf does not require three weeks.  Two weeks would do justice to the region, provided you're willing to play 36 a day, and are there for the golf, not extraneous sightseeing

(in no particular order)
Day 1: Royal Melbourne West, Royal Melbourne East
Day 2: Kingston Heath, Victoria
Day 3: Commonwealth, Yarra Yarra
Day 4: Metropolitan, Huntingdale
Day 5: Royal Melbourne West again, Woodlands
Day 6: Ranfurlie, Peninsula North
Day 7: National Moonah, Portsea
Day 8: (St Andrews Beach, Gunnamatta and West courses)
Day 9: fly to Sydney, New South Wales
Day 10: Newcastle (two hour drive), fly to Adelaide
Day 11: Royal Adelaide, fly to Melbourne, fly to NZ
Day 12: travel, Paraparaumu Beach
Day 13: travel, Cape Kidnappers
Day 14: Back to the free world  



I agree with your list of courses to play, HOWEVER!  How can you make a list for Australia and New Zealand and not mention Kauri Cliffs (49th in the world).  The fact that you mention Cape Kidnappers, that isn't even built yet and still has quite a bit of work before it is ready.  I won't even start with Paraparaumu.  If you send people there over Kauri Cliffs then obviously you haven't played Kauri Cliffs or even researched it.  I think you need to travel around New Zealand a bit before you start preaching the gospel.

[Mark_Huxford]

Laddy,
CK will be open to the public in the early days of January. It's a home run for sure.

Don't know about Kauri Cliffs but I would love to be able to compare it to CK one day. The first of anything is always worth studying.

Intrigued by your thoughts on why you won't even start with Paraparaumu. I'm probably sympathetic, but do elaborate.

[Damian Fanthom]

Kauri Cliffs, which I had the pleasure of playing late last year, is a magnificent course, if somewhat expensive.

However, they don't let too many people on each day and from memory there is about 25-30 minutes between each group on the course.

Paraparaumu is a very interesting links course, although I found it rather short, certainly by modern standards, nonetheless well worthy of a visit.

DF

[Andrew Summerell]

Paraparaumu is definitely worth it on the way home, especially for the historical reference. If you have just played RM you will want to play Paraparaumu, as they both have design features from Alex Russell.