Around Tasmania in 801 holes

Elderslie Golf Club

2012-01-07T21:02:00.001+11:00

Uncle Bob asked me over Christmas if I'd like a round at his home course, Now Bob is not his real name, it's a clever alias to disguise his real identity (Robert Bailey). The reason for keeping his identity secret is because of an embarrassing incident that affected both him and his son (Sean). Obviously this information is confidential so you must promise not to tell anyone or post it on an Internet page that will have more than 5 views (I think I'm safe). These incidents happened independent of one another at the new KFC at Claremont. Both guys drove their cars through the drive-through the wrong way. Sean got his food ok but did think it was a little weird that he had to order through the passenger side window. Bob (luckily an uncle by marriage) repeated this the next day. Anyway, back to golf.

Elderslie is a well kept course a short drive from Hobart's Northern Suburbs making it a popular 9 hole club. The course has a similar look and feel to Tea Tree although I've always felt Elderslie's greens are very good for a 9 hole course.

Elderslie is a par 70, 5255m course with different tee boxes for each nine. Not many of the holes are drastically changed by the different tee markers though.

I played with Bob, Donny and Dave and drew Bob as a partner for a tattslotto ticket. The fact that Bob was my partner may have been hard to pick on the 8th hole when he dropped his club in the middle of my swing. I was 2 over at the time with a three putt included but proceeded to dunk the shot in the creek. I finished the front nine with two doubles and never fully recovered from the intra-team sledge.

I bogied the 10th hole (pictured) but parred all the other holes until the 18th. At this stage my ball decided it had had enough for the day and headed to the right hand car park (for the second time that day). My second ball went hard left and finished under a car. I was given relief which didn't cost $5. I made a 2nd ball par to have 38 on the back nine and 79 overall. I ended up hitting only 5 greens for the day and had 28 putts. This was the first time I broke 80 for months and if I didn't have a short game I would've had some really ugly scores during this time.

Worst shot: Too many to mention but my tee shot on the 16th nearly ended up in the clubhouse. The fact I have a picture of it means it gets the nod as worst shot of the day.

Best shot: probably the wedge I hit on the 2nd to 6 feet but I don't have a picture

Best hole: The 410m par 4 fifth hole is a difficult hole that deserves its hardest hole ranking. There is trouble down both sides and a difficult green awaits.

Worst hole: The 9th is the worst in my opinion. This might have something to do with the fact that I regularly go out if bounds on this hole, but doing so is a quick way to ruin a good round.

Tasmania Golf Club - round review

2011-10-14T14:55:00.001+11:00

I'll do a full review of Tasmania Golf Club, my home course, soon. But for now, here is a synopsis of a round with my workmates who also featured in the Pittwater review.

_____________________________________________
From: Hugo, Darryn C
Sent: Friday, 3 December 2010 2:20 PM
To: Patterson, Brett D; Fielding, Hugh L
Subject: re: Golf notes

Hi Patto,
I can confirm that the below is a fair and accurate representation of the golf round.
Good golly you can play golf.

Thanks for the opportunity of letting me play with you and for taking the time out to let some of your greatness rub off on me.

Darryn (the Pete Sampras lookalike)
_____________________________________________
From: Patterson, Brett D
Sent: Friday, 3 December 2010 2:06 PM
To: Hugo, Darryn C; Fielding, Hugh L
Subject: Golf notes

Hi,
I'll add our round to my blog over the Christmas break but thought it would be wise to jot down some notes while it still fresh in my mind.
I'll expand upon these when it come time to write the full blog, but can you endorse this as an accurate (but brief) representation of the events of last night?

The game was 9 hole skins with Darryn receiving a shot per hole (handicap = 9 for 18 holes), Hugh was to get 5 shots (holes 1,2,5,6,8) and Brett 3 (1,2,6)

Hole 1
Darryn: Carved it right. Tree trouble. Not in contention.
Hugh: Used local knowledge. Straight down the middle. On the green. Easy two putt.
Brett: Pin high drive but well right. Desperately unlucky that his great pitch shot from a sandy lie didn't bite when it hit the green and ran off into a bunker. Deliberately caught the bunker shot heavy and then chipped well past the hole to lull the other players into a false sense of security.
Result: 1 skin to Hugh with a nett/gross 4

Hole 2
Darryn: Nice fade into A1 position off the tee. Online but short for 2. Chipped past and took 5.
Hugh: Used local knowledge. Nice fade into A1 position off the tee. Pulled left of the green for 2 but fair recovery. Missed putt and took 5.
Brett: Lovely straight hybrid off the tee. Blocked an 8 iron into the bunker. Well executed bunker shot and once again decided that missing the putt was the better play in order to share the money.
Result: 1 skin to Darryn with a nett 4 (gross 5)

Hole 3
Darryn: Did not even attempt the hole as it was designed to be played and went well right which in my opinion reflects on his man-brand. Fair 2nd and 3rd shots. Stopped watching in any great detail but somehow he makes nett 5.
Hugh: Used local knowledge. Fair drive over the corner onto the fairway. Skarky 2nd shot gets caught in the rough and only travels about 80m. Blocked 3rd shot followed by a fat and Hugh is pretty much a non-contender. Lucky I gave him the 1st really.
Brett: Towering drive over corner of dogleg into LHS of fairway. Not wanting to make Hugh feel bad, pretended to top his hybrid near to Hugh's 2nd shot. 3 iron 3rd shot with a draw somehow found the right bunker probably due to a freak gust of wind that couldn’t be anticipated even by the great Jack Nicklaus. Very solid bunker shot but couldn't make the putt.
Result: 1 skin to Darryn with a nett 5 (gross 6)

Hole 4
Darryn: Complained about his drive which went up the left into a very good position. Not sure what he was talking about. Admitted that he was lucky to get it onto the green from there and to be fair, it ran about 35 metres after landing. 2 putts for par.
Hugh: Used local knowledge. Drives into the right trees but his ball is found in the rough. Common theme for Darryn and Hugh. Nice 2nd shot behind the flag to about 15 feet. Two putt par.
Brett: Booming drive and a little pitch that bites too much and stays on the front of the green.
Result: 1 skin to Darryn with a nett 3 (gross 4)

Hole 5
Darryn: Pulled it left into the trees but surprised his playing partners when the ball was found on the fairway short of the green Didn't matter though as he drilled it over the green, not once but twice.
Hugh: Used local knowledge. Pulled out a wooden Dunlop 4 wood much to the delight of Darryn and Brett. Complained about it being short when in fact it was only about 8 feet from the flag, pin high. This was not to the delight of Darryn and Brett. Couldn’t convert (choked).
Brett: hybrid over the back of the green - must have landed on a hard spot but you can't anticipate that. Converts par.
Result: 1 skin to Hugh with a nett 2 (gross 3)

Hole 6:
Darryn: Trees
Hugh: Used local knowledge. Trees
Brett: Played the hole as it was designed with a hybrid followed by a wedge that somehow ends on the bottom tier when the flag was on the top. Rookie mistake leads to a 3 putt and the first halved hole.
Result: skin carries over to the 7th.

Hole 7
Darryn: Didn't watch his drive but his 2nd went well right of the green, 3rd went over. Can't remember the rest.
Hugh: Used local knowledge. Nice drive down the middle but to be fair I was in the trees so he could have kicked it out of the rough. 2nd shot was fairly close to the flag and I can’t really remember what happened next but he might have made birdie.
Brett: Blocked his drive towards the 6th but found it in a small clearing. Faced with trees in front and about 145m from the front of the green (according to Hugh who at this point I wasn't sure I could trust yardages with due to the amount of money we were playing for) I chose to punch cut a gripped down 5 iron. In what was agreed at the time and during the post mortem afterwards, this was the "shot of the night". With ants menacingly circling my ball and daylight fading fast, I punched the ball towards my target line with a slight fade. Even though I couldn’t see the flag, it did not surprise me when Hugh and Darryn lauded my shot making skills. Thanks boys.
Result: 2 skins to Hugh with a gross/nett birdie

Hole 8
Darryn went way left - non contender
Hugh: Used local knowledge. Went short right in what must be considered a brain fade. Somehow makes a long and testy putt for par
Brett hits the green in regulation (again) and lags his putt down near the hole for 2, tapping in for par.
Result: 1 skin to Hugh with a nett 2 (gross 3)

Hole 9
Darryn: Tree trouble left and punches out. Buoyed by Brett's shot (see below) puts his 3rd on the green behind the hole with a 9 iron. Misses putt.
Hugh: Used local knowledge. Tree trouble right and bails out onto the 10th. We don't see him until the green and he refuses to share information on his travels.
Brett: In a display of golf that hasn't been seen since the 1988 Tasmanian Open, Brett launches a drive near on 300 metres. His 7 iron tracks the flag and the ball finishes about 5 feet behind. Misses the putt as his mind wanders.
Result: chip off required to determine the last skin

Chip off
Despite not participating in the tied 9th hole, Hugh decides that he should be in the chip off.
Brett: Unlucky chip that teetered on the brink of the tier on the 9th green which was half a roll from inevitably going in the hole
Darryn: flukes a chip that hits a chunky caterpillar resting on the bottom tier, thus saving it from rolling off the front of the green.
Hugh: Used local knowledge. A respectable chip just outside of Darryn's.
Result: Darryn wins the last skin

Summary:
Darryn won $5 of the kitty, Hugh got $4 with the remainder going to Brett
No doubt the handicap allocations played a large part in determining the winner.
Future iterations of this skins event will no doubt see a change in the way the handicaps are provided with fewer strokes received by the longer handicappers in the group.

Shot of the night: Brett

Pittwater Golf Club

2011-10-12T21:08:00.002+11:00

The Course
Pittwater Golf Club
Par: 70 (nine holes - 35, 35) Length: 5449m
Green Fees: $10 (Sunday competition fee for visitors)

Pittwater is a made up name for what is really Midway Point, which itself is not a very inventive name for halfway across the Sorell causeway. Turn left at the roundabout where they sell fruit and vegetables on the side of the Tasman Highway but don't buy any yet - they'll go off in the car (remember to pick them up on the way back). The entrance to Pittwater Golf Club is not necessarily easy to find on your first attempt like other entrances that I've come across. Similarly, after driving hard for a while you might think you have gone past the entrance and feel like you're entering via the back passage. But don't worry, the dirt road will lead to the golf club and not the nearby sewage treatment facility. Surely there's no sexual innuendo intended in this paragraph.

Pittwater Golf Club is very picturesque and unlike a lot of other Tasmanian golf courses, it feels quite spacious. Another welcome surprise is the two par 5's which are not just rebadged long par 4's.

4th Hole. Par 3 158m

I had a nagging thought that I had played Pittwater when I was 12 or 13 in one of my first junior competitions although I couldn't quite remember it. All I had was a memory of a course where one hole went over the brow of a hill to a green next to a willow tree. For the first 6 holes I wasn't confident that I had played here before but when I was presented with the following view it was obvious to me that I had been here before. When I told my mum this the other day, she said "Oh yeah, I took you and Johnsy to Pittwater". How does she remember this stuff? Rainwoman.

7th hole. Par 4 279m, Memories ...

Most of Pittwater's holes have two tees, but only a couple of these make major differences to the holes the second time around. For example, the 10th is 25m longer than the 1st but given you have warmed up after nine holes your drive ends up around the same place (I acknowledge that this statistical analysis is based on a sample size of 1 which many statisticians will say is insufficient. To them I say "I have more friends on Facebook than you because I chose not to be a statistician"). The 15th tee looks like a relatively new addition to the course and while not as exciting as an island green, the "island tee" makes the hole much different to the first nine.

15th tee. Par 3 183m

All in all the course is very well presented and challenging. On the day I played the greens were in quite poor condition but I expect that they had recently been cored or scarified. I expect on a different day that Pittwater would be the complete 9 hole package. At 5449m I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it is one of the longer nine hole courses in Tasmania as they have a habit of being fairly short. Not many 9 hole courses seem to be par 70 or over especially where the par is well calculated (some nine hole courses have very short par 5's that should be par 4's etc.). I think if you lived in the area and didn't want to join an 18 hole course like Tasmania Golf Club then Pittwater would be a very attractive proposition. The Sunday competition is a good concept that should be modelled at other courses. Visitors are more than welcome and the competition fee is $5 for members and $10 for visitors including green fees. I certainly got my money's worth if the number of shots taken is how you determine value. If value is based on Stableford points then it wasn't worth it (I only had 27 points).

Best Hole
The 7th hole was the best in my opinion. A 279m par 4 which climbs up over the brow of a hill before a pitch shot to a green protected by a bunker with water on the left.

Worst hole:
There isn't really a standout candidate for worst hole. If I had to select one, I would choose the first which is a 305m par 4. Not that it's a bad hole - it's just that as a straightaway, relatively short par 4 it is the worst of a good bunch of nine holes.

The Round
18 holes
Date: 25 September 2011
With: Hugo's - Darryn and Fielding
Score: 84 (ugghh!) Greens: 8 Putts: 37

Dazzling Darryn the Pete Sampras lookalike invited Hugh and I down for a Sunday round at his course. I started off with 3 pars including par from below on the 3rd running a 5 iron around from 100m out.

2nd shot into par 4 3rd

A double bogey from waaaay right on the par 3 4th was a sign of worse things to come. If you picture a ball in the middle of the photo above, that's where my 6 iron shot ended up with the 4th green off to the right of the photo. I actually parred all the non-par 3's on the front nine but made double bogey on all three par 3's including a four putt on the 8th. 6 over at the turn and it was going to get worse.

I duck hooked my tee shot out of bounds on the 12th (3rd) and then my 2nd tee shot found this lie on the fairway. I got a flier from the gum tree (which naturally I put down to the eucalyptus oil interacting with the grooves of my Callaways) and sailed the green. Wipe.

4th shot into par 4 12th (after driving out of bounds)

My par 3 performance on the back nine was much better, playing them 1 over (vs. 6 over for the front nine). I actually managed to hit two of the greens (3 putting one) and got up and down for par on the other. So effectively I had a four ball best-ball score with myself of 1 over for the day with the 4th being the only hole I didn't par. I could take from this that I was in control of all holes at least once, but you could also argue that I am was ridiculously inconsistent on this day. On greens that I am more familiar with I would have shot a fair score but I made no putts of any consequence and butchered many other attempts turning birdies into bogies (or worse).

Best shot
It's between two shots near the end of my round.

The first candidate was on the 183m par 3 15th where my 3 iron shot played into the wind was dragged left down to the 16th tee. A lovely old couple was on the tee asking how I was going to play the shot to the green that was some 20m above me. I explained that I would lob it and subsequently played it to a foot. Yay me.

The second was on the par 3 17th where we were faced with a blind tee shot because the flag was on the right hand side of the green.

I hit my tee shot to around 4 feet (see below) with applause forthcoming from the old couple mentioned above. I really am glad they weren't watching the rest of my round. Seeing as I missed the below putt, I'm going to nominate my best shot as my up and down from well below the 15th green (no photos of that one).

Worst shot
There are so many candidates for this including the duck hooked Out of Bounds on the 12th, the blocked 6 iron on the 3rd and the blocked 4 iron on the 6th. But I'm going to nominate 4 shots for worst shot of the round. More accurately 4 consecutive shots, being the 4 putts I had on the 8th green. I actually lagged my 1st putt from around 30 feet to 3 feet above the hole. From there I missed the down-hiller and the return, lucky to make the 4th putt really.

So in summary, not a bad course but a crap round. Not Pittwater's fault though - all mine. It's all about to change though with the TGC club championships coming up as I feel four good rounds coming. I have nothing to base this on but if I have to rely on skill and not divine intervention then my golf game is screwed.

Don't forget to buy your fruit and veg on the way back out.
Patto

Lost Farm (Barnbougle)

2011-01-31T22:40:00.003+11:00

Par: 72 (36, 36) Length: 5835m (2nd longest tees)
Not including two optional Holes: 2*par 3's (13a, 18a) - 110m and 105m respectively

Round summary (not including optional holes) -
Date played: 27 November 2010
Score: 79 (+7), Greens: 11/18, Putts: 33
Optional holes: Score: 6 (par), Greens: 2/2, Putts: 4

I first went to the Barnbougle Lost Farm course on a golf trip with the Masters group from Tasmania Golf Club. Ideally I would have played off the back tees to get the full experience of what this course had to offer, but due to the size of our group, the fact we were playing for money and the varying handicaps of the golfers, we played off the 2^nd from the back tees. The more I think about it, I reckon it was more a case of Stix being too scared to play off the back markers. I guess if you help to organize the trip then you can make rash decisions like this in order to offset the weakness in your long game (just kidding Stix, but I owe you a sledge or two).

1^st – Par 5 – 430 m

The first fairway at the Lost Farm is so ridiculously large that there is no way you can miss it. If you were bad enough to miss it left, there is a large amount of waste as you can see in the picture that you would end up in. Given this information, you’d have to wonder how Kubey could have been playing his second shot from the middle of the practice fairway to the left of the 1^st. After I found the fairway with my drive, I realised that a yardage book would be invaluable around this course. I’m guessing that yardages will be available along with GPS downloads at a later date (we played the course before its official opening). I spent the day (incorrectly) guessing clubs which detracted from my first round at this venue. On this hole I flew the green and plugged in the back left bunker. I chunked it out and two putted for a par.

2^nd – Par 4 – 300m

The 2^nd is a fairly straightforward hole compared to the rest of the Lost Farm holes. As long as you steer clear of the bunkers that are situated along this hole then an easy par should be no problem. Me? I hit it in the left bunker off the tee and made bogey.

3^rd – Par 4 230 m

Even though it is uphill, this hole is very reachable but trouble awaits right, left and short. If you are feeling a bit girly then you could easily lay up safe and play a short 2^nd shot up the tiered green. I’m sure that this would yield birdies and pars with very few bogies but that kind of play doesn’t sound fun to me. I have a rule when I play a golf course for the first time – no laying up. If you can reach a green, then you must go for it. I left the hole feeling pretty manly after running my driver into the right trees and taking my first Irish drop of the day. Result: A testosterone filled bogey.

4^th – Par 3 Bugger all metres (105)

I don’t like short holes. The 11^th at Claremont, the 7^th at Barnbougle Dunes, the 11^th at Tasmania, the 7^th at Kingston, the entire Bagdad Community Golf Course. I know if I had made bogey on the 4^th hole at the Lost Farm then I would have added this trivial hole to the above list. But seeing as I knocked it right at the flag and tapped in the very short birdie putt, I rate this hole right up there with the road hole at St Andrews, the 12^th at Augusta and the 17^th at TPC Sawgrass.

5^th – Par 4 – 380m

This hole steers you towards trouble off the tee and not knowing any better, I hit what I thought would be a safe draw which turned out to be the complete wrong strategy. Double bogey 6. This hole is a good, tough hole but I don’t think you should require prior knowledge before playing golf holes. I won’t the same mistake again, but that doesn’t get my two lost shots back.

6^th – Par 3 – 145m

I got one of my dropped shots back immediately on this hole as I put an 8 iron very close to the flag for a birdie and nearest the pin for the Masters group. As you can see from the picture, the very wide multi-tiered green is the major difference between a par and a dropped shot.

7^th – Par 4 – 360m

Despite what I previously said about not liking holes where prior knowledge is required, the 7^th does it well. All the information is presented to the golfer playing the course for the first time and they can then choose to attempt to carry the fairway bunker or play around it. I successfully took on the bunker leaving myself a short iron to the green and an easy par.

8^th – Par 5 – 545m

This is a tough three shot par 5 with different challenges on each shot. I played my second from the left hand side of the fairway as shown in the above picture. Both Bummer and myself pulled our second shots into what I assumed was deep bush but as luck would have it both our balls ended up in a clearing about a sand wedge from the green. Lucky par.

9^th – Par 4 – 300m

A fairly straight forward and relatively short hole but trouble lurks on the left. I can’t remember if it was intentional or subconsciously, but I bailed out to the right, towards the bunker, A pitch and two putts for a par rounded out the front nine.

10^th – Par 5 – 500m

This is a dogleg par 5, but the dogleg doesn’t really start until after the drive. I tried to chew a little bit off the corner and ended up behind the tree on the left hand corner in the picture below – making it a true 3 shot hole.

11^th – Par 4 – 390m

My good golfing mate Ben Button gave me some advice before I played this hole and it’s only fair that I relay it to you here. Ben said confidently “I walked this hole at a course superintendent’s day and it’s a [sharp] dogleg right”. Thanks heaps Ben – it’s really helpful to have a bit of knowledge prior to hitting a blind tee shot. I picked a line starting at the right set of poplars with a slight fade towards the sandy hill on the right of the picture. Smoked it!

Pity the intel' was totally wrong. I’m not sure if Ben got his holes mixed up, whether he sees things differently because he’s left handed or whether it’s because he gets younger as he ages. Either way, this hole is relatively straight and the driving-line is more like at the left group of poplars. So in summary, I blame Ben's advice, not my poor play, for turning a probable birdie into a triple bogey.

12^th – Par 5 – 435m

This was designated the easiest hole on the course on the day we played for stableford scoring purposes. It was on this hole that I had my first insight into what golfers on plus handicaps are faced with. I played with Kubey who was playing off +1 on this day. Basically when he stands on the tee on the easiest hole on a course in a stableford competition, he knows he has to make birdie just to get the standard 2 points. There’s an incentive not to improve beyond a certain point. Golf must suck when you’re that good. My aim is to get to scratch and if I go below then I will quit or only play stroke competitions. By the way, Kubey matched my par for 2 points with his birdie for 2.

13^th – Par 4 – 350m

If this hole was on any other course I’d probably write heaps about it, but compared to the other Lost Farm holes the 13^th is fairly non descript. It’s also fair to say that if I had made a birdie then I would have story to tell. I made bogey and I’ve got nothing to say.

13a – Par 3 – 110m

The first of the optional holes. I guess I’m a bit of a purist and think that golf courses should have 18 holes but if it wasn’t here then I wouldn’t have seen one of the funniest things I’ve seen on a golf course for some time. Kubey’s club “slipped” out of his hands after playing his wedge and he had to locate it in the bushes (see picture). There’s a reason that Barnbougle has the Irish drop rule but it only applies to golf balls and not clubs. Kubey was fortunate to firstly locate his wedge and secondly to get out of the thick bush, but not until he had fallen in up to his shoulders.

14^th – Par 4 – 240m

This hole is very driveable off the 2^nd from the back tees. I choked down on my driver and played a little fade with the ball finishing on the top tier (pin was at the front). I two putted for an easy birdie. It’s not necessarily a gimme birdie though with trouble to the left and right up near the green.

15^th – Par 3 – 160m

This par 3 (yes, another one!) is played right underneath the clubhouse windows and would make a great finishing hole. It’s downhill so this would normally mean a club or two less, but it’s into the prevailing wind so add a club or two. Subtract a club to factor in the adrenalin that is now flowing through your veins because of the crowd and add a club because your knackered from playing 15 holes (14 if you skipped 13a). Basically go back to the club you first thought of and hit that. I can’t remember what I played but it was probably a 6 iron and I two putted for a par.

16^th – Par 4 – 355m

This is a gentle dogleg to the right with trouble on the right. The green also opens up if you find the left hand side of the fairway. I found the right hand side of the fairway but fatted my second shot into the bunker that is situated well short of the green. I chunked the bunker shot and failed to get up and down, resulting in a disappointing double bogey.

17^th – Par 3 – 155m

Another par 3, another birdie for Patto. I managed to birdie three of the four conventional par 3’s at the Lost Farm (I made par on the two optional par 3’s). This was a nice change from my usual efforts on par 3’s which are historically my worst type of hole. My tip for this hole is to not be distracted by the trouble around the green. There is a lot of real estate on the green to aim for.

18^th – Par 4 – 365m

This is a very picturesque finishing hole heading directly towards the clubhouse on the hill. I know we played this course before it was officially opened but I could not find any kind of distance marker for my second shot. I had to guess the distance based on the scorecard but ballsed it up and only just got to the front of the green with the flag at the back, leaving myself with the longest putt possible in Tasmania. I knocked it just off the back of the green with my first putt which makes me wonder if I should count it a as a hit green statistic or not?

18a – Par 3 – 105m

Enough with the short par 3’s! This is a bit of a nothing hole so much so that many of the Tassie group didn’t even bother playing it. We accidentally found a better use for this hole before we teed off the first hole when we inadvertently thought it was a practice green.

Summary: The Lost Farm is a great course - don't get me wrong - but it's no Barnbougle Dunes. Admittedly I didn't play off the back tees and it wasn't very windy for Barnbougle, so I didn't experience the course at her toughest. I still think that the Lost Farm is a more polished but easier course than it's older brother (the Dunes course). I'm really only splitting hairs though. If I hadn't played Barnbougle Dunes then I would be raving about this course non stop. In my opinion Barnbougle Dunes and the Lost Farm are number 1 and 2 courses in Tasmania respectively - and by a long way. They are so different to anything else in the State - and probably anywhere in Australia - although I'll leave the latter call to someone with more interstate golf experience than myself.

The Lost Farm clubhouse was pretty impressive and the large windows show off the views of Bass Strait. Like any place with a roof though, it’s a great place to be when the unpredictable Tasmanian weather turns nasty. These two photos were taken 20 minutes apart.

Bothwell Golf Club (Ratho Links)

2010-07-01T16:03:00.001+10:00

The course
Ratho Links
Par: 69 (34,35) Length: 5130 (dubious) metres

Cool fact: Ratho is the oldest surviving golf course outside of the home of golf, Scotland.

It lies on the Ratho farming property in Bothwell which was settled in around 1822, which by Tasmanian and Australian standards is pretty damn old. It is currently 15 holes but is in the process of being redeveloped as a full eighteen hole course. Originally it was a 12 hole course, like Scotland's first golf course Prestwick (the home of the British Open for the first heaps of years). Originally six holes ran North and six holes ran South towards Bothwell from the shearing shed. Three of the Southern holes were abondoned after World War II and the other three South holes were lost when the Government put in a road and bridge into Bothwell. Three additional holes were added (the 4th, 5th and 6th) to the surviving six and there is quite a different feel to these, in my opinion. In the last few years (2000's) six new holes have been added apparently with the aim of reproducing the lost six. A further three will be added at some stage to complete the 18 holes although there was no evidence of any construction when we visited. There endeth the Ratho history lesson. A test on this subject will be held on Tuesday.

To get to Bothwell you head up the Midland Highway (or down if you are coming from the wrong direction) and turn left at the Melton Mowbray Hotel (or right if - ah forget it). Pull into the pub for a beer - you deserve it, it's been a long drive and what harm can one beer do? After finishing the shout, get your designated driver to take you the rest of the way to the golf course, or hitch a ride from a friendly local. You might be too pished to drive, but not to play some of your best golf, or darts, or 8 ball.

The first thing that strikes you when you step onto the course/farm is the fences around the greens. These fences are required to keep the greenkeepers (a.k.a. sheep) off the short stuff. Apparently the little fellas aren't trusted to operate the greens mower although they'd have to be better operators than my mate Matho first thing on a Saturday morning.

The annual Highland Championship is the time to play Bothwell. The middle of winter in the highlands of Tasmania on a links golf course is surely the way the Scottish intended golf to be played. In this event in years gone by you would play your first nine and come into the wood heated clubhouse for a home cooked meal and a couple of (few) drinks to prepare you for the back nine (I don't know what happens now the course has been extended). One of my best golfing memories occurred at Bothwell when we were in the clubhouse along with many drunken golfers (some finished, others in between nines and the rest yet to tee off) watching Kieran Perkins in his memorable 1500m gold medal swim in Atlanta from the outside lane.

The holes at Bothwell are quite short by today's standards and the fairways aren't really defined. As mentioned above, the 4th, 5th and 6th differ from the rest in the fact that they resemble "standard" golf holes. The course can be exploited with today's technology (any clubs post 1985). The back six holes are completely different. Firstly the greens aren't square and they don't have fences. Secondly these holes are built on a patchwork of paddocks, rather than one consolidated farm as is the case on the front side. In my opinion these holes do not complement the others and it appears to me as if it is an attempt to make a standard 18 hole golf course out of a golf links that is anything but standard.

Another blind tee shot to a patchwork paddock. This time it's the 15th.

That said, Bothwell has a candidate for the best local rule.

SHEEP: A ball striking a sheep on the course, may be replayed without penalty.

At other courses they protect the greenkeepers and if you hit one then you would expect some sort of penalty - maybe not the golfing kind.

The course is so unique that I think it deserves a quick hole by hole run through - something I haven't done for my other reviews.

1st. Blast a drive to a fairway that is wider than the 1st at St Andrews. Pitch and putt.

2nd. Driver, 7 or 8 iron to a green that backs onto the highway. Don't hit the cars.

3rd. Standard par 3 (except for the square fenced green and the fact it is bloody cold)

4th. Blind dog leg. 3 wood, pitch and putt.

5th. Blast a drive, pitch up the hill

6th. Very short par 4 - 3 wood. Slicers need to aim away from the highway. Used to alternate between a par 3 and par 4 for each nine.

7th. Very short par 5 - Blast a drive, hybrid or long iron.

8th. Very short par 3 - throw it on.

9th. 141m par 3, slightly uphill. Don't go long because it is out of bounds but don't leave it short because it is a very sloping two-tiered green. Don't be right or left either or you will be faced with a difficult chip. Basically it's a hole that will ruin your front nine.

There were no cards available in the clubhouse when we teed off so at the end of the first nine, we didn't know where to find the 10th tee. Luckily the greenkeeper (human variety) hollered out to us as we walked down the wrong road.

The peculiar par 5, 10th

10th. A blind tee shot where the fairway starts at about 250m after traversing a couple of fences and a road.

11th. Par 3, island-like green. There is no real place to miss the green if you decide to get it on (which you should because it is a par 3). The hole reminded me of Lara Bingle - Looks good at first but it really is a bitch.

The par 3 11th

12th. Yet another blind tee shot (getting slightly sick of them by now) with a short approach.

13th. And now for something completely different. Walk back to a nearby paddock just so you can hit out if it over trees. Weird much? It's a very short par 4 at 280m and suggests to me that they ran out of room.

The strange 13th tee

14th. Short par 3. Standard fare.

15th. Par 3. Another blind tee shot into the next paddock.

15th tee shot. Spot the flag. Hint: It's not on the immediate paddock.

Usually to complete a round of golf at Bothwell, you would replay the 1st, 2nd and par 5 7th. For the purposes of playing all the holes on Tasmania's golf courses I didn't think this was necessary. Instead we proceeded to load the clubs in the car and headed off to Barnbougle.

Best Hole

None of the back 6 - they are all quirky. I think the first hole is great because it reflects everything that is unique about Bothwell. There is a square green with a fence for starters. The fairway is non-existent and is just an open canvas but there is a fence crossing about 100 metres off the tee catching any mis-hit low drives.

Worst Hole

The 4th - The local rules forbid you going around the right hand side of the trees and makes you play the hole as a dogleg to the right. For someone like me who draws the ball, I'd prefer to go for the green with a high draw but the shot is too risky with out of bounds looming. Conversely when I play it as it is intended I inevitably end up in the reeds even when I try to play safe with an iron. Frustrating!

The 4th (arse)hole

The Round (15 holes)

Date: 30 April 2010

Score: 61 (+5) Greens: 8/15 Fairways: N/A Putts: 25

Bothwell was the first course on the inaugural trip of the CODJ3R Golf Club. Patto, Yabbi, Scooby and Godfrey the human wind sock were in the first group. Potts, Dave, JP and the Stallion were also in the first group as least for the 1st hole and a half before we split into the more traditional two groups.

1st tee - CODJ3R Golf Club (Est. 2010) - Note the matching shirts

Bothwell is a remote course so imagine the surprise that faced the couple who walked in the gate as a group of 8 hackers walked off the tee. I'm sure they expected a walk up start to a quiet and empty course but we did the right thing and let them through when they'd got their stuff together.

After chunking my approach short to the 1st, I pitched just past the hole and made the putt for the first par of the CODJ3R trip.

1st hole - up and down for par

As is my usual thing when I play a different golf course, I displayed much muppability and couldn't get up and down from next to the green, had 3 putts and didn't make birdie putts that I'd expect to have a good go at on a course I'm more familiar with. I wasted shots on 2, 3 & 6 by not making pars from right by the green, or on it in the case of the 6th.

After teeing off the 6th hole, we looked back down the 5th and saw our 2nd CODJ3R group. They were scattered left and right but (not) surprisingly none were in the fairway. 15 minutes later the 4 players had moved around 50 metres towards the green with some swapping sides of the rough.

Potts, the Stallion, Dave and JP lost on the 5th hole

I found myself at 5 over after 6 holes and finished the original front nine with 3 regulation pars for a 39 (par 34).

The greenkeeper told us on the way to the 10th tee, "I don't care if you're Tiger Woods, you won't reach the 10th green in two shots".

Challenge accepted.

Unfortunately there is now way of knowing where the hell to aim on the 10th the first time you play this course. We struggled to find the damn 10th tee, so obviously we were going to struggle with the finer details.

10th tee - where to aim?

After blasting a drive I found myself on a cross-road with my second shot partially blocked out by a tree. I elected to play my hybrid and squeezed it (quite accidentally) between the branches just short of the two-tiered green. Considering I lost a few yards dropping off the road and that I couldn't hit my fairway wood because of the lie, hitting this green in two shots is definitely achievable for longer hitters.

The undulating 10th green

We came up with a new rule for CODJ3R golf which should apply universally. You are not allowed to lay up the first time you ever play a hole. You must elect to play the hole as it was designed to be played and commensurate with your handicap (which ever is the lesser).

i.e. you must go for the green in two on a short par 5 the first time you play the hole even if you know you that laying up is the better option for your score. The next time you play it (e.g. the back nine on a 9 hole course) you can elect to lay up.

Putting this strategy into effect on the 11th I went for the green and even though it landed up there, it bounded off into the hazard. I was able to get up and down for a bogey.

I'd like to suggest that a lot of the hole yardages are wrong but it is just as likely that the the wind affects shots a lot more on this exposed and elevated course than at others. It was either that or the gutta percha balls we were using (kidding).

I drove into the rough on the blind tee shot on the 330m par 4 12th which isn't surprising as there is no guide as to where to hit from the tee. I pitched out of the heavy lie and ran it up near the hole for my first birdie of the back 6. After driving near the green on the 280m par 4 12th I only had a pitch to the pin that was perched on the top tier of this large and sloping green. I thought that I should experience all this hole had to offer by pitching well right and long to the bottom tier. Luckily I was able to two putt for a regulation par.

My drive on the 13th just short. My pitch finished behind the bunker.

After parring the 14th we walked to the difficult looking 15th which was 197m into a stiff breeze. I gripped down on my 1 hybrid knowing it was too much club, but I knew my 3 iron would get caught up in the wind. As a result of my indecision, I came out of my tee shot and splayed it out to the right by about a paddocks length (the standard Bothwell unit of measurement). After spotting my ball from the traditional paddock the green is on, I had to circumnavigate my way by running back to the tee paddock and up a nearby path, using landmarks for reference. For a 197m hole I reckon I traversed over 800m - in good time too.

So after only two 1 putts on the front side, I managed to have five 1 putts around the back (out of 6 holes). As usual for me, if I could get used to the local conditions more quickly I could have threatened par for the course.

Best shot

My pitch out of the rough on the 12th setting up birdie

Worst shot

The 40m pitch on the 13th that ended up 20m right of my target was a shocker as well as my tee shot on the 15th that went a good 50m right of the target.

Bothwell is a short course by today's standards, but don't try to force it as the course has some bite as well. I look forward to playing at the Australian home of golf again on a regular basis.

Royal Hobart Golf Club

2010-05-11T13:41:00.001+10:00

I've taken over a month to write this review after playing Royal Hobart in early April 2009.
"Why?" I hear you ask. Because I can't figure out how to review Royal Hobart Golf Club without offending the members. I want to be honest in my reviews so that people know that they can trust what I write. I don't want them to read like paid advertisements or sooky criticisms. It seems to me that so many golf course reviews on the internet are extreme one way or the other.

This is probably a good time to differentiate between a "golf course" and a "golf club".

Golf clubs are run on a golf course and they usually have the same name. Golf clubs are almost always affiliated with a golfing body such as Golf Tasmania. An examples of a golf club that has a different name to its golf course is Prospect Vale Golf Club which utilises the Launceston Casino golf course. Some courses, such as Barnbougle Dunes and Rosny Public Golf Course, do not have a golf club associated with them.

So armed with that information, here comes my hard hitting statement ...
In my opinion Royal Hobart Golf Course is one of the best courses in Tasmania - (no surprises there).
Conversely as a golf club it would rate down the lower end of the scale mainly due to its historically unfriendly establishment and generally unfriendly attitude to visitors. I know many people who are members there who seem very happy, but they are not looking from the outside in. Most of my feelings stem from my visits to the club as a junior in the eighties and things may well have changed since then.

In most cases the phrase "golf course" is interchangeable with "golf club" which happens when the club and the course are of equal standing. Conversely in the past Claremont has probably been a better club than a course. The players make the club and assessment is quite subjective depending on who the person is. A golf course stands on its own merits but opinion might differ between different levels of golfers or depending on the condition of the course (or weather) on the day. I guess that it can be hard to review a club based on a one-off visit such as what I will be doing for the majority of Tasmania's golf clubs. I think I've just talked myself into review golf courses, not golf clubs.

So let's review Royal Hobart Golf Course.
The course
Royal Hobart Golf Course (RHGC)
Par 72, 18 holes, 6133m

RHGC is located near the Hobart Airport and is dead flat. It is built on a sand base (rather than clay like most other Tasmanian courses) and has held Australian championships. Jack Nicklaus won the 1971 Australian Open at this course while it was the location for Brett John's triumph in the 1987 Australian Amateur. Royal Hobart is also the home course of Tasmania's Lindy and Mathew Goggin. The golf club has been in its current location near Seven Mile Beach since the 1950's. Prior to that it was located at Rosny which makes the phrase "Royal Rosny" seem somewhat less funny.

Most people who have played the course will remember the first hole which has to be one of the most difficult opening holes in golf. It seems like a relatively straight-forward par 4 at first glance but is anything but that at 402 metres with trees on the left and right punishing wayward drives. Chuck a fairway bunker, greenside bunkers, a difficult green and not being warmed up and you have a probable bogey start (if you're lucky).

Royal has its fair share of short holes as well but they are well designed and invariably doglegs. These include the par four 2nd, 5th, 7th and 17th holes which range from 309 to 331 metres. You'll find that driver is not the club of choice and more success will be had choosing hybrids or irons off the tee in order to leave yourself with a full shot from the middle of the fairway. These holes prove that distance is not the only factor in making tough holes and other courses should learn from this.

I am a big fan of Royal's course layout as designed by Vern Morcom who also designed Woodrising at Devonport. The only thing I don't like is the back to back par 5's on the inward nine (12 and 13). For the better player, par 5's offer good birdie opportunities and to have two of these in a row is contrary to the rest of the course. Having said that, I assume that you don't design a course on paper and then find some land to put it on. You must look at what land is available and what sort of holes are naturally defined. If back to back par 5's is the only design fault at Royal Hobart then it's not travelling too bad.

There are many strategically placed fairway and greenside bunkers at RHGC and if your going for a visit then it's worthwhile practising your sand technique prior to the round. Course management is a must around here and it's not simply a case of aiming at flags. There are some places you just don't want to end up and its a matter of eliminating the bad scores from your card. The greens are usually some of the best in the state and run true.

The worst:
The 445 metre par 5 12th is probably my least favourite hole at Royal just ahead of the 127 metre par 3 11th. Both of these holes are just too short compared to the rest of the course but they are not bad holes by any means.

The best:
The 402 metre par 4 1st plays more like 450 metres. It is a brute of a starting hole and is a refreshing change to most powderpuff starting holes on other Tasmanian courses (e.g. Claremont, Tasmania). Start with a par here and you are at least one shot up on the majority of the field.

The Round
Date: 5 April 2010
Score: 78, Greens Hit: 9, Fairways Hit: 6/14, Putts: 33

I played in the annual Royal Hobart Easter Tournament this year purely for the opportunity of playing a top golf course for relatively little money ($30). Although I had been playing relatively solid golf leading up to the 36 hole event I developed a case of the duck hooks in my two rounds prior to teeing it up. You can get away with hooking drives onto the next fairway at courses like Claremont and Kingston, but Royal Hobart will punish wayward drives in a similar way to Ulverstone and Barnbougle.

I turned up in the morning with the full intention of hitting a bucket of practice balls to work the duck hook out of my swing. Unfortunately my stomach decided that my time would be better spent warming up in the toilet. Those people who know me well will be aware that I have Crohn's disease and when I need to go to the toilet, I need to go to the toilet. This unplanned event did allow me to make one unexpected discovery:
Royal Hobart Golf Club member's shit does stink! After recently crapping in the fine establishment of Huntingdale, I must say I was let down by the toilets on offer. I might need to start a new blog (or bog) where I review golf club toilets. I could call it Around Tasmania in 75 Bowls. Sorry, I digress.

After making a par 5 on the first (yes I know it is a par 4, but that was a little too much to ask) I hit a nice 1 hybrid up the middle of the 2nd leaving me with a 9 iron the the green. The ball sailed straight at the stick and stopped about 8 feet away where I was able to knock it in for birdie. I wasn't hitting it real good on the front nine but I wasn't in much trouble and used my lob wedge around the green to give myself good opportunities for par on most holes - not that I converted many attempts. I finished the front nine by missing a gettable birdie for a 39.

I knocked it near the green on the par 5 12th and pitched up to about 3 feet. Miss! I then found myself in the cross bunker on the 13th for two and played an easy 7 iron to the middle of the green, with the pin at the front. I gently caressed the ball down the slope but it powered past the hole to about 15 feet. Nice one! Normally people who barge a putt downhill will then over-compensate and leave the following uphill putt well short. Not me - I took this into account and also barged the 2nd putt to about 4 feet past the hole. Drawing on my short range experience from the previous hole, I missed this one too. Nice four-putt and nice double - I never four-putt! I know I'm not reviewing the afternoon round here, but let me quickly tell you that I also four putted the 13th in the afternoon. I left my 3rd in the afternoon round about 15 feet above the hole and once again barged the first effort well past the hole. I then threw my marker at the ball in disgust and hit the ball (from about 20 feet away). I gave myself a two stroke penalty (wrongly or rightly - I should have argued that I moved the ball accidentally in the process of marking it) and angrily holed the 2nd (4th) putt. 1 hole, 2 rounds, 8 putts, 2 doubles.

On the par 3 15th I hit it pin high on the left of the green with the flag on the right. After my putting woes I was a little surprised to hole it from here for birdie. I knocked it on in regulation on the following hole, also pin high but on the far side of the green - another birdie. Looks like I found my range. Unfortunately all my other putts for the day seemed to be inside of this distance which I obviously had no hope from. I signed for a 78 in the morning round with 33 putts. My usual 29 putts would have given me a more respectable 74 but I didn't feel too bad about my round after not playing the course in so long.

The best shot
My 3 iron into the 200m 15th was a real solid shot which I was lucky enough to convert to a birdie. I've struggled recently on par 3's and it was nice to get through the round playing the four short holes in 1 under.

The worst shot
My four putt on the 13th was shocking. The fact that it took three shots to hit it 512 metres and another four to get it on the hole is atrocious for golfers of any level.

So in summary, sorry to the Royal Hobart members for the criticism of your golf club (and toilets) .... but you have a mighty fine golf course!

Patto

p.s. Sorry for the lack of photos. I forgot to take my camera and didn't want to steal photos from other websites. I'll add them in at a later date after I play Royal Hobart again (if I'm allowed on).

Next reviews: Bothwell (Ratho) and Barnbougle (again)

Colebrook Golf Club

2010-04-14T14:42:00.010+10:00

The Course
Colebrook Golf Club
Par: 70 (nine holes - 35, 35) Length: 5520m
Green Fees: $12 (Competition Fee)

I never truly appreciated just where Colebrook is - I just knew it was near Richmond. You actually turn left before you get to the Richmond maze and travel a fair way along that road (Franklin St, Colebrook Rd). It turns out that the golf course isn't actually in Colebrook (it's 12.7 km before the town) but apparently that doesn't matter when you're naming a golf course. Then again not as many people would know where to go if they called it Lowdina Golf Course.

I played Colebrook as part of the 2010 Cascade South East Open. Balls won down the line were actually balls and beers down the line. What a great concept - I hope more courses I visit do this.

Colebrook is one of the few golf courses in the state that circles completely around the clubhouse in a similar manner to Devonport (Woodrising) and Barnbougle (sort of). In order to achieve this, you drive through the 4th hole but I expect traffic isn't a big problem here. The road into the Colebrook clubhouse isn't quite Woodrising Avenue, but I still think this is a good feature to have in a golf course.

I found the speed of the greens to be inconsistent and if I was to guess, I'd suggest that not all of the greens were created at the time of the original layout. This also affected the way the ball would react when you chipped and pitched to them with some receptive to spin and others as hard as rock. On this particular day I was advised that they had experienced recent trouble with the 3rd green receiving too much water thanks to a faulty watering system. Even taking this into account, I still think that the greens are difficult to judge for a visitor. The locals didn't seem to have many problems however.

Colebrook has two sets of tees for each hole although not many of them change the hole significantly. The exception would be the par 3 2nd which requires a more daunting shot over water on the back nine.

The Best
I'm not sure if a any particular hole stood out as the "best". The uphill par four 9th/18th hole was visually impressive as you can see from the below picture.

Impressive runway view of the 9th/18th

The Worst

I'm not a fan of short holes because I think the longer hitters then are forced to relinquish their advantage. Specifically the 4th was a little too short, as was the 7th. But my vote for my least favourite hole at Colebrook would have to be the par three 8th. At 120m the first nine and only 108m the second time around, it was too short for a full iron shot. This might be OK for locals and shorter hitters but trying to judge that kind of distance with half a swing reminded me a bit too much of a pitch and putt course.

The hole seemed out of place on the golf course as if it was put there simply to make up numbers. This hole also interfered with players teeing off the 9th tee which is another common occurrence on Tasmania's golf courses (see New Town Bay and Claremont). The only thing I liked about this hole was the name for the contours in front of the green - "Verna's Tits". I'm not sure who Verna is but I think she needs to visit Capri Lingerie for some better support.

To be honest, my opinion of this hole plummeted the moment a local member wouldn't give me a drop off embedded stones behind the green despite the clearly written local rule on the back of the scorecard. The inevitable scratch on my brand new Cleveland lob wedge was followed by a death stare directed at my marker.

Who's laughing now? Probably nobody.

Short but annoying par 3 8th hole

The Round
Date: 28 February 2010
Score: 76, Greens Hit: 5/18, Putts: 29

In my standard approach to playing unfamiliar nine hole courses, I made too many soft bogies on the front nine before warming up on the back. I had no idea where to play my drives to and subsequently made difficult 2nd shots for myself. Due to my unfamiliarity with the greens, I also failed to get up and down from next to each green I missed. Before long I was 3 over after four holes and ultimately 6 over after nine holes.

My second nine holes was so much better thanks in part to knowing the course and also to getting the feel for speed of the greens. I still struggled with pitching and chipping to Colebrook's greens. I was 2 under after five holes on the back nine but then had two soft bogies including the should-have-been drop on the 7th mentioned above. I find it hard to get any spin off stones.

Ultimately finishing with 6 over after my slow start was fairly satisfying. I'm sure I could do better next time I play, but can't see myself going back to Colebrook given its proximity to my house (or lack thereof). I really didn't hit a lot of greens on this day thanks to some poor iron play combined with incorrect club selection on the par 4 drives. I'd fully expect the locals such as Ready and Blair to regularly rip this course apart.

The Best
After misjudging my hybrid tee shot on the dogleg left 4th, I was confronted with the below lie in the rough.

Difficult lie in the 4th rough after driving through the dog leg

Despite this, I was able to pitch it out and somehow managed to exert a bit of grip on the ball so that it stopped a couple of hops after landing next to the flag. I even managed to putt the ball in for my first birdie of the day (13th).

The Worst
After a nice drive up the par 4 sixth hole, which is the hardest hole on the course, I was left with the following seemingly straight-forward shot with a 6 iron.

Got the equipment - just not the game. 2nd shot to the 6th.

I don't know if it was the pressure of having Darryn behind me with a camera, but for some inexplicable reason I bladed it along the ground to the right about 60 metres. Very very ordinary and worthy of a nomination as my worst shot this year.

So in summary, Colebrook a course that is worth a visit but perhaps just the once.

Patto

Freycinet Golf Club

2010-02-05T17:00:00.001+11:00

The course
Freycinet Golf Club
Par: 36 (nine holes) Length: 2940 m
Green Fees: $15

Freycinet Golf Club is only a Driver, 3 Wood, 3 Wood, 3 Wood, 3 Wood, 3 Wood, 3 Wood, 3 Wood, 3 Wood, 3 Wood, 4 iron (lost ball), drop, 4 iron, pitch from Coles Bay on Tasmania’s East Coast.

It has fantastic views of the world renowned Hazards - but only if you go during daylight hours. Unfortunately we did not and we rocked up at about 7.45pm. We managed to play 5 and a half holes and walked the rest. On the way back to our accommodation we passed the search party that had been deployed to look for us. Obviously they were non-golfers who had (incorrectly) assumed that light is a requirement for golf.

I was pleasantly surprised by the length of Freycinet’s golf holes and the fact that it is a par 36 – and not one of those soft par 36’s. I must admit to being used to playing Tasmania’s short and easy nine hole courses of which we have too many of. Both of the first two holes were a touch on the short side but neither would be considered gimme pars. Almost all of the other holes were of the length that you would find at Metropolitan courses.

Freycinet has a very peculiar course design with a par 4 not occurring until the 6th.
As you can see on the below scorecard, the first 5 holes consist of three par 5’s and two par 3’s – very unique. I can only assume that the lay of the land dictated this design as you wouldn’t do this intentionally, surely. I’d rather see only two par 5’s and two par 3’s per nine rather than three apiece as was the case at Freycinet.

Hole	Par	Score	Length (m)	Index
1st	5	6	436	7/8
2nd	3	3	105	17/18
3rd	5	5	505	5/6
4th	3	3	180	15/16
5th	5	5	482	13/14
6th	4		375	3/4
7th	4		315	9/10
8th	3		155	11/12
9th	4		387	1/2
	36		2940 m

Best Hole:
I’m not going to commit to this one yet, as I haven’t played all nine holes yet. Of the 5 holes I did play I’d say the par 5 3rd was the toughest, but this was mainly because I didn’t have a clue where I was going for either of the first two shots. I’ll update this post when I finish my round – hopefully in the next six months.

Worst Hole:
The 2nd reminded me of a few stupid holes I have seen over the years that you wouldn’t see on 18 hole golf courses. Yes, you have quite a slope on the front of the 2nd green. Yes, it does make club selection difficult. No!, you shouldn’t put a false front on the green and then place the flag right next to it. I think all greenkeepers should have maps of their greens and have marked on them places that flags should never go. It was probably just a bad flag position rather than a bad hole.

The other candidate for worst hole would be the 1st which at 436 metres is too short to be called a par 5. Even though water hazards are on both the right and left, these don’t really come into play for the longer hitter on either the 1st or 2nd shots. I’m a fan of easing into a game of golf, but I don’t like to see the course give away shots because the par isn’t right. Having said that, I made bogey, so how can I talk?

The round
Date: 28 January 2010 (happy birthday Renee)
Score: 1 over for 5 holes – called off due to bad light.

I knew we weren’t going to fit in a full nine holes before we teed off, but I thought we’d have fun trying. I even forward dated the green fee receipts to the following day (just in case I found some time) because I didn’t think it was fair to pay $15 for 45 minutes. I never did come back, so Freycinet got good value out of us.

I played the first hole in regulation for a foreign course – that is, got on for the regulation 3 shots and promptly 3 putted because I had no idea of the speed of the greens or the break that they would take.

As mentioned above, the short par three 2nd has a severe slope on the front of the green where the flag was precariously placed. Taking this into account, I decided air-mailing the green would be the best strategy. I erred on leaving my chip short of the hole so that I didn’t flirt with the severe front shelf of the green, but luckily putted the ball in for par.

The third is a par 5 dogleg to the left with the first part of the hole the only bit visible from the tee. I aimed directly at a house at the end of the fairway and let my driver loose with a tailwind. Mark (from the accommodation we stayed in at Coles Bay) told me that he was going to a BBQ on this evening in a house next to the 4th hole that you could hit a wayward ball into. Or perhaps he meant the 3rd? In the bad light on a foreign course, I couldn’t see the ball land and thought that it was going to hit the roof of the house. As it turned out I was a good 30 metres short, straight, long and in the middle of the fairway - the house never came into play. The 2nd shot into this hole is slightly uphill and blind, so I just played a long iron up the middle. I assume that a good fairway wood could have reached but I had no idea where I was aiming. I pitched on and two putted never looking like getting a birdie.

By now me and Mitch were running in between holes as the light faded even more. I played a 4 iron into a ridiculously strong cross breeze on the par three 4th. I thought it was in the left hand trees and was surprised to find it just short of the green in the middle. Two things were obvious to me now:
1) the wind is very strong; and
2) bloody hell it’s dark.
I chipped it stone dead for par. I hoped the people in the nearby house were watching that shot but chances are they wouldn’t have seen us without MCG style floodlights.

Onto the 5th and a drive that I thought was going to hang out in the right hand trees was brought back to the middle of the fairway on the wind. By now you couldn’t see ball sized objects more than 50 metres away. I hit my second shot with my 3 wood into a clump of trees short and left of the 5th green. The clump of trees turned out to be a water hazard. I didn’t even bother looking for my ball and instead figured out where I was entitled to drop for a penalty. I then played a wedge onto the green allowing for a good 10 metres of drift with the wind. Even though I was only 100 metres or so away from the green, I couldn’t see it land. I putted what ended up being a 5 footer in for another par.

I must admit at this stage I felt like the bishop from Caddy Shack playing the round of his life in a thunderstorm. I wasn’t going to get struck by lightning on the last hole though. The worst that was going to happen was that we’d get lost and eaten by Tasmanian Devils with facial tumours. Seeing as I’m writing this blog, you can tell that this didn’t happen.

After darting back to the 6th tee, I hit a tee shot that I couldn’t see. It felt right and I thought I saw something go out that way. Really I didn’t have a clue. I tried to pace off 250 metres which is how long I assumed the ball had gone. I couldn’t see anything. Given that I couldn’t find my ball at first on the previous hole and it was in the fairway, things weren’t looking good. I looked for my allotted 5 minutes but couldn’t see anything. I looked up at the 6th green to try to figure out what to do. Nothing. I couldn’t see the flag. We still had three holes to go.

I made the unpopular call that we would have to call of the game. We were on the far side of the course. It was so dark that finding our way back to the car wasn’t a sure thing. We walked the last 3 holes with Mitch playing some shots from the middle of each fairway. Animals were coming out and we were struggling to find the paths between greens and tees.

Best Shot:
The pitching wedge into the 5th was pretty special. I was in the rough, I had no idea how far I was away from the green, how strong the wind was and it was ridiculously dark. Some sceptics may say that this was just dumb luck that I hit it to 5 feet, but I prefer to think that I factored in all the adversity against me and called upon my years of practice to play a great shot. Or it was luck.

Worst Shot:
Probably the decision to tee off at all on this night should be drawn into question?

But of the shots I played, the 2nd shot into the first hole was particularly poor. I had driven the ball up the centre of the fairway (although not out of the middle). I worked out I had about 190 metres to the hole and decided that a pull hook 3 iron 50 or more metres to the left of the green would leave me with the best approach in. Good golf.

I’m looking forward to playing a full nine holes at Freycinet in the not too distant future, preferably in broad daylight. I guess I can say that I’ve played the course, but can only add 5 more holes to my quest to play all 801 of Tasmania’s golf holes.

Like I really needed another reason to go back to Coles Bay. The accommodation is already booked.

Mucking around with Google Maps

2009-12-23T14:16:00.000+11:00

Trial Google Map of Tasmania's Golf Courses

View Golf Courses of Tasmania in a larger map

Tea Tree Golf Club

2009-12-22T14:30:00.007+11:00

The course
Tea Tree
Par: 68 (34,34) Length: 4934m

Tea Tree is out past Brighton in Tasmania’s south. It’s a fairly short course with some reachable par 4’s if the conditions are right. There are creeks winding their way through the course and a few out of bounds come into play. Depending on the time of year there may not be much water, but it pays to stay on or near the fairway wherever possible.

Overview of the course including the 9th

The greens have a fair bit of break on them and you can get caught on the wrong side of pins if you’re not careful. Most of the par 4’s only require a pitch to the green and the two par 5’s are reachable in two. There’s definitely some birdie’s to be made but don’t expect to overpower the course. The par 3’s especially require accuracy and right club selection. There are some difficult up and downs to be found from around the small, sloped greens with water ready to grab any loose shots.

Green fees were $12 whether you play the full eighteen or just nine. There are two sets of tees for most holes (unless you’re off the social tees) while the par 4 sixth and par 5 ninth play as a par 5 and a par 4 respectively on the back nine. The course is well watered and maintained so it’s good value for money as far as I’m concerned.

Tea Tree has a very similar look and feel to Elderslie and they are both better than most of Tasmania’s nine hole courses. It’s worth the short trip to play and visitors are made to feel welcome and can take part on mid week competitions. The club has some quality players in Andrew Phillips and Matthew Blackburn so I wouldn’t expect to win to many gross events out there.

Best hole:
I think the par 4 6th is a good, tough hole. The tee shot demands thought and if you use a fairway wood or hybrid off the tee then you will be left with a 140m or so into the green, which proves difficult to hit. At 390m it is a lot longer than most of the other par 4’s at Tea Tree and is similar to holes you find on metropolitan 18 hole courses.

6th hole (par 4)

Worst Hole:
I’d have to say the 117m par 3 7th was the worst. From the social tees and downwind it’s just not far enough. It’s in between a soft wedge and a hard gap wedge with trouble straight over the back. It reminded me of the little filler holes at Rosny to get you from one spot to another. Seeing as they have plenty of land at Tea Tree I think they should get rid of this one – it’s just a bunch of nothing.

The round
21 December 2009
Score: 74 (34, 40) Greens: 9 Putts: 30

I'd organised a social round with Flog (Andrew Phillips) and we were pretty much the only players on the course. Initially I couldn’t recall if I had played Tea Tree, but once there I remembered a few of the holes. I’m glad Flog was there to guide me as I would have got lost in the same was as I did on the way to the course (note to Committee – buy a bigger sign). I was also impressed with his GPS which he had entered Tea Tree’s major hole features into (note to my wife. Can I have a Sure Shot™ GPS for Christmas?).

3rd hole, par 4

I started off a bit scratchy but made easy birdie on the 3rd to get back to even par. I bogied all the par 3’s on the front nine but birdied the 8th and 9th with nice, fairly short putts to finish even at the halfway mark. I don’t know why I bothered to add up my score at this point. I over analyse things and play so much better when I’m not counting. In part due to being aware of how well I was playing, I hit an atrocious block on the 10th but managed to have a shot on the other side of the creek. I was impressed with my athleticism as I bounded across the creek using a rock as a stepping stone. I was probably more impressed that I didn’t go arse over as it is common for me to over-estimate my abilities. However, I was not impressed with the resultant double bogey.

I played OK for the next few holes, apart from a 3 putt on the 11th, which took me to 3 over after 15. I subsequently bogied the last three holes including another 3 putt to finish with 40 on the back nine. For the day I played the six par threes in 6 over so I’d say this is the key to scoring low at Tea Tree. It also indicates that my iron shots aren’t going that well at the moment. Basically I chipped and putted a bit better than usual on the front nine for 34 and a bit worse than usual on the back for 40. I probably should have had 36, 36 for a 72 the way I hit it but I’m not too unhappy considering I haven’t played there for a long time. I was more disappointed that Flog wasn’t able to recreate his albatross 1 on the par four 3rd which he had only two weeks previously.

Worst shot:
I elected to layup short of the creek on the 9th with my Hogan 1 hybrid instead of my 3 iron. I even stated before I hit it that my worst shot with this club isn’t as bad as with my 3 iron. After near-topping it about 100 metres along the ground and to the right rough, I must rethink this strategy. I’m pretty sure the club will be left out of the bag as punishment for a while.

Best shot:
The build-up - I put my 2nd shot on the 6th over the 7th tee up near the fence. I ran my third over the green from a difficult lie. In the meantime, Flog chipped in from beneath the hole for a birdie and I noted how the ball reacted on the watered green. I flew my lob wedge chip a bit further than normal and it checked nicely and it also popped in the hole for an easy par. Easy hole.

Rosny Park Public Golf Course

2009-12-19T20:02:00.002+11:00

The Course

Rosny Park Public Golf Course

Par: 66, Length: 4454m

Preview

Rosny Park Public Golf Course is situated a power fade away from Eastlands shopping centre (depending which direction you fade the ball in). It used to be an 18 hole golf course and was the former site for Royal Hobart Golf Club, I believe.

I first became familiar with “Royal Rosny” when I was starting out in golf during the mid-eighties. From 1986-89 I headed over there for after school golf representing New Town High School. Our school won this trophy for each of these four years but always tussled with the Clarence High boys comprising Andrew Wiggins, Nathan Gatehouse and Grant Dale, among others. New Town High were represented throughout by myself, Peter Johns, Scott Cowen, Michael McGeary and in later years Royce Brougham and Andrew Bonsey. We all used to pile into the school minibus or Mr Andy Wilson’s camper van after school on a Wednesday I think. Johnsy always seemed to win the year long consistency award because he didn’t seem to muck around as much. A common trick we used to play on other groups was to “relocate” the flag on the original 6^th hole to the other side of the green after playing the hole. From the fairway down below you didn’t know that the hole wasn’t near the flag until you got up to the green. By this time the offenders were on their way up the 7^th hole and retribution had to wait until the following week.

The course is only nine holes now and you don’t have to cross any of the roads. Previously the course was in three parts with holes 1-5 and 17-18 on the first part, holes 6-9 in the 2^nd part and 10-16 on the 3^rd part. Healthy walks were required to travel in between each section of the course. See the attached old scorecard and map. They’ve now managed to fit all nine holes in the area that holes 1-5 and 17-18 were located. Prior to heading back there, I’m unsure how they could achieve this. I can only assume that they have put in some short par 3’s.

Review

17/12/2009

I went and played nine holes last night and now I know how they put nine holes into the space of seven. The course is essentially same as before except they have slotted in two very short par 3’s into the mix. In order to achieve this they have shortened the 1^st and the old 17^th.

The 1^st is a reachable version of its former self and the 2^nd is a new short par 3 playing up behind where the old 1^st green was (or maybe it is the old 1^st green?). Holes 3, 4, 5 & 6 are the same as the old 2^nd through to 5^th holes, taking you to the far side of the course. The 7^th is another reachable par 4 and is a shortened version of the old par 5 17^th. The 8^th is another new short par 3 playing to the old 17^th green while the 9^th is the old 18^th. The 18^th used to be a par 4, so I’m not sure why it’s now been designated a par 5. I assume that Rosny just wanted to artificailly increase their par a little bit (par 32 is pretty embarrassing) and make people feel good about themselves on the last hole, hoping that this would bring them back the next week.

It only cost me $5 to play late in the afternoon which I happily paid to the man sitting in the car near the 1^st tee (a variation on the honesty box). For this I would have been entitled to play a full eighteen, but I only had time for nine. There are two different sets of men’s tees with the white front tees for the first nine and the longer blue markers for the back nine. Strangely the hole measurements on the card are identical for both nines and it made it difficult to know how far the holes really were. I wasn’t real confident in the hole measurements and it wasn’t clear where they were taken from. I don’t feel I’d get any benefit of playing the 2^nd nine off the back markers – it’s essentially the same course with an extra club here and there.
The first hole

I’d forgotten how much of a slope the land is on at Rosny. The ball rolls across the fairways on many of the holes, but most noticeably on the 3^rd, 5^th and 9^th. The greens were not fast, but I found that chip shots seemed to roll on quite a bit. It took me a while to get the speed of the greens. There are quite a few contours in the greens which need to be considered when putting and chipping. There aren’t many easy putts on the course.

All in all the course is fairly well looked after, considering. There are 100m markers on all holes (except par 3’s) but given how short they play, they are pretty much irrelevant for the longer golfer. I wouldn’t seek this course out to play at, but if asked to play there I wouldn’t baulk at it either. It’s a nice enough course and really accessible for the public golfer. I would have thought that Rosny wouldn’t attract as many players as it used to now that many other golf courses let non members play, but I’ve been told that this isn’t the case. It used to be that if you weren’t a member of a golf club then Rosny was your only option. Now you can pretty much play at any of the country courses and even at places like Kingston and Claremont on the appropriate days. I think the days of the public golf course are gone in Hobart. Still, if you don’t want all the pomp and ceremony of most golf clubs and you want to be able to play in your Steve Irwin khakis, then head out to Rosny.

Something of interest is the local rules. Usually these have things like “The screens on the 1^st and 3^rd tees are immovable obstructions …” or “relief must be taken from Ground Under Repair ….”. Not at Rosny. Their scorecard has a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo and refers to players as plaintiffs and defendants! I can only assume that the Clarence City Council has resorted to this in an effort to better defend themselves in court.

Best Hole:

Rosny doesn’t really have a lot of holes to write home about. They are nice enough, but none really jump out. I guess the par 3 fourth and sixth holes challenge you in the conventional sense and require a good tee shot to ensure a par. The 4^th is especially punishing if your tee shot ends up at the bottom of the hill to the right of the green.

Worst Hole:

I think the two new short par 3’s are just too short and are obviously afterthoughts. While the 9^th is not a bad hole, there is no way it should be a par 5. I think for this reason it is the poorest hole on the course. However if it were a par 4 then it would be the best.

The round

16 December 2009

Score: 35 (+2), Greens Hit: 6/9, Putts: 16, Fairways Hit: 4/5

I was to be playing in a three day golf competition which starts off with a qualifying nine holes at Rosny (the Sunday Sprint). Because I haven’t played there for almost twenty years, I thought I’d better go familiarise myself and headed off there after work on a Wednesday. NOTE: Since then I have found out that the Mat Goggin All City Golf Championship has been cancelled due to lack of ~~trying on the organisers behalf~~ participants. Anyway, that’s a different story – back to me.

I made a regulation par 4 on the first by sinking a rather large 2^nd putt after busting the first one about 5m past the hole – apparently my memories of slow greens weren’t accurate. I air-mailed the short par 3 2^nd with a wedge (which I did later on the 8^thas well) and didn’t manage to get up and down. Damn these new holes are short!

I recalled the best strategy to tackle the par 4 third from when I used to play there in the eighties. It didn’t occur to me that I hit the ball about 50 metres further now and was lucky to find it in US Open style rough on the line I took. The ball was closer to the edge of the Tasman Highway than the edge of the fairway. Still I managed to thrash it out next to the green but again didn’t anticipate the amount of run I would get on the chip shot. Bogey number 2. I quickly followed this up with another failed up and down on the par 3 4^th. After cracking a drive down the 5^th and pitching on, I three-putted for four straight bogies. Not good. But if I was familiar with the course I figure I would have been even par as I’d had really easy chips and putts, so I wasn’t overly concerned.

I turned it around on the downhill par 3 6^th where I hit 8 iron into about 10 feet. My second putt from about 8 feet went in the middle of the hole for par (note to self – “The greens still aren’t as slow as you think”). A good bloke called Martin and his mate called me up on the 7^th and I didn’t take the time to look at the card for the hole measurements. I just saw a flag off in the distance and pulled driver. I didn’t catch it very well (bit out of the heel with a weak fade) but it was up the guts. When I got to the crest of the hill, I realised that a well hit driver isn’t the correct club choice. However, my mis-hit was on the edge of the green and chipped to a foot for an easy birdie.

Using my improved chipping I also got up and down on the next from just off the back. I thought I’d sent my drive on the 9^th too far out to the right onto the adjacent 3^rd fairway, but was happy to see it come rolling back down the slope to be 100 metres out. Played for and got. I was a bit surprised to see that this hole is now listed as a par 5 at only 390 metres. I hit wedge just over the flag but missed the “eagle” putt. Tapped it in for another birdie and a round of 35 (+2).

Worst Shots:

My drive up the third drawing on experiences as a fourteen year old was not very smart. I drove it through the fairway by a good 50 metres. When I thought about it I should have been aiming a good 45 degrees left of where I was.

Best shots:

The 53 degree wedge I hit from the resultant poor drive (described above) was out of thick hay. I aimed well right of the hole to compensate for the ball being above my feet and the fact the rough would wrap around the club. I got a fair bit of club on it and ended up only a couple of feet off the green. Before I hit it I was thinking that the ball might not actually get out of the bad lie, so for degree of difficulty this shot wins.

Most golf courses per capita

2009-11-18T22:30:00.000+11:00

I was just reading a golf article on http://espn.go.com/golf/ and came across the following fact:
Countries with the most courses per capita (minimum 500,000 population):
Scotland (9,379 people per course);
New Zealand (10,374);
Australia (11,063);
Republic of Ireland (14,127);
Northern Ireland (14,353);
Canada (15,480);
Wales (18,321);
United States (18,514);
Sweden (21,295);
England (27,725).

I know Tasmania is not a country, but it does have over 500 000 people (just). For that population it has a wapping 75 golf courses resulting in a per capita ratio of around 6666 people per golf course.

That's way lower than the leading country, Scotland, and a lot lower than the overall Australian rate.

The damage ...

2009-11-09T15:02:00.001+11:00

The tally so far ....

Holes	Courses	Completed	Par	Score	To Par	$ spent
63	4	5%	233	253	+20	$113

Top 5 Wettest courses

2009-09-23T11:01:00.002+10:00

We've had a ridiculous amount of rain in Tasmania of late that's stopping me (and others) play golf. It's probably a good time to detail the golf courses that are most affected by water, from my experiences.

1. Riverside - a.k.a. Riverslide. We played a Northern Open or something there in the mid 90's where it was unplayable. It is very close to the Tamar and if it floods then the course suffers.

2. Kingston - similar story to Riverside. If Brown's River floods there's not much the golf club can do about it. I've seen the course completely submerged a number of times over the years.

3. Seabrook - The first nine holes (the farm holes) can get very muddy but then the sand-based back nine can play completely differently.

4. Mowbray - affectionately called Mudspray. Similar to Claremont (below), it can get a little heavy after rain deluges.

5. Claremont - Yep, even my own course gets a mention. I've defended it for years from its detractors, but the course has not coped well in 2009. We've had preferred lies for months and there are pools of water demanding attention. Not good enough for a Metropolitan course.

It should be mentioned that Royal Hobart and Tasmania Golf Clubs with their sand bases have always handled the rain well.

I'll get back to playing and reveiwing more golf courses when this stupid rain stops.
Patto

Top 5 Courses (as at July 09)

2009-07-06T22:03:00.003+10:00

Top 5 Tasmanian Courses I've played
(in order ...)

1. Barnbougle Dunes
2. Ulverstone (Allison) Golf Club
3. Launceston Golf Club
4. Bothwell (Ratho) Golf Club (for historical reasons)
5. Royal Hobart Golf Club

Top 5 Tasmanian Courses I've reviewed (so far)
(in order ...)

1. Barnbougle Dunes
2. Claremont Golf Club
3. New Town Bay Golf Club
4. Bagdad Community Golf Course (par 27? 27!!!)
5. Fairway Lodge at Nubeena (it's closed - how good can it be?)

OK, so I've only reviewed 5 courses so they all get a go.
But that will change over time!

More Top 5's to follow,
Patto

Back to the 'Mont

2009-07-02T12:37:00.010+10:00

The course
Claremont Golf Course
Par 71, ACR 69, 18 holes, 5667m

Claremont Golf Club is an 18 hole golf course built next to Cadbury’s chocolate factory at the end of Bourneville Crescent (mmm, chocolate). Quite often you can smell Cadbury’s cooking their latest batch and a river of chocolate waste used to flow across the 1st fairway from time to time. Those with a keen sense of smell claim to be able to pick the different types of chocolate that are being made on a given day.

View over the 17th green to Cadbury's

The outside nine holes (#1-6, #16-18) at Claremont use the Derwent River as a boundary with water also coming into play on some of the internal holes courtesy of the dam on the 9th and the newer grey water dam between the 8th and 14th holes. As the course is situated on a peninsula, there is little room to extend the length of the course to combat the recent advancements in golf equipment technology. Still, it has always been the par 3’s (including the 2nd, 4th & 15th) and longer par 4’s (5th, 7th, 13th & 16th) that have made it difficult to regularly post low scores at Claremont and this will remain the case.

The 16th hole - part of the "outside" nine

Claremont Golf Club was formerly known for the pine trees that lined and defined many of the holes. In particular, the par five 8th was lined with pine trees from tee to green penalising any shots that were sent there way. Unfortunately pine trees only have a finite life and in around the year 2000 the club made the difficult decision to remove many of the offending trees that had been residents since the 1930’s. The tree removal has drastically affected the look and playability of the course, but was required to ensure the longevity and safety of the club. It’s probably no coincidence that “the Freak” has a monopoly on Club Championships now that the course doesn’t play as tight. Having said that, Freak had already won a couple prior to the pine removal helped by his super-human ability to get himself out of any sort of trouble.

The 8th without the trees is no longer the signature hole of the course and will take years for the newer trees to impose the same level of threat that the pines did. The trees affectionately called Teddy Bear’s Picnic to the right off the tee on the 17th is another group of pines that have been removed, much to the chagrin of the resident teddy bears I’m sure.

The 17th hole with no more Teddy Bear's Picnic (and no more teddy bears)

Claremont is still a demanding and challenging course which is affected by wind on the now exposed holes. The wind whips over the peninsula on its way up or down the Derwent making drives on the holes on either side of the course very daunting, particularly with a strong sea breeze later in the afternoon. The grey water dam in the middle of the course also has the habit of gobbling a few balls now that the pines aren’t around to block the wind.

The lack of practice facilities at Claremont has always been an issue especially as Claremont is considered a “Metropolitan” course. Unfortunately the land doesn’t exist to extend the current setup and this will no doubt restrict their ability to host major golf tournaments and attract quality players. What Claremont may lack in facilities, it has always made up for with a relaxed club atmosphere, similar to Tasmania and Mowbray Golf Clubs. It’s location and scenic views can’t be faulted and anyone living in the Northern Suburbs would be a fool to be a member on any other of Hobart’s 18 hole golf courses.

Picturesque view of Mt Wellington from the 1st green

I understand that the club is looking to make changes to the course layout. Hopefully this will result in a tougher course in relation to par. Past efforts by the club in course redesign have been focussed on lengthening the course and trying to achieve a par 72 – both fruitless ventures considering the course is waterlocked. I’d personally like to see the course reduced to a par 70 with a course rating the same. I’m happy for the experts to figure out how this is best achieved but after reading about the course design of Barnbougle (Barnbougle Dunes: The Beginnings - Clayton, Doak & Schneider), I understand that length isn’t the only way to toughen up a course.

Best holes
The par four 5th hole is one of the most challenging on the course and has water in play on the right for the length of the hole. Although this is considered the hardest hole on the course, I believe that it is more difficult to make a par on the 400+ metre 7th on any given day. It’s just that it’s easier to rack up a big score on the 5th with the water hazard in play down the entire right hand side.

Worst holes
The 12th hole has it on for me. It should be such an easy hole requiring a short drive and a pitch to a narrow, but long green. By taking a direct route to the green the hole is even driveable during good conditions. I used to play it well but my standard shot shape (draw) doesn’t suit this hole at all. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a badly designed hole - I just hate it.

The par five 1st hole also rates as one of my least favourite on the course. Due to its short length it cannot be considered a true par five and gives too many golfers an advantage at the start of their round. Compare this to the first at Royal Hobart which sets your knees knocking especially when you haven’t warmed up. A four is par here for golfers of all levels.

The round
Date: 27/6/2009
Score: 76, hit greens 8/18, hit fairways 3/13, putts 27

OK so as the stats tell you, I didn’t hit the ball very well this day. I could have not blogged this round and waited until I had a better score, but in the interest of keeping this thing moving I have decided to tell you about my round of 76. I reserve the right to remove this entry and replace it with the details of a better score at a future date!

In case you aren’t aware, this marks my return to Claremont having been a member there for about 16 years from 1987. Some things never change, however, and despite my old golf gear being replaced with technologically advanced equipment it turns out that ability is the overriding factor in hitting the ball straight. I spent the majority of the day hooking my woods and irons into the left rough apart from one wicked cut on the 9th that went out to the middle of the 18th fairway. I know if I slow my swing down to a blur that I start hitting it straight but it’s hard to do in the middle of a round. It would help if there was somewhere to hit practice shots before the commencement of my round .....

I started off well, hitting the first 3 greens for regulation pars. I also played the last five holes in one under. It was the crap in the middle that was a worry.

I made a regulation par on the usually difficult par three 2nd

I didn’t putt well on the front nine where I easily converted six makeable birdie attempts into 13 putts. I only hit two greens on the back nine (16 & 17) but managed to one-putt or zero-putt (in the case of 14) all of the others. I’ve never considered myself a good putter until recently, but I think that’s because I’ve always hit my fair share of greens. It’s much easier to one-putt when you’ve had a chip rather than a full iron shot. It’s also easier to hole putts on a quality course.

Another up and down on the 18th was required after missing the green with an easy approach shot

I’m sure I’ll improve on 76 now that I’m back playing at Claremont, but it was a fair effort after a six year break. The condition of the course wasn’t that great mainly because of the rain that we have had lately and the fact the greens don’t seem to have come back that well from scarification. It didn’t seem to affect my putting though!

The 6th green looking a bit worse for wear

Best shots
I had a nice chip-in on 14 from directly under the hole. It wasn’t that great but it definitely rates a mention. My best full shot is a toss up between the 7 iron on the 7th hole from the middle of the 5th fairway and a drive I hit up the middle of the 13th, leaving myself less than a wedge to the green. I know it was less than a wedge because I hit wedge and air-mailed the green. I’d have to go with the 7 iron on the 7th. Even though the ball ultimately rolled off the right-hand edge of the green, the fact I was able to hoist it over the trees between the 5th and 7th holes got me out of potential trouble (a-la Freak).

Worst shots
If you were there this day I guess you’d say the (mild) shank I had on the par three 11th was my worst shot, but seeing as I got up and down for par I don’t think it was that bad. Worse for me was the 6 iron from 150 metres out in the middle of the 5th fairway. I reckon it went a good 40 metres left of my target even though the ball was below my feet (which would imply a fade). The ball finished under one tree and amongst many others. The fact I one-putted limited the damage to a double bogey.

Next round: Claremont (take two)

Patto

Bagdad Community Golf Club

2009-06-21T17:09:00.017+10:00

Par: 27 (nine holes) Length: 2268 m
Green Fees: $8 ($2 for juniors)

So I had a day to myself so what better place to go than Bagdad I hear you ask.

Barnbougle, Royal Hobart, Ulverstone, Woodrising, Claremont, Elderslie, Riverside, Kingston, Mowbray .... but I digress.

The course:

I was a bit worried about travelling to a course unannounced on a Friday knowing that this is a common day for corporate golf events. I needn't have worried as I was the only person on the course and the last person to have paid the $8 green fees was about two weeks earlier. I filled out the relevant paperwork and headed off to find the first tee. Actually finding the next tee was something I struggled with throughout the day.

I did wonder at first why this was called Bagdad "Community" golf club, but it was quite straightforward really. I think the below picture best illustrates it:

Where else would you find a football field, soccer ground, cricket pitch & nets as well as a golf course in the same facility??

The course is a bit patchy with tight lies around the green making it hard to get up and down for par. I only managed two pars from 6 missed greens. I played the course on a wet winter's day and I'm sure it wasn't at its best.

Example of tight lies around the 4th green

This is the shortest golf course that I have played in both par and length and I would be surprised to find a contender for this title during the rest of my journey around Tasmania. The longest holes were the 170m par 3 fifth and the 162m par 3 ninth. The course is extremely flat and the only undulations I found were on the walk to the next tees.

I felt like Bagdad was a course that you could tear apart if you were having a good ball striking day, but if you weren't (as I wasn't) then it would be easy to be make bogies on most holes. It would be an excellent location for ambrose competitions because everyone would have a chance to make their shot count and low scores would be inevitable.

Given Bagdad's short length and easy walk, it would be a good golf course to take junior golfers to especially at only $2 a pop.

The round:

Date: 19 June 2009

Score: 31 (+4), Greens hit: 3/9, Putts: 16, Fairways hit: 0/0

I found it hard to pick the right club to start with because the course is so flat. I bogied three of the first five holes simply because I didn't hit the green. Picture my joy when I finally hit the 147m sixth hole (another par 3!) and three putted. Actually it wasn't all my fault, this llama (alpaca?) threw off my groove.

The "Emperor" next to the 6th hole

There is only one set of tees/greens for each hole so I didn't worry about playing 18 holes on this day.

The best shots:

My pitching wedge to the 7th (for birdie) was good especially given the poorly placed tree located at the front left of this short hole (111m).
Pending birdie on the 7th

The worst:

Not a bad shot as such, but try getting up and down on the 9th with this crap on your ball ...

Another course soon,

Patto

Fairway Resort Golf Course (Nubeena)

2009-06-17T19:52:00.009+10:00

Par: 29 (nine holes) Length: 2462 m

The course:
Firstly, there is none. There was a golf course, but now it's gone. Apparently the new owners didn't place maintaining a golf course high on the agenda and let it get grown over. I didn't find this out until we booked our 2008 Easter holidays at Fairway Lodge intent on reliving my childhood memories of the place. I "borrowed" Johnsy's carry bag (yes, I'll give it back ... one day) and crammed it in the boot with all the family luggage (Renee doesn't pack light). On arrival I put my golf shoes on, threw the carry bag over my shoulder and headed out to the first tee/clothes lines - what? I quickly retreated to the room to hide my clubs and ventured back out onto the course (and I use the word "course" loosely).

The layout is still there and there were even a couple of flags on the "greens". You can't distinguish rough from fairway from green. I don't think there's any recovering the course from this poor state. My back lawn is in better nick and that's saying something.

The course was never long and consisted of seven par 3's and two par 4's from memory. They were all reachable for a mid to low handicapper. They also moved the numbering of the holes around over the years, but my recollection is with the first tee level with the pool. The par 3 2nd hole was very short and very difficult. It was only about 90 metres but the drop from tee to green was also about 90 metres. There was a creek before the green and an apple orchard over the back (out of bounds). It was really difficult to judge how hard/soft to hit your sand wedge here even when you were playing well.

It was never a good course, but it was good fun especially for families on holiday. It's a real pity this course has been left to ruin. I don't think they can justify calling it 'Fairway Resort' anymore, but 'Paddock Resort' doesn't have the same ring I guess. Actually resort is another word they throw around loosely down there.

Here's a couple of recent pictures ..... (not!). Love the golfing attire!

The best shots:
Two events spring to mind from this course. Firstly, this was the location of Mitch's first game of golf when he was 6. He could only hit the ball about 30 metres and after a couple of shots on the first he still had about 30 metres to go. He hit a full shot that carried near the green and rolled up and hit the metal flag. I looked at him in astonishment and he didn't see what all the fuss was. He said to me words along the line of "Isn't that what I'm meant to do?". Bloody kids!

The other memorable event was a pair of drives that Conno hit when we went down there in '89 or so. On the par four 6th at the bottom of the course, Justin hit a drive on the green and sank the eagle putt for some skins. He followed this with a drive up the uphill par four 7th that also finished on the green. He casually rolled this in for consecutive eagles that essentially finished off our match. Bloody Conno!

The worst:
Not a shot as such, but my golf bag throw from the 7th green to the 8th tee as a result of Justin's consecutive eagles was very poor form. I can't take it back, but at least I can now acknowledge that you can't get down on yourself when your opponent does something out of the ordinary.

Barnbougle Dunes

2009-06-10T19:58:00.023+10:00

The Course
Par 71, 6148 metres (Forrester Tees)
Green Fees - $98 per 18 holes ($65 for locals)

Firstly let me state that Barnbougle Dunes is no doubt (to me) the best golf course in Tasmania with a similar level of quality not available elsewhere in the state. It is, however a public golf course and with that comes the subsequent “characteristics” - numerous unfilled divots, footprints in bunkers, poorly placed rakes and a general lack of etiquette from fellow golfers. While this is at times distracting, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Divot on 1st (above), rake on 3rd (below)

The fairways are very wide, but hitting the fairway doesn’t guarantee a par. You have to choose your line to the hole carefully prior to teeing off as it is easy to get obstructed by undulations within the fairway that force you to lay-up with a shorter iron (see view from par four 8th hole from 200m out).

If you do stray off the fairways or miss greens by a significant amount then you will be faced with natural marram grass (as shown below) that you will be lucky to find your ball within, or in the event you do, you will do well to hack it back into play.

You’ll also be greeted by the local wildlife such as the many wallabies I saw on my journey (spot the wallabies in the below picture).

It’s definitely a course where local knowledge would be worth many shots.

The course offers four different tees on each hole named Forrester (for 0-4 handicaps), Boobyalla (5-17), Melaleuca (18-27) and Marram (27+). The Forrester markers are at times more than 100 metres behind the Melaleuca and Marram markers with the Boobyalla tees somewhere in the middle. I’m sure that these tee options provide the course with multiple personalities and I can vouch for the fact that the back markers are a tough test for low handicappers. Still, there are a couple of driveable par fours (4th, 12th) even from the back tees, but there is a significant risk in trying to reach these – especially the latter. To the other extreme, the par four 8th is near unreachable, especially with the variable fairway height throughout the hole. Many of the par 5’s play as definite three-shot holes and a priority should be placed on keeping ball in play over trying to overpower the golf course.

The greens are very large and undulating (no different to the rest of the course really). The greens aren’t necessarily that fast overall, although I had some of the quickest downhill, downwind putts that I have ever faced. It is important to leave your approach shots in the right spot – something you won’t be able to do until you get to know the course. The 188m, par three 13th is the most undulating green on the course. I drove to Barnbougle Dunes via the East Coast and as we went through Elephant’s Pass we discussed the whereabouts of the elephants that this location was named after. I discovered on the 13th at Barnbougle that at least two of these elephants (probably three) had made their way to the North East coast of Tasmania and died under this very green.

The wind will definitely be present when you play the course as it is directly on Bass Strait.

It is the most picturesque golf course I have ever seen and it does Tasmania proud. It is worth the trip to play this remote course, whether you are travelling from interstate, overseas or within Tasmania (where, for us locals, a 20 minute drive is considered excessive). Even though the course has been open for a few years now you should still expect a lot of people to be playing on any given day, with the majority being interstate visitors. Although I didn’t stay in them, I recommend the on-site accommodation in order to get the maximum golf you can fit into the day. Oh, and buy a course guide – and consider enlisting the services of a caddy.

The Round
Date: 6 June 2009
Score: 83 (Forrester tees), Greens Hit: 9/18, Putts: 36, Fairways Hit: 7/14

Even though I had read every piece of information that I could find about Barnbougle Dunes before I arrived there, I had no idea where to hit the ball on each hole. More importantly I didn’t know where to miss it. I opened with three soft bogies that would have been pars on a course more familiar to me. I drove the 271 metre par 4 fourth and calmly three-putted for my first par (see my drive just past the hole on the right?) ...

I have finally proven that it is possible to have a mildly unenjoyable round on a most enjoyable course. As Barnbougle is a links course, I was prepared for a bit of wind and rain. After the first four holes I thought I was going to be fortunate and play on a relatively calm day. Nu-uh. Everything changed on the picturesque walk along the coast to the 5th tee.

· Firstly, the wind came up on this hole and never abated.
· Secondly, it started to rain, but the wind made putting up an umbrella a fruitless exercise.
· Thirdly, I caught up to the slowest group in the world (see below).

I’m still not clear how many people were playing golf in front of me, or if indeed golf was the game they were playing, but there were 4 couples in two golf carts (I didn’t think carts were allowed at Barnbougle unless you had a medical certificate – I guess among eight, 80 year olds, you’re bound to have a valid excuse). All up my front nine took over three hours to complete even though I played the first 4 holes unimpeded. Granted, I took a little bit of extra time carving up a 6 on the short (112m), but ridiculously challenging, par three 7th hole.

The back nine was a much more enjoyable affair mainly because the group of eight that I was following stopped for skinny chai lattes and to buff their matching Audi’s™ at the turn.

I played the back Forrester (black) tees in order to obtain the full experience of Barnbougle Dunes. I can’t recall a time, apart from my junior days, where I have stood on par fours knowing that my two best shots wouldn’t be enough to get to the green. I assume reaching the 8th at Barnbougle, even with the prevailing tailwind, is not very common from the back tees. It was also obvious on a couple of the par 5’s that reaching them in two shots was not going to be an option, at least on this day.

The undulating greens and my lack of course experience resulted in 4 three putts and very few up and downs from next to missed greens. I had a couple of putts on the back-nine par 3’s where it wasn’t even possible to get the ball to finish near the hole. The pin at the 13th was at the back left and I needed to aim to the back fringe, with the ball dribbling back to about 6 feet (from about 25 feet). On the 16th, although I was only about 10 feet away, I had no hope of getting the ball to stop near the hole with a ridge surrounding each approach to the hole, but conveniently not one acting as a backstop.

I got my first birdie of the day at the par four 17th where I stiffed a nine iron to a foot and followed this up with a regulation par up the last in fading light. All up my round of 83 (44 out, 39 in) took around 5 hours. I get some satisfaction knowing that the group of eight that I passed through would have been stranded in the dark somewhere around the 14th as I packed my clubs in the boot of my car.

So all up it was a most enjoyable course, but not necessarily an enjoyable round - I guess I could have picked a better day to play than the Saturday of a long weekend. Still, I can’t wait to go back there where I'll draw upon the experiences I learned during this round.

The best:

I'd have to rate my drive onto the 4th green as a highlight along with my 9 iron to the 17th green. Yes the golf course got the better of me on most holes, but I showed it who was boss on at least these two.

The worst:

I was just going through my round and couldn't think of that many bad shots that I hit. I guess that shows that playing average golf isn't good enough on this course. I guess the fact my sand iron over the back of the 7th contributed to me having a 6 warrants it being adjudged one of my poorer shots. My 4 iron of a sidehill lie on the 9th to more than 50 metres right of the green can only be classified as a brain fade.

Another round soon,

Patto

New Town Bay

2009-06-01T21:39:00.008+10:00

The course
New Town Bay Golf Club
Par 64, nine holes

I'm currently a member at New Town Bay Golf Club (a.k.a. E.Z, Risdon, Pasminco) and it was also the first course I ever joined as a junior, so it makes sense for this course to be the first cab off the rank on my journey around Tasmania's golf courses.

The course is quite small and only consists of par 3's and 4's which are almost all reachable depending on wind direction. Despite it's low par, the four par 3's make low scoring difficult. A couple of these (6th and 9th) are of quite considerable length (around 200m each) and the greens are quite small. You can make shots up on the short par 4's - in particular the 8th/17th and 14th (the 5th on the second nine) are driveable on most days - which you'll have to do if you're not hitting your irons well on the par 3's.

Par 3, ninth

My biggest frustration with New Town Bay is the need to play dinky chip and runs when you inevitably miss the greens. I personally like to pitch or lob the ball, but the older and craftier members have shown me that this is not the most effective scoring method.

Example of dinky little chip shot to 8th hole

It's wise to check the ego occasionally and resist the urge to knock it on the green using the driver - the penalty can be too severe with out of bounds present on many of the holes. It's also a good idea to stay out of the bunkers which can prove difficult to get out of.

Given its proximity to Hobart and the low green fees/memberships, I think New Town Bay is an extremely under-utilised golf club. It's particularly good for junior golfers to learn on, speaking from experience.

The round
Date: Saturday 30 May, 2009
Score: 63
As I'm a member here I didn't need to make a special trip to this course to do a review so I'll describe the last round I played here - coincidentally this was also my best.

I only played as a warm up for next Saturday when I'm playing at Barnbougle Dunes, so I was just trying to blow off the cobwebs after a few weeks off. Starting off double bogey, par, bogey was not part of the plan and I wasn't feeling very confident at all at this stage. Luckily I started a run of 3's from the fourth to the seventh. I turned in 1 over. After birdieing the 11th, I promptly bogied the 12th (see below). I had an identical putt on the 13th that I did the first time 'round(4th). I played the same amount of break and was legitimately shocked that the tectonic plates hadn't shifted in the hour and a half between nines (I once again missed 6 inches the left). I hit the par 4 fourteenth in one and two putted for a birdie. I then hit my best shot of the day on the 15th to get to 1 under. By the time I got up near the 17th green after my drive, I was up to my old tricks of figuring out what total score I might get. I tried to play a dinky old man chip and was lucky to two-putt for par. I played a shocking 5-iron down the last but luckily it is downhill all the way and I ended up near the green. I managed to get up and down for par and a 63.

The best:
I actually didn't make any birdie putts of length during this round. I knocked it inside 4 feet for birdie four times for and two putted for the other one. The pick of these was on the 15th where I knocked in a full blooded 3 iron to about 3 feet.

The worst:
I'd discussed with my friends on Facebook whether I should play a hybrid club or four wedges (PW, 53, 56, 60). In the end I ditched my four iron so that I could get some practice with the hybrid in preparation for Saturday. I decided to play a "safe" hybrid down the 12th so that I didn't reach the trees just short of the green. I didn't expect to bring the tree into play that is about 80 metres off the tee, 40 metres to the right. Thankfully the ball plopped out the other side and I was able to make bogey. Needless to say, confidence is gone with that club for now.

One of my playing partners said to me at the end of the round,
"I haven't played with anyone who has had a 63".
Well, neither had I - and I probably never will again.

Patto

Note: description of round may vary from playing partner accounts. Any resemblance to real events is purely coincidental.

On a mission

2009-06-01T21:20:00.003+10:00

I love golf, Tasmania and technology - so why not combine them all?

I've always wanted to write a book, but books are lame (yes I work in the State Library of Tasmania at the time of creating this blog). I also started out as a junior golfer attempting to play all of the golf courses in Tasmania. Trouble is, I never recorded any of it. In fact, I can't remember details of some of the courses I have played. To play all of the golf courses (around 75 from my early estimations) will take a long time. If I was writing a book, then you would be waiting 25 years or so before you could read it. At least with a blog it's possible to write and share it as I go.

I intend to record (words, pictures and possibly video) the best and worst features of each golf course I play in Tasmania. No doubt while I'm doing this, I'll experience things that also warrant an entry or two in the blog - bad luck stories, holes-in-one, people I meet, as well as over the top and exaggerated accounts of my best shots for the round. I'll tell you my scores for each round I play, but this will probably stop pretty soon (I'll cite technical difficulties) if I get too embarrassed by my poor play.

I'll collate a list of Tasmanian Golf courses (little help Stuart Eaton?) and post it along with my upcoming schedule. This week we're off up the East Coast to Launceston and I intend to play Barnbougle Dunes and the Launceston Country Club (Casino) - I might even fit in a round at Freycinet. I can't wait to see Barnbougle. Anyone that knows my golf game knows I can't play in the wind. Anything under 80 would surprise me.

More soon …
Patto