Australia’s largest city is blessed with some of the nation’s most famous attractions. After you’re done with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, here are the dozen highest-ranked courses to be found, all within a 45-minute drive of Sydney’s GPO.
9 AVONDALE GOLF CLUB
Avondale Golf Club quite rightly ranks among the Harbour City’s best courses but its ‘hidden’ location on the leafy upper north shore and its exclusivity have combined to maintain a low profile for the course.
The club was founded in 1926 by a consortium of leading businessmen who wanted to establish a private club on 200 acres of rugged bushland in Pymble, adjoining what is today the upper reaches of the Lane Cove River National Park. The course was officially opened the following year and the original clubhouse still stands and, although there have been several extensions, the same architectural-style remains.
Both the clubhouse and course were designed by Eric Apperly, who split his time throughout 1927 between Avondale and implementing the Alister MacKenzie design plans for the New South Wales Golf Club course at La Perouse. With pockets of the Avondale site cleared by members wielding axes, Apperly was able to create a superb routing across the heavily timbered slopes, rocky outcrops and stony ridges of the site. It is testament to his ability as a course designer that the routing remains largely unchanged to this day.
Acclaimed designer Ross Watson was commissioned by the club to redesign the course and this decade-long program was completed in 2008. Watson’s incorporated the best of Apperly’s routing into his reshaping of fairways and greens as well as the remodelling and addition of bunkers to the landscape.
Some of Avondale’s most memorable offerings come on the back nine and one of the best is the short par-4 17th hole. The 303-metre two-shotter is a terrific hole where you get a glimpse of the green in the distance from the elevated tee. In between is a ‘hogsback’ contoured fairway, which turns slightly right and plunges into a dip before rising again to meet the green. Long hitters sweating on a big finish to their round by finding the green with their tee shot need to be wary of the bunkers short and right of the relatively small kidney-shaped putting surface.
GREEN FEES: Reciprocal guests welcomed. Other guests may only be invited by a member.
10 ST MICHAEL’S GOLF CLUB
Covering some wonderful seaside land, St Michael’s is one of the most improved courses in Sydney during the past decade.
The northern neighbour of the famed New South Wales layout, St Michael’s offers a terrific variety of long and short holes that are played to all points of the compass and are all influenced by the ever-present wind.
For much of the past 10 years, ‘St Mick’s’ has been constantly working on improving the playing experience by raising the level of presentation (which has rarely been better than it is now) and tweaking the design of many holes. A program of clearing non-native vegetation has worked well and, in some parts of the course, this has exposed areas of sandy wasteland, which has added to the visual appeal without lessening the challenge.
One hole that has significantly improved is the 298-metre uphill par-4 9th. There was a time not so long ago where the only real play from the tee here was a fairway wood or long iron straight up the middle of a narrow fairway (avoiding bunkers and scrub left, and out-of-bounds and scrub right) to leave a short iron into the green. Pretty boring really! Today, golfers are asked questions on the tee about how they might tackle the hole. A large scheme of bunkers is visible up the left side of the fairway, which has been significantly widened with the clearing of scrub. Longer hitters might now be tempted at having a go at the green in favourable conditions, while shorter hitters can get the best angle into the elevated green by taking a tight driving line alongside the bunkers to the left. Playing to the fat of the fairway might be a safe driving play, but it will leave a second shot that must carry bunkers.
GREEN FEES: $90 (Monday to Saturday); $100 (Sunday).
11 MANLY GOLF CLUB
Situated a few well-struck drives from world famous Manly beach, Manly Golf Club underwent a large scale renovation by Peter Thomson and Ross Perrett in 2012 that has increased the challenge of the layout by putting an onus on placement and positon, rather than power.
With the brief to incorporate fragile wetlands of the area and address flooding problems on the low lying, flat piece of land, Thomson and Perrett created a strategic test with undulating greens of dramatically varied sizes – which make it difficult to get the ball close to the hole, even when approaching with as little as a wedge.
The playing surfaces have continued to improve each year since the renovation was completed, meaning the course’s presentation is always of a high standard. And while creeks that split multiple fairways on the northern paddock that houses holes 2-9, including the back-to-back par-5 2nd and 3rd holes, have received criticism for the holes’ lack of risk reward opportunities, the hazards do as the designers intended. They take the driver from all but the longest hitters’ hands and giving the course some added length on second shots, despite a lack of space.
The back nine, played entirely on the southern side of the property that is split by Kenneth Road, features the majority of the course’s more interesting holes – with multiple holes requiring players to work the ball from the tee to set up shorter approaches to the tricky greens, thanks to tree-lined doglegs and expansive fairway bunkering.
GREEN FEES: Limited midweek tee times are available for members of a golf club who hold a current handicap. $165 (per player).
12 CASTLE HILL COUNTRY CLUB
Castle Hill gained national recognition in the 1980s and ‘90s as one of Sydney’s premier courses as host of the Australian PGA Championship twice and the Australasian Tour’s Canon Challenge four times.
Much has changed since Greg Norman shot 15-under to win the PGA there in 1985 and there are more changes to come with Norman’s former design partner, Bob Harrison, submitting a masterplan for the redesign of the course.
Work began on the redesign last month, with construction crews starting on the 16th and 18th greens and surrounds. Despite the renovations, the course, about 35 kilometres north-west of the CBD, will be playable.
Castle Hill is a charismatic and enjoyable layout boasting good changes of elevation and some of the best prepared and consistent playing surfaces in Sydney.
The par-72 is a driver’s paradise, hence the success Norman had there in the mid-80s. The clubhouse occupies the highest point of the layout and three of the best driving holes – all par-5s – are played to and from the clubhouse.
For example, the 485-metre opening hole sweeps downhill from the elevated tee into a valley before rising again for the final approach to the green. The fairway is heavily bunkered in the lay-up area and around the massive putting surface that slopes markedly from right-to-left. There is almost three clubs’ difference between a front and back pin position, so correct club selection from any distance is important here.
GREEN FEES: $99 (18 holes with shared cart and drink) for visitors Mondays after 10am.
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