In the current age of golf course design, authorship decidedly has a shelf life. The architect’s name serves as a brand for a course, but the actual association often wanes once the site visits and official opening are done. It’s in the nature of courses to change, diluting the links between designer and design – sometimes, however, it’s the architect that gets there first, ready to mentally file away the last project and move onto the next.
It’s a description that doesn’t apply to Kooindah Waters and Craig Parry. The 23-time winner across the various Tours of the world co-designed the course on the NSW Central Coast with Ross Watson, and continues to give it the most ringing endorsement you’d think a course architect, particularly one that was a former Tour player, could give – he still plays it, regularly, for enjoyment.
There’s a street named after him in the development, and Parry’s attachment to the place is tangible. “I put a lot into it,” he says, noting how he and his boys get away from Sydney often for a few rounds here. “I enjoy going up there with the resort, the course is always good fun to play.”
At the heart of a major development in the town of Wyong, the course at Kooindah Waters was raised out of a largely non-descript site. The predominant feature of this golfing landscape – wetland areas that wind in and around the inward and outward holes of both nines – were actually uncovered during construction. These wetlands really have come to define Kooindah’s character, most prominently separating the fairway from the green at the 9th, in full view of the clubhouse, as well as providing a habitat for the abundant bird life that accompanies golfers at every point of their round.
