KOOINDAH WATERS GC

Acclaimed course designer Ross Watson has teamed with one of Australia's best players, Craig Parry, to create a new course on NSW's Central Coast. Brendan James says the impressive layout is destined to be a huge success.

Ross Watson has designed or remodelled dozens of courses in Australia, South-East Asia and Japan for more than 25 years. In that time he has been faced with some challenging projects.

He has, however, managed to turn a mosquito-infested swamp, an abandoned coal mine as well as land covered by ancient lava flows into a championship golf course. That said, Watson rates the land confronting him on his first visit to Kooindah Waters – near Wyong, on NSW’s Central Coast – as “perhaps the worst I have seen in many years”.

“We knew we had a big job in front of us,” Watson told Golf Australia. “While a small part of the site already had some holes from an old course, there was a signifi cant area of the course site that had been used for dumping rubbish for quite some time.

The short par-4 14th is one of Kooindah Waters' strategic gems.

“From a design point of view, the land didn’t offer much. It was a pretty fl at site and the wetlands were overgrown and almost choking. The land had so little to offer that during the early stages, there was hardly any birdlife on the site.”

Watson’s design partner for the project, Craig Parry, said that while the site was “pretty ordinary”, it gave him and Watson the opportunity to create something special from a “blank canvas”.

“I guess you could look at it this way. There were no constraints of trying to incorporate some special feature
of the landscape because it didn’t have any,” Parry said. “And the result is a very good golf course that strategically will test every golfer who plays it, no matter what their standard.

“No player should come away from here feeling like they have been bashed around by a tough course. The fairways are generously wide and while there are plenty of water hazards on the course, they can be easily negotiated or avoided.

“One philosophy we had about Kooindah from day one was that it had to be user-friendly. For that reason I have been very pedantic about fi lling in areas. The last thing you want to do is scare people away after one round. You don’t want them going away saying, ‘I’m never gonna play that golf course again’.”

I don’t think there is much chance of that happening. Looking at the layout, it is hard to believe Watson’s description of the land before it was transformed into what can only now be described as a very good golf course that the public will quickly warm to. Kooindah Waters is a user-friendly course. Players of all standards have been catered for. High handicapped or beginner players will fi nd generously sized landing areas short or to the side of trouble, while good players will find they need to strategically plot their way around the course.

The par-5 1st hole eases you into the round with generous landing areas between the hazards.

While Watson and Parry have not designed Kooindah Waters to take the driver out of the hand of better players, it didn’t escape this writer that on several holes the longer you hit your tee shot the straighter it must be. That said, if the better player wants to attack every par-4 and par-5 with a driver, their accuracy will be aptly rewarded with simple approach shots into receptive greens.

I like the way Watson and Parry ease you into the round with a relatively simple par-5 opening hole. The 463- metre 1st hole has a wide fairway that narrows between an out-of-bounds fence left and wetlands to the right at approximately the 300 metre mark. Long hitters will have to think twice about going for the green in two shots, as the front of the green is heavily protected by bunkers and a solitary railway sleeper-lined trap that lies at the back of the huge putting surface.

The cobwebs in your swing must be gone by the time you wander onto the 2nd tee. From the back markers, the 149-metre par-3 calls for a tee shot that is all carry over wetlands to a wide but shallow putting surface. Sand traps behind the green certainly complicate the process of club selection, because the last thing you want is to face a bunker shot back onto the green with the water hazard just beyond the fl ag. Players using the forward tees have plenty of fairway at their disposal to bale out left of the wetlands.

Kooindah Waters’ back nine, which will feature homes of the Kooindah Waters residential estate fl anking several holes, has, in my opinion, a great variety of holes that make the round more memorable.

Wetlands and an arcing strip of fairway lie between tee and green on the par-3 2nd hole.

Watson and Parry have continued the design revival of the short par-4 with their 298-metre 14th. This is a terrific hole where danger lurks only a few footsteps from the edge of the fairway but the temptation to attack from the tee will be too much for some, despite the obvious drama resulting from a miscued drive. An out-of-bounds fence lies 15 metres from the right of the fairway for its entire journey to the green. Wetlands – exposed during construction to the surprise of Watson and Parry – lie less than five metres from the left edge of the short grass. The wide fairway then narrows considerably the closer you get to the huge green, with massive bunkers staggered at different lengths left and right. While the designers acknowledge today’s long hitters can easily make the green from the tee, they also believe the shot must be hit on the perfect line to be successful.

Kooindah’s shortest par-4 is followed by the longest hole on the course – a 536-metre par-5. This is a genuine three-shot hole for all players with water and sand never far from the ideal playing line en route to the green. As is the case on several holes at Kooindah, the 15th green has been built above the level of the adjacent wetland and the fringe of the putting surface is all that lies between a good shot and a poor shot running into the hazard.

Kooindah Waters, which is part of the growing stable of Troon Golf-managed courses, is a wonderfully designed layout that is destined to be a huge success. The Bent grass greens are already superb, while the condition of the Couch fairways will become even better after just one full growing season.

When fully complete, the Kooindah Waters resort will have more than 100 rooms, a gym, outdoor leisure pool, indoor heated lap pool, spa, tennis courts and sauna, BBQ area, playground, community room plus an onsite day spa.

FACT FILE
LENGTH: 6,083 metres (black tees), 5,720 (gold), 4,955 (jade).
PAR: 72. ACR/ACWR: TBC
DESIGNERS: Ross Watson and Craig Parry.
GREEN FEE: $54 (Mon-Thurs), $64 (Fri-Sun).
ADDRESS: Kooindah Boulevard, Wyong, NSW, 2259.
PHONE: (02) 4351 0700.
WEBSITE: www.kooindahwaters.com.au
HOW TO GET THERE: Take the Wyong exit from the F3 freeway (Sydney to Newcastle). Turn left at roundabout towards Wyong and turn right over the railway in town centre and double back along the rail line. Turn left into Pollack Ave and follow the signs.