New South Wales GC Review And Images

My first taste of Australian golf came at the classy New South Wales Golf Club where Darius Oliver and Michael Goldstein kindly tolerated my jet lag swing. As you'll see in the image gallery posted below (and viewable permanently on the Photos page), we played the day after a huge storm and in the midst of maintenance work.

As far as golf course sites go, New South Wales is on par with Cypress Point and Shinnecock Hills in terms of diversity of terrain, stunning views and a fantastic routing offering interaction with the coastline on both nines. Architecturally, the course has suffered a few too many tweaks over the years, leaving a hodgepodge of ideas, looks and design philosophies throughout. The bunkering sums it all up: sod-stacked pits along with some attractive scruffy waste areas near the fairways and most unfortunate of all, some newly installed scrub to narrow a few landing areas. It's a big leap from old photos showing traces of Alister MacKenzie's influence. Throw in some unnecessary fairway contours and new changes by Greg Norman to man the place up, and it's hard to understand what the vision is for the design: more fun for hearty-but-older membership or trying for another Australian Open?

Most golfers won't notice the architectural inconsistency simply because the setting is so supreme and the club so ably operated. The facility is second to none, kicking off with one of the game's great, understated entrance drives (no road sign, just the national park sign), finished off by a beautifully divided car park which immediately lets you know you've arrived at one of golf's flagship properties.

Nonetheless, it's easy to envision a restored design and properly revitalized set of green complexes vaulting the course to top 20 world status. And as you'll see in the images below of the 15th tee view and a historic shot from the clubhouse walls, the old dunescape has badly overgrown. In some places the plant life is protected, but in others, it's nothing a little brush fire can't fix.