Golfing enthusiast David Hickie recommends these spectacular Australian holiday/resort courses to put on your bucket list.
PALMER COOLUM RESORT
(QLD)
This is the perennial favourite among Australian holiday and resort golfers – and with good reason.
The Palmer Coolum Resort sits on 150 hectares of natural bush-land on Queensland’s popular Sunshine Coast, fronting onto the Pacific Ocean with 2km of pristine beach, midway between Noosa and Maroochydore. Each morning the gentle surf rolls onto the glistening sand of the sparkling white beaches, which stretch as far as the eye can see. Behind the sand hills, meandering rivers flow lazily into tranquil lagoons, while pelicans soar effortlessly across clear blue sky above.
However the adrenalin-charged golf course is not quite so soothing. Be prepared to lose a significant number of balls if your drive is prone to an excessive hook or slice. (The extravagant water on several of the more treacherous holes alone is reputed to gobble up more balls per week in summer than the pro shop can supply.) Famed American designer Robert Trent Jones boasted: “The course is not designed to punish champions – just to find out who they are!”
Of particular note is the sharp contrast between: the links-style holes along the ocean shores holes; and then the woodland fairways (sweeping below the shadow of Mt Coolum) among groves of melaleuca and eucalyptus trees and the mountain rainforest backdrop throughout the mountainside holes.
As well as the Championship golf course, beach club and privately patrolled beach, Palmer Coolum Resort features 324 hotel suites organised in low-rise clusters amid a natural Australian environment of gardens, lakes and woodlands. In addition, it boasts the largest day spa in the southern hemisphere, a tennis centre, arts centre and Kids Club for 6-weeks to 10-year-old children, plus archery, canoeing and beach fishing.
SANCTUARY COVE
(QLD)
Sanctuary Cove Golf & Country Club is Australia’s premier integrated golf and boating residential resort, located on the northern end of Queensland’s Gold Coast. It boasts two world-class golf courses: The Palms and The Pines.
The Palms Golf Course has recently undergone a major redevelopment and was redesigned by renowned golf course architect Ross Watson. After its reopening in April 2011, The Palms has a total length of 5,904 metres off the back tees, and numerous water features and hazards. Tee placements have been designed to suit “a variety of playing conditions and a diverse playing membership”.
The Pines Golf Course (approved playing groups only) is the only Arnold Palmer Signature golf course in Australia and is rated by the Australian Golf Union as one of the nation’s most challenging courses. In the words of Sanctuary Cove’s touring professional Adam Scott: “When I think of great golf in Australia, I think of The Pines at Sanctuary Cove, a true test of the game”. Fourteen of the holes are contoured around six man-made lakes.
The InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort – luxury accommodation set in beautiful surrounds, including the pristine white sands of the resort’s one acre salt-water beach lagoon pool – provides shuttles to and from the golf facilities and most Sanctuary Cove holiday homes come with their own private golf cart.
Sanctuary Cove is home to copious breeds of wildlife – fish, reptiles, insects, mammals, amphibians and birds – highlighted by its signature white geese which populate the pristine lakes, flocks of corellas in late afternoon flight and multiple groups of kangaroos basking in the early morning sunlight.
JOONDALUP COUNTRY CLUB
(WA)
Few golf courses anywhere in the world offer the dramatic contrasts, the scenic beauty and the sheer golfing challenge of Joondalup Country Club’s 27-hole championship golf course. Designed by internationally renowned fairway architect Robert Trent Jones, the Perth golf course presents a tough, uncompromising lay-out, featuring great variation in setting and style.
The layout sweeps across dense bushland, cuts through steep limestone quarries and skirts picturesque lakes – hence -one minute you are playing an approach shot beneath a 30-metre limestone cliff, the next you are adapting to the fresh ocean breeze on an undulating links style fairway. Jones himself described the 27 holes as “unquestionably one of the world’s finest golfing experiences”.
The three courses include: Lake (a more open 9-holes on a headland, where the wind is a big factor on your shots); Dune (a very tight narrow 9-holes); and Quarry (an old limestone quarry that, while intimidating, is an absolute challenge to your golfing senses).
Joondalup Country Club is on the coast, 25 minutes north of the Perth CBD. The adjacent Joondalup Resort offers accommodation in 70 beautifully appointed rooms and suites, each with its own private balcony or courtyard.
BARNBOUGLE DUNES
(TAS)
At Bridport on the north-eastern coast of Tasmania – Australia’s island state renowned for its untouched wilderness and pristine coastline – lies one of the world’s top links golf courses Barnbougle Dunes.
Set upon 200 acres of undulating coastal dunes by famed golf architect Tom Doak and former top Australian professional Michael Clayton, at Barnbougle “golf is an experience that strikes all the senses: with the sun on your back, the wind in your hair, the whiff of sea salt and the roar of the ocean, you’ll be captivated by all that Mother Nature has to offer”. No wonder the locals declare the breathtaking landscape upon which the course has been created “mirrors the wild coastal links courses of Scotland and Ireland”.
Barnbougle Dunes is approximately 1 hour from Launceston and 90 minutes from the Launceston airport (direct charter to the Barnbougle airstrip is also available). The on-site accommodation (just a chip from the 1st tee) is in cottages designed specifically for a foursome of golfers, with two rooms and a modern bathroom, plus a patio taking in the breath-taking sea views (up the beach out to the sparkling blue of Bass Strait) as well as course vistas.
The stunning clubhouse is perched upon a sand dune between the 9th and 18th greens, overlooking an enormous expanse of pristine beach. Barnbougle Dunes is definitely a course that requires strategy and plotting a suitable path according to your ability.
MOONAH LINKS
(VIC)
Located on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula amid a natural undulating landscape (less than 90 minutes from Melbourne), Peppers Moonah Links Resort is one of Australia’s most unique leisure resorts – combining two 18-hole championship golf courses, an Endota spa and luxury accommodation.
The golf courses (The Open and The Legends) have been designed to harmonise with the land which has been moulded from ancient rolling sand dunes. The challenge at The Open course is simple: “Step into the shoes of the pros for a day and test your drive on the only course designed for the Australian Open.” It is one of the longest courses in Australia (6,783 metres) so it offers more than a casual stroll in the outdoors. Australia’s legendary 5-time British Open Champion Peter Thompson declared: “It is a mighty and ferocious test of golfing ability, the likes of which even the top pros only occasionally experience. In terms of difficulty, I estimate a club-handicapped player would merit an extra eight strokes assistance to return a net par score. In addition to its conducive natural contours, the site is blessed with ever-present wind of some direction and strength, and this enhances its attributes. Visitors will get a whiff of what top championship play is really like.”
In contrast The Legends course “will be a more friendly golfing experience for players of all ages and abilities” commented Australasian Golf Design course architect Ross Perrett. “The course is a loop of 18 holes that generally follow the valleys through a variety of landscapes ranging from ancient Moonah woodlands to open links land. The fairways are generous and the putting surfaces gentle, but the bunkering style is bold and wild in appearance. At 6,315 metres, the course should be fun, but it won’t be a pushover.”
The adjacent Peppers Moonah Links Resort offers stylish accommodation in 92 deluxe rooms and suites, all with balconies overlooking the stunning golf course or putting green. Other on-site leisure facilities include a tennis court, gymnasium, walking tracks and mountain bikes.
HORIZONS GOLF RESORT
(NSW)
“Spoil Yourself At Horizons” declares the advertising catchcry for Horizons Golf Resort, nestled among spectacular wetlands a half-hour drive north of Newcastle (2.5 hours north from Sydney) on the holiday playground shores of Salamander Bay at Port Stephens.
Over recent decades the Graham Marsh/Ross Watson-designed Horizons course has become particularly popular as a weekend golfing getaway for groups from Sydney, who take advantage of the spacious accommodation in 1 and 2-bedroom luxury condominiums set above the 10th tee and fairway.
Meanwhile away from the course, Port Stephens boasts a resident population of over 160 bottlenose dolphins, whales in season, first-class snorkeling, diving in marine parks and endless water activities including water-skiing, aqua bikes, sailing and cruising, jet skiing, windsurfing, jet boating, parasailing, surfing and deep sea fishing. Or for those who prefer to keep their feet on terra firma, there’s also spectacular bushwalking and wildflowers, 4WD sand tours, tobogganing, horse riding, camel riding, sand dune quad-biking, sand-boarding and go-karting.
CYPRESS LAKES RESORT
(NSW)
“Taste the reds and challenge the greens at Cypress Lakes” is a particularly appropriate catchcry in this region, where the wine and golf are two great attractions. The Cypress Lakes Resort at Pokolbin in the NSW Hunter Valley, 2 hours north of Sydney, is set on 340 acres of the Hunter’s premier wine producing soils.
Designed by famed Floridian Steve Smyers, the 6,487 metres par-72 course is split into two distinct sections: the front nine is a links style layout par 37; and the back nine is tree-lined with sloping fairways par 35. With over 60 huge bunkers and dramatically shaped and elevated greens, each tee and green offer stunning panoramic views of the Hunter Valley’s famous vineyards and the surrounding Brokenback mountain range.
On the 16th hole, Cypress Lakes proudly boasts Australia’s longest par-5, measuring a daunting 603 metres from the Championship markers.
CAPE SCHANCK
(VIC)
Victoria’s Cape Schanck Resort, on the Mornington peninsula just an hour via the freeway from Melbourne, tags itself: “Australia’s Best Kept Secret.”
Perched high above the rolling escarpment on one of Australia’s most spectacular coastal headlands, it overlooks the majestic southern ocean with its famous surf beaches, rock pools and blow holes, while barely a 5-minute drive from the popular holiday destinations Flinders, Sorrento and Portsea.
The Cape Schanck golf course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, abuts Point Nepean National Park – with its forests and bushland, a haven for native flora and fauna and a paradise for the nature lover, bushwalker and weekend explorer.
Features of the course include: the thick clumps of tea tree which line many fairways; the numerous deadly bunkers strategically placed to really “toughen-up” the easier looking holes; and the massive, three-tiered green on the par-4 15th hole, which measures a whopping 76 metres from front edge to back lip.
