Holiday at Home: South of the Swan

When you have been sitting on a plane for two hours, the first movie has been watched, you’re into your second in-flight snack and the flight tracker map shows you’re not quite halfway, there is a realisation Perth is a long way away.

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THE GOLF COAST

The 45-kilometre stretch of West Australian coastline – from Port Kennedy in the north to the Peel Estuary in the south – is often referred to as the Golf Coast as it is home to four highly-rated courses, two of which are currently ranked in Australia’s Top-100.

Links Kennedy Bay has been a mainstay for visiting golfers to the region for more than two decades and in 2020 was ranked No.33 in Golf Australia magazine’s Top-100 Courses biennial list.

It wasn’t ranked this year as it is currently undergoing a multi-million-dollar transformation after the closure of the original back nine to become part of a new residential development.

The course and a new state-of-the-art clubhouse are the jewel in the crown for Place Development Australia and its 10-year, $425 million project to develop the area into a village and community hub, which will also include 1,000 new homes, beach, jetty and a nature playground.

Graham Marsh was commissioned to come up with a masterplan incorporating nine new holes, a redesign of the original 5th through to the 9th hole and the first half of the opening hole. The second half of the original 1st hole and the 2nd through 4th holes will remain unchanged.

Meadow Springs Golf and Country Club. PHOTO: Brendan James.

Four holes of the Marsh redesign have already been constructed and are now in play as part of a nine-hole layout, and work continues on the second nine holes, which is due to open later in 2023.

According to Marsh’s concept masterplan, the new Links Kennedy Bay will stretch to 6,775 metres from the tips, making it one of the longest courses in the country.

When complete it will become the second Marsh design on the Golf Coast.

Less than 10 minutes’ drive south of Kennedy Bay is the Marsh-designed Secret Harbour Golf Links.

Laid out over large sand dunes and winding between thick coastal scrub, Secret Harbour is the centrepiece of an enormous residential golf community development that had its start back in 1999.

Just a drive and pitch from the Indian Ocean, it is a rare day that Secret Harbour does not feature some wind to complicate what would normally be straight-forward shots.

Arguably the best holes at Secret Harbour can be found on the outward half, which Marsh once claimed to be the best nine holes he had ever designed.

The undulating dunescape of the front nine makes way for gentler rolling holes on the back nine. Accuracy must be at a premium on the homeward trek because of the strategic bunkering Marsh has incorporated into his design. There is a combination of deep pot bunkers and sprawling Melbourne Sandbelt-style hazards excavated out of the sandy base at regular intervals between the 10th and 18th holes.

Heading further south on the Golf Coast, you will find the immaculately presented Meadow Springs Golf & Country Club, which was ranked No.57 in Golf Australia magazine’s Top-100 Courses earlier this year.

Designed by American Robert Trent Jones Jnr, Meadow Springs opened for play in 1993 and over the years it has matured into one of the best presented and enjoyable courses in Western Australia.

It is a fabulous design and routing but the lasting impression Meadow Springs leaves on all golfers is its conditioning, with the immaculate couch fairways and bentgrass greens setting a standard of conditioning many private clubs with huge maintenance budgets would look upon with envy.

The Cut Golf Course. PHOTO: Brendan James.

The quality playing surfaces fully complement the Jones’ design. The American has a reputation for working with the natural beauty of a site and it was no different at Meadow Springs. His finished product weaves between towering Tuart trees, four blue lakes and more than 70 bunkers. He is certainly not afraid to intimidate the golfer with a sea of sand or make a player second-guess their shot with a strategically placed pot or wasteland style bunker.

The massive Tuart trees, which are native to this coastal region, are a real feature of the Meadow Springs layout with some dating back more than 200 years. Some of the biggest of these trees line the four closing holes. This quartet, starting with the par-5 15th, offers a great finish where birdies are as common as bogeys and double bogeys.

My favourite of the closing foursome is the 354-metre par-4 17th, where longer hitters must hug the left half of the fairway to avoid a staggered line of bunkers lying diagonally from right-to-left beside the driving zone. With a fairway that slopes gently from left-to-right, toward the bunkers, an accurate tee shot is needed to stay out of the sand. If successful, you will be left with a mid-iron to a large elevated green where three-putts are common.

One of the most dramatic playing experiences on the Golf Coast is at The Cut golf course.

Laid out on and around sand dunes just south of the inlet to the picturesque Peel Estuary, The Cut was designed by James Wilcher and opened for play in 2005. It has been ranked in Golf Australia magazine’s Top-100 Courses in Australia ever since.

Wilcher’s design is impressive and covers two contrasting landscapes. The opening hole leads straight from the clubhouse to the ocean and the following three holes run parallel to the beach across gently rolling land. The 2nd and 3rd holes are terrific short par-4s where a narrow strip of dense native scrub to the left is all that separates the fairway from the beach.

The most memorable holes at The Cut are on the back nine, away from the residential development that overlooks the 5th through to the 9th hole. The inward half is far more undulating than the front nine with each hole bordered by thick walls of native shrubs while high dunes play a significant role on some holes. A combination of rough, natural bunkering and manicured traps can be found between tee and green on every hole.

Undoubtedly the highlight of the course is the 400-metre par-4 12th. The tee is perched high above the beach, offering panoramic ocean views and a sighter of the green, parked on another high dune off in the distance. The fairway drops quickly from the tee, cutting through some rugged sand dunes before reaching the corner of the dogleg and the flat driving zone. The fairway turns right and heads uphill, past sandy wasteland and mounding to the right, to the putting surface. This hole offers loads of the “wow” factor and is worth the price of the green fee alone.

WHERE TO PLAY