Thirteenth Beach Creek Course

NEARLY TWO YEARS AFTER IT OPENED, THE NICK FALDO/TONY CASHMORE-DESIGNED CREEK COURSE AT THIRTEENTH BEACH, ON VICTORIA’S BELLARINE PENINSULA, IS STARTING TO LIVE UP TO ITS POTENTIAL AND NAME. BRENDAN JAMES REPORTS.

In winning each of his six major titles, Nick Faldo not only played himself into a winning position on the back of strong shot-making but his course strategy could not be faulted.



Faldo has brought his playing strengths to the design business and his Thirteenth Beach Creek course creation, in collaboration with cclaimed Australian architect Tony Cashmore, is evidence of that. What was relatively flat grazing land, on the outskirts of Barwon Heads on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, just five years ago has been transformed into rolling Couch grass fairways punctuated by huge, deep bunkers and flanked by often wide avenues of rough.

It is easy to see that Faldo is a keen student of the design work of Dr Alister MacKenzie, particularly his famed Royal Melbourne layout, given the look of each green and its surrounds. The green complexes are superb with closely mown swales and hollows nestled alongside creative greenside bunkering that cuts into each putting surface. The slopes created off the edge of the bunkers adds to the excitement of putting on the true greens of the Creek course.

“Players will enjoy that we’ve got big, long sloping fairways and if they’re looking for a bit of strategy, they are going to enjoy themselves,” Faldo said at the opening of the course last year. “I like building a challenge, that’s what excites me as a designer.” There are risk and reward options from the tee on most holes but it is the strategy required for your approach shots that impressed this writer. Courses like Royal Melbourne and Augusta National possess the same attributes so one can only assume Faldo and Cashmore are paying homage to MacKenzie with this design.



There are well defined good and bad spots to miss each green and I found it possible to still score well without landing approach shots in the heart of a putting surface, provided I found one of the “good miss” areas. A “bad miss”, like making a poor club selection and dropping
one short into one of the many cavernous bunkers on the layout, really makes you fight hard to save par.

Read the rest of this review in the December 2005 issue of Golf Australia. Order your back issues from www.mymagazines.com.au

FACT FILE
LENGTH: 6,401 metres (black tees), 6,165 (blue), 5,163 (red).
PAR: 71
ACR/ACWR: 74 (black), 72 (blue and red).
DESIGNER: Nick Faldo and Tony Cashmore.
GREEN FEE: $45 (weekdays), $55 (weekends).
ADDRESS: Barwon Heads Rd, Barwon Heads, Victoria, 3227.
PHONE: (03) 5254 2922.
WEBSITE: www.13thbeach.net

HOW TO GET THERE
From Melbourne, take the West Gate and Princes freeways south to Geelong. Follow the signs to Queenscliff and then turn left onto Bellarine Highway. At Wallington, turn right to Ocean Grove and then follow the signs to Barwon Heads. Course is two minutes’ drive through the town.