Chris,
I was a little hesitant to post my thoughts here given the potential for it to be seen as a biased view. I really don’t think I provide a colored point of view on the course, and I’m qualified to give an experienced player’s perspective – so here goes. Many of you will know that I’ve posted a lengthy review of The National Moonah here at GCA under the “My Home Course” section of the site. I’ve been playing the course, at least once a month since Opening day, several years ago. As a member, I was happy to see it rated highly, and to see so much positive press about the course.
It is a really good exercise to review all that now. Indeed, I’ve had great pleasure reading over Shane’s original post, to which Chris refers. I’d joined GCA after Shane’s original post, so it has been nice to review all that information. Anyway – to the course. Firstly, I must say, that mention of Royal Melbourne in the same discussion is just not right. The courses are both big in scale, but that’s about it. Royal Melbourne West is one of the greatest courses on earth, with East also being a genuine national asset. Some may argue that Moonah is probably a bit over-rated in the nation’s top ten. I think it’s pretty close to where it should be with regard to standing / reputation in this country.
The collection of par 3’s at Moonah leaves some flat – a sentiment I can understand. I personally like most of them, and can’t see how people don’t rave about #5. Positioned at the high point of the property, and usually requiring a lofted club, it’s played in a prevailing crosswind. One must either elect to hit a low punch that grips the green, or skips to the hole, or play a lofted shot, and hold their nerve when starting the ball over trouble. The hole features good bunkering, and a good green boasting some subtle and not-so-subtle movement. Plenty of options around the green for the up and down play too. The vista is great from the green, with several neighboring holes, and Bass Straight all visible. It is not as visually striking from the tee as #8, but I don’t perceive that as a weakness.
Many are critical of the long slog home, from 14 on. I appreciate this perspective. All play pretty much into a prevailing southerly, or with such a wind from a hurting quarter. They are predominantly long par fours, and a 510m par five, which often make one happy to survive with bogey, and move to the next tee. This little black duck has come through that stretch 2 better than par (with a h’cap of 10 at the time), when the north wind was blowing. Interestingly, that day saw the front nine play really hard. So, the course is elastic. One must post a score on the front side with a southerly blowing. Intended strategy or design weakness? I can think of lots of great courses where routing dictates such an approach to scoring.
I think Norman and Harrison design good par fives on the whole. The only really weak shot on any of them is the second on #12, as Brian Walshe said a while back. Part of that is due to the Club’s loss of an appeal to local council to have the maintenance facility located elsewhere on the property.
The absence of a short, tempting par four is disappointing. There is no denying that. A trip around the sandbelt leaves one craving such a hole at Moonah. Bunkering is very good, as are many green settings. There are two or more choices off the tee at every par four and five.
As Justin Ryan typed last year, the third is a great hole, with a very interesting diagonal feature in the landing area, and a bunker-less green, boasting great natural movement, and wonderful surrounds. The third is one of around a dozen holes I would be proud to have designed. In particular, I think holes 2,3,5,6,8,10,11,15 are all very strong, and very enjoyable. As I wrote in my review a while back, the conditioning of the course is great, which makes for year-round enjoyable play. Moonah is a course, again as Brian noted, which reveals itself in stages, and one needs a few trips around, (in different winds especially), in order to make an informed assessment. Like most courses I suppose.
Moonah is a very, very good course. The hype was probably more than the course deserved. I suspect that the course will stay close to it’s subjective magazine rating of top ten, whenever the next tranch of publications is on the news stands. It will continue to draw me to play on a regular basis, despite the three hour round trip by car...
Matthew