AusGolf - Australia's Top 100 Public Access (2011)
Australia's Top 100 Public Access Golf Courses - 2011
from the Golf Course GuideAustralia's Top 100 Public Access Golf Courses - 2011
Ausgolf and The Golf Course Guide is proud to present our annual assessment of Australia’s Best Public Access Courses in the most informative format we can devise – separate lists showing how our judges ranked the candidates in each of three key criteria: Design, Conditions and Aesthetics.
2011 RANK* COURSE 2010 RANK
1 BARNBOUGLE DUNES 1
2 MOONAH LINKS - LEGENDS 2
3 THE DUNES 5
4 JOONDALUP - QUARRY/DUNES 3
5 KENNEDY BAY 4
6 MAGENTA SHORES 6
7 MOONAH LINKS - OPEN 7
8 BARWON HEADS 8
9 THIRTEENTH BEACH - BEACH 9
10 ST ANDREWS BEACH nr
11 PACIFIC HARBOUR 10
12 PORTSEA 12
13 THE CUT 11
14 HAMILTON ISLAND nr
15 BROOKWATER 14
16 BONVILLE 13
17 HOPE ISLAND 15
18 COOLUM 19
19 CLUB PELICAN 18
20 HERITAGE - ST JOHNS 23
21 GLADES 17
22 CAPRICORN - CHAMPIONSHIP 16
23 LAKELANDS 20
24 VINES - LAKES 21
25 VINTAGE 22
26 PACIFIC DUNES 31
27 SANCTUARY COVE - PINES 30
28 PORT FAIRY 26
29 THIRTEENTH BEACH - CREEK 24
30 HORSHAM 32
31 EYNESBURY 27
32 MEADOW SPRINGS 25
33 SORRENTO 36
34 CAPE SCHANCK 34
35 ST MICHAEL'S 28
36 LAGUNA - TURTLE POINT 37
37 PARADISE PALMS 35
38 ROBINA WOODS 33
39 RANFURLIE 29
40 MURRAY DOWNS 39
41 ALICE SPRINGS 46
42 HERITAGE - HENLEY 48
43 NOOSA SPRINGS 40
44 TWIN WATERS 41
45 ROYAL HOBART 45
46 LINKS LADY BAY 38
47 BONNIE DOON 47
48 LONG REEF 43
49 NAROOMA 49
50 CRANBOURNE 50
Next 50 alphabetic
Top 100 ALBANY Top 100
Top 100 ARALUEN Top 100
Top 100 BELMONT Top 100
Top 100 BRIBIE ISLAND Top 100
Top 100 CAMDEN LAKESIDE Top 100
Top 100 CAPRICORN - RESORT Top 100
Top 100 COBRAM BAROOGA - OLD Top 100
Top 100 COLONIAL Top 100
Top 100 COOLANGATTA - RIVER Top 100
Top 100 COROWA Top 100
Top 100 CRESWICK FOREST nr
Top 100 CYPRESS LAKES Top 100
Top 100 EAGLE RIDGE Top 100
Top 100 FEDERAL Top 100
Top 100 FLINDERS Top 100
Top 100 FORSTER-TUNCURRY - TUNCURRY Top 100
Top 100 GAINSBOROUGH GREENS Top 100
Top 100 GOLD CREEK Top 100
Top 100 GROWLING FROG Top 100
Top 100 HORIZONS Top 100
Top 100 INDOOROOPILLY - EAST Top 100
Top 100 KEPERRA Top 100
Top 100 KINGSTON LINKS Top 100
Top 100 KOOINDAH WATERS 44
Top 100 LAKES ENTRANCE Top 100
Top 100 MOLLYMOOK - HILLTOP Top 100
Top 100 MT BROUGHTON Top 100
Top 100 NORTH LAKES Top 100
Top 100 OCEAN SHORES Top 100
Top 100 ROSEBUD - NORTH Top 100
Top 100 ROSEBUD - SOUTH Top 100
Top 100 ROYAL PINES - GREEN/GOLD Top 100
Top 100 SANDS TORQUAY 42
Top 100 SEATEMPLE Top 100
Top 100 SECRET HARBOUR Top 100
Top 100 SHEPPARTON Top 100
Top 100 TALLWOODS Top 100
Top 100 TASMANIA Top 100
Top 100 THE COAST Top 100
Top 100 TOCUMWAL - CAPTAINS Top 100
Top 100 TOCUMWAL - PRESIDENTS Top 100
Top 100 TUGGERAH LAKES Top 100
Top 100 TURA BEACH Top 100
Top 100 VINES - ELLENBROOK Top 100
Top 100 WARRNAMBOOL nr
Top 100 WATERFORD VALLEY Top 100
Top 100 YARRAWONGA - MURRAY Top 100
Top 100 YERING MEADOWS Top 100
Top 100 YOWANI Top 100
Little changed in our course rankings for 2011. Few courses underwent major design surgery, climatic conditions generally eased slightly and many courses completed work to ensure ongoing water availability making for an overall improvement in course conditioning.
Welcome newcomers to our list this year are the re-opened St Andrews Beach on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula and the Hamilton Island Golf Club on Dent Island.
St Andrews Beach (10) is simply a wonderful tour through the towering sand dunes of the Peninsula’s famed Cups region designed by internationally renowned Tom Doak, and exemplifies the architect’s minimalist approach with virtually no earth moved during construction. The course was ranked at No. 3 in our Design table, and is destined to move further up the overall rankings list as the new owners restore the playing surfaces to their former glory.
Thomson Perrett’s Hamilton Island golf course (14) boasts wonderful ocean views from almost every one of its elevated tees and when more of our judges have had the opportunity to visit the course it may well challenge for top honours in our Aesthetics table where it debuts this year at No. 3. The design is somewhat compromised by severe fairway slopes combined with blind tee shots that make play difficult, especially with the wind, and lost balls common. Conditioning is set to improve as the new course settles in.
Firmly entrenched at No. 1 again this year is Doak’s second Australian commission – Barnbougle Dunes on Tasmania’s northern coastline. This world class links layout just gets better and better with the maturing pure fescue playing surfaces for tees, fairways and greens now ranked No. 4 for Conditions by our panel, who generally accept that the greens cannot be ultra fast given the brutal winds that typically confront the player in this genuine links setting. The fairways are appropriately wide to account for the wind factor, and with multiple tee options the course truly provides something for players of every ability – the most important factor in assessing a Public Access Design.
Ross Perrett’s Legends Course at Moonah Links retains 2nd place overall, ranking No. 2 for conditions (just behind its Leviathan neighbour the Open Course) and No. 4 for design – again so ranked because it can provide an enjoyable challenge for all rather than a brutal and often penal test such as that imposed by its neighbour which was constructed to host the Australian Open and be a fitting challenge for elite golfers.
Perennial favourite, Tony Cashmore’s The Dunes also on the Mornington Peninsula moved up two places to No. 3 this year, with just a marginal improvement in Conditions, demonstrating once again just how close is the scoring of our top courses. The Dunes set the benchmark for upscale daily fee (public access) courses when it was constructed 16 years ago, and at the same time marked the re-emergence of links like golf in Australia. As many other high quality coastal layouts followed, our list is now dominated by this style, with only Joondalup (4) amongst the top ten not set in seaside sand dunes.
Kennedy Bay (5), another stunning links on the coast south of Perth dropped just one spot, despite our panel this year demoting its design rank from 3 to 6 and its conditions from 5 to 7, again just demonstrating that the scoring is so close that these moves are not significant. No golfing visit to WA is complete without a game at Kennedy Bay plus another at Joondalup which also moved down one place this year with slightly poorer placings for design and quite a drop down the aesthetics list – perhaps the most subjective of our lists as beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder.
Ranfurlie at No. 39 will be considered harshly dealt with by lovers of Mike Clayton’s work, but our group of judges could rate the design no higher than No. 23 and were not overly impressed by Conditions nor Aesthetics.
BEST DESIGN
2011 COURSE 2010 RANK*
1 BARNBOUGLE DUNES 1
2 THE DUNES 2
3 ST ANDREWS BEACH nr
4 MOONAH LINKS - LEGENDS 6
5 THIRTEENTH BEACH - BEACH 5
6 KENNEDY BAY 3
7 JOONDALUP - QUARRY/DUNES 4
8 MAGENTA SHORES 7
9 PORTSEA 8
10 BARWON HEADS 11
11 PACIFIC HARBOUR 12
12 THE CUT 9
13 CLUB PELICAN 17
14 HOPE ISLAND 14
15 GLADES 16
16 BROOKWATER 13
17 MOONAH LINKS - OPEN 18
18 HERITAGE - ST JOHNS 19
19 CAPRICORN - CHAMPIONSHIP 15
20 LAGUNA - TURTLE POINT 10
21 VINES - LAKES 20
22 COOLUM 24
23 RANFURLIE Top 50
24 PACIFIC DUNES Top 50
25 EYNESBURY 22
Next 25 alphabetic
Top 50 BONVILLE 21
Top 50 CAPE SCHANCK Top 50
Top 50 HAMILTON ISLAND nr
Top 50 HERITAGE - HENLEY Top 50
Top 50 HORIZONS Top 50
Top 50 HORSHAM Top 50
Top 50 LAKELANDS Top 50
Top 50 LINKS LADY BAY Top 50
Top 50 MEADOW SPRINGS Top 50
Top 50 MURRAY DOWNS Top 50
Top 50 OCEAN SHORES Top 50
Top 50 PARADISE PALMS Top 50
Top 50 PORT FAIRY Top 50
Top 50 ROBINA WOODS Top 50
Top 50 ROYAL HOBART Top 50
Top 50 SANCTUARY COVE - PINES 25
Top 50 SECRET HARBOUR Top 50
Top 50 SORRENTO Top 50
Top 50 ST MICHAEL'S Top 50
Top 50 TASMANIA Top 50
Top 50 THIRTEENTH BEACH - CREEK Top 50
Top 50 TWIN WATERS Top 50
Top 50 VINTAGE Top 50
Top 50 WATERFORD VALLEY Top 50
Top 50 YERING MEADOWS 23
BEST CONDITIONING
2011
COURSE 2010
RANK
1 MOONAH LINKS - OPEN 1
2 MOONAH LINKS - LEGENDS 2
3 JOONDALUP - QUARRY/DUNES 3
4 BARNBOUGLE DUNES 6
5 LAKELANDS 4
6 THE DUNES 7
7 KENNEDY BAY 5
8 HOPE ISLAND 13
9 PACIFIC HARBOUR 8
10 BARWON HEADS 9
11 MAGENTA SHORES 12
12 BROOKWATER 21
13 THIRTEENTH BEACH - BEACH 10
14 THE CUT 11
15 COOLUM 15
16 HAMILTON ISLAND nr
17 PORTSEA 16
18 GLADES 14
19 ST ANDREWS BEACH nr
20 HERITAGE - ST JOHNS 24
21 CLUB PELICAN 18
22 VINTAGE 19
23 BONVILLE 17
24 VINES - LAKES 22
25 SANCTUARY COVE - PINES Top 50
Next 25 alphabetic
Top 50 ALICE SPRINGS nr
Top 50 BONNIE DOON 25
Top 50 CAPE SCHANCK Top 50
Top 50 CAPRICORN - CHAMPIONSHIP Top 50
Top 50 CRANBOURNE nr
Top 50 EAGLE RIDGE Top 50
Top 50 EYNESBURY Top 50
Top 50 HORSHAM Top 50
Top 50 MEADOW SPRINGS 23
Top 50 MURRAY DOWNS Top 50
Top 50 NOOSA SPRINGS Top 50
Top 50 PACIFIC DUNES Top 50
Top 50 PARADISE PALMS Top 50
Top 50 PORT FAIRY Top 50
Top 50 RANFURLIE Top 50
Top 50 ROBINA WOODS Top 50
Top 50 ROYAL PINES - GREEN/GOLD Top 50
Top 50 SANDS TORQUAY Top 50
Top 50 SORRENTO Top 50
Top 50 ST MICHAEL'S Top 50
Top 50 THIRTEENTH BEACH - CREEK 20
Top 50 TWIN WATERS Top 50
Top 50 WATERFORD VALLEY Top 50
Top 50 YARRAWONGA - MURRAY nr
BEST AESTHETICS
2011
COURSE 2010
RANK
1 BARNBOUGLE DUNES 1
2 BONVILLE 2
3 HAMILTON ISLAND nr
4 THE DUNES 4
5 KENNEDY BAY 3
6 BARWON HEADS 6
7 ST ANDREWS BEACH nr
8 MOONAH LINKS - LEGENDS 9
9 MAGENTA SHORES 7
10 PORTSEA 13
11 JOONDALUP - QUARRY/DUNES 5
12 PACIFIC HARBOUR 11
13 MOONAH LINKS - OPEN 12
14 CAPRICORN - CHAMPIONSHIP 14
15 LAGUNA - TURTLE POINT 10
16 THE CUT 8
17 NAROOMA 17
18 COOLUM 18
19 THIRTEENTH BEACH - BEACH 16
20 PORT FAIRY 19
21 ALICE SPRINGS 15
22 BROOKWATER 20
23 CAPE SCHANCK 21
24 HERITAGE - ST JOHNS nr
25 HOPE ISLAND 23
WHAT ARE PUBLIC ACCESS COURSES?
To be considered for this list courses must be available for play by public, green fee paying golfers for most of the year. Courses available only to members, interstate or overseas visitors, or holders of official handicaps are excluded. The list includes:
Public Courses –the best courses are mostly privately owned these days, although a few are council owned. These courses have no members and are available to anyone who pays a green fee and conforms to a few simple requirements such as dress codes and owning or hiring a set of clubs.
Resort Courses – privately owned, with additional facilities on site such as accommodation. Such additional facilities are NOT considered in ranking the courses, but are ranked separately in our tables to enable readers to select just what they require for their stay.
Private Courses – most golf courses throughout Australia are private clubs. An annual fee, and often a joining fee, is required, and members then do not usually pay green fees. Most clubs have tee times when the public may pay green fees and play the course, sometimes including club competition times. Such courses are considered “public access” in this Guide if they permit green fee players several days per week. Some private courses are only accessible to the public whilst they stay in on site accommodation. These courses are included in the list.
Other clubs are more exclusive, requiring guests to be introduced by a member, or permitting unaccompanied non-members access only if they are club members visiting from interstate or overseas. These courses are excluded from this list.
HOW THE LISTS WERE COMPILED
The Golf Course Guide has published a list of Australia’s best Public Access Courses every year since 2001. Our list differs from those found in other publications in some important aspects. Clearly, we are focused only on those courses that encourage green fee players (see details under “what are public access courses”). Our judges have a range of ages and golfing abilities and are instructed to reward course designs that cater for golfers of every level. We are extremely proud of the methodology that we have developed over many years. We strive for transparency, with clear criteria, and we offer separate lists based on course design, conditions and aesthetics to enable readers to select courses that will most readily appeal to their own preferences.
Panellists were asked to score only courses they had played. Colleagues who play certain courses frequently were consulted to more accurately assess year round conditions. The judging period is from August 2009 to July 2010 in order to print the Guide and have it on sale well before Christmas. This unfortunately penalizes courses that have made improvements too late to be judged. All scores were standardised to compensate for any particular harshness or leniency, and spurious high or low results were rejected.
Course Design (40% weighting): How each hole presents an enjoyable, even thrilling challenge to golfers of all abilities from scratch markers to high handicappers and shorter hitters. The variety of different holes that make up the course, and the variety of shots that they require to test every facet of your game. The strategic design of each hole - where hazards come into play, reward for risk takers plus the existence of a safer/easier option, maybe with an additional stroke, for those who choose not to take the risk.
Courses with two separate 18s considered as two courses; where 27 holes available, the “best” 18 selected.
Course Conditions (40% weighting): Year round playing conditions (from best to worst season) and course maintenance of greens (greatest weighting), fairways, tees, rough and hazards.
Course Aesthetics (20% weighting): The obvious beauty of the setting and also that very subjective quality of ambience and tranquillity that allows the golfer to lose himself in his environment. For some golfers, the thrill of playing golf in a stunning (eg coastal clifftop) environment can far outweigh lacklustre design strategy, and even mediocre fairway conditions. For these players, our allocation of only 20% weighting will seem inadequate, and they should seek out courses from our Best Aesthetics list, rather than the overall rankings.
The Judges
Selwyn Berg is the Managing Editor of ausgolf and the Editor and Publisher of The Golf Course Guide. Handicap of 11 at Commonwealth.
Jeff Blunden is the Director of JBAS, an independent advisory company offering dedicated, professional advice to the golf and leisure industries.
He is a member at Bonnie Doon, playing off a handicap of 8.
Graeme Bond is Sports presenter on 3AW Fairfax Radio network where he has covered all the major Australian golf events for the past 14 years
A member at the National and Settlers Run, he plays off a handicap of 12.
Steve Keipert is the Editor of Australian Golf Digest, a role that takes him to golf courses across Australia. His handicap is 9 at Ashlar Golf Club, Sydney.
Garry Kennedy is Editor and Publisher of Hacker Golf Quarterly and General Manager of The Golf Course Guide. His current handicap is 14 at Heidelberg.
Jonathan McCleery is a golf author and investor who plays off 7 at Riversdale where he is presently Captain.
Peter Nolan is a keen golfer who plays off 7 at Rosanna.
Kevin Pallier has played golf extensively throughout Australia and the British Isles. He is a panellist for a number of golfing publications including Australian Golf Digest and Golf World (UK). He is a member at Wollongong Golf Club, NSW with a handicap of 11
David Worley is a member at Commonwealth, Sorrento and Moonah Links who plays off 11. He has recently written a comprehensive book on British Links.
This year a few of our regular panel are absent due to travel or other commitments or had seen too few courses through the judging period. We have used some past Design and Aesthetics scores where no changes have been made on course provided by George Begg, Rohan Clarke, Brendan James and Leon Wiegard.