Just as the great sage Ned Flanders said to Bart Simpson as they careened down a wild river in a canoe, the championship golf course in Mollymook wasn’t called ‘Mollymook Park’ or ‘Mollymook Meadow’ or ‘Mollymook Slightly Undulating But Otherwise Flatlands’. No. They called it ‘Mollymook Hilltop’. Because you start high and finish there, too. In between it takes you on a ride.

The 1st and 10th holes are par-4s that send golfers blindly over a cliff and down long, steep chutes to basins far below. The 8th and 18th holes are par-5s which climb out of the gorge and back to basecamp. The par-3 9th rides upwards and across the escarpment. There are doglegs and drop-offs. There are cathedrals of trees. There are many wild animals.

On the day I played, with a pair of sharp-shooting wise-crackers from the Australian-Croatian golf community, and a six-marker surfer pal of theirs from Victoria’s Torquay GC, we reached the top of Hilltop’s hill and were genuinely puffing, heart rates up. It was like the end of an adventure.

Three hours south of Sydney on the Shoalhaven coast, Mollymook has two quite different courses on separate sites. The 18-hole layout on the hill for golfers (which we’ll largely focus on) and the recently renovated nine-hole Beachside course suited to kids and friends having fun.

Hilltop has shades of Brookwater (near Brisbane) and Bonville (Coffs Coast) about it, weaving through a long-established forest of Blackbutt, Bloodwood and Turpentine trees. Opened in 1977, the course was carved out of the forest by Ken McKay and Sons from Wollongong, who worked with a local builder, Bill Andriske, whose works on Mollymook Oval were so well received that the council renamed it Bill Andriske Oval.

A hint of Augusta on the south coast: the testing downhill par-3 17th hole. PHOTO: Supplied/Gary Lisbon.

Hilltop has 28 bunkers and some water, but its protection is the forest and the slope of its fairways and greens. From the tee, there are good sides of the fairway and not as good ones. If you’re in the trees there are three options: chop out sideways, bend something around a corner, or hit another tree. All three come with risk.

General Manager Barry West estimates there are up to 5,000 trees. Given the time I spent amongst them, that figure feels conservative. I was punished for erratic tee shots but rewarded also, as it allowed me to fashion and shape shots which drew and sliced back into action. It was funky stuff, and fun.

Hilltop’s signature hole, if it has one, is the par-3 17th. Tight off the tee, it’s tree-lined both sides and offers a fine and scenic drop down to the green. West’s favourite is 11, a super par-4 with nice risk-reward – each Saturday he tries to hit the concrete pathway left and bound along it – while course superintendent Mark Pullinger, who’s worked at the course since he left school 23 years ago, likes the entire back nine.

“It’s hilly, undulating and has a lot of character. The front nine, there’s five holes set in flat land. They do dogleg and have a little character. They’re strong golf holes. But 10 to 18, if our course is photographed and talked about, it’d be because of those holes,” Pullinger says.

The beautiful sweeping 13th is a classic risk-reward par-5. PHOTO: Supplied/Gary Lisbon.

Locals will tell you Hilltop plays longer than on paper. Par-5s play uphill. Kikuyu fairways offer little run. It can be soft with rain. Unlike the stylings of architect Dr Alister MacKenzie, Hilltop doesn’t offer a gentle tickle to ease you into the round: strong four par-4s challenge with distance, gradients and shape.

The opening hole, your tee shot is straightforward (if blind) but your second shot is often from a downslope. A long hitter can be hitting a hard wedge off a steep slope with a hazard behind the green – distance control is tricky.

Number two is a long, boomerang dogleg right. Number three’s a long, boomerang dogleg left. Four’s just long and straight. “If you’re on the 5th tee and even par, even a low-marker, you’ve done pretty well,” West says. “It’s quite easy to be four-over and you haven’t hit a bad shot.”

Hilltop sports a host of bird life including cockatoos, rozellas and wood ducks that poo on Pullinger’s greens. Bearded dragons scurry around and there’s the odd snake, according to Pullinger “though only red bellies or diamond pythons, not the nasty tigers or browns found inland”.

“And at night it’s fairly alive with possums, the greater glider, the odd koala and owls,” Pullinger says.

One perennial piece of work for grounds staff is clearing bark under trees. Hilltop has five ride-on blowers, which would be four or five more than most courses. With those five big jets going all at once they can quickly clean up under eucalypts which shed skins like strippers.

Pullinger says he gets a lot of positive comments about the state of the greens though admits some of them are “pretty funky”. “If we don’t watch it, they can get almost too quick,” he says. “There’s 3-4 holes that can be unplayable. For a big tournament we keep them just on the verge. We can’t have them over 10 on the ‘stimp’.

“From a turf management point of view, we don’t roll those greens leading into an event. They don’t become two-paced – they become even-paced. But if you’re looking at a downhill putt on 12, 13, 14, you’ve got to hang on. There are spots you’d be putting sideways or backwards. It can be tricky, though you won’t find it after rain.”

The camber of the 11th fairway encourages approach shots to fly towards the lake. PHOTO: Supplied/Gary Lisbon.

The course has undergone two major changes in recent times, swapping the nines in 2008 (to speed up play) and renovating the bunkers in 2015. Outside of this, Hilltop has had a rolling series of consultants and reports offering advice. Greg Norman Design had a look. Ross Watson was there. Yet the club didn’t have the money to act on recommendations. They do now, though. And a six-year master plan is afoot.

“We’re going to recreate what’s there,” West says. “We’re going to build more tees and create larger ones. We’ll put in better drainage, new irrigation. And we’ll have new greens, new collars, new surrounds, which we’ll tie in with the new bunkering.

“The layout will change hardly at all. The biggest change will be the par-3 9th hole.”

On architect Harley Kruse’s advice, the 9th green will be moved away from the clubhouse, where it presents a safety risk, and the hole shortened. The new surface will be larger and protected by three bunkers. “We’ll also extend the par-3 12th hole,” West adds.

It’s long been identified that Hilltop needs larger teeing surfaces. With 56,000 rounds a year and shade from the gums, sunshine on space is at a premium. A par-3 tee that’s 300 square metres will struggle to cope.

Thus, the plan is to shut down each hole for four months and focus on it. Certain holes will be cut in two. “We want minimal disruption,” West says. “The bigger clubs, Royal Sydney, can just go bang, shut the whole thing down. If we looked at that option, there’d be total anarchy. We’re not a private club so the best way for the members is to add an extra hole and keep everyone moving.”

Mollymook outsources groundskeeping to Programmed Turnpoint, the construction and maintenance company whose General Manager, Justin Trott, is a golf course architect who began as a groundsman at the MCG before 17 years with the course design company of Ross Perrett, Michael Wolveridge and Peter Thomson.

Every quarter Trott comes to Mollymook to go through the master plan with West, Pullinger, Troon’s Asia-Pacific Director of Agronomy and Operations, David Lunardelli, and MGC’s course management team. Otherwise, according to West, “the rest of it we’re working out ourselves.”

Pullinger says the greens today “are a mixture of everything – there’d be four or five strains running through; maybe 40-50 percent poa.” The team hasn’t decided on the replacement surface yet but has an eye on Pure Distinction bentgrass which is in place at leafy Killara in Sydney’s north, which also has zoysia surrounds. Mollymook recently sowed zoysia on their nine-hole little sister course by the beach.

Through the winter Hilltop’s kikuyu fairways go into semi-dormancy and the mowers are put away for a few months. “The kike goes to bed,” Pullinger says. “It can be a very heavy undrained profile - when we get wet, we get wet, and we can’t get the machinery out without breaking the surface. So, kid gloves in the wintertime.

“But September through May, we get a long season. It’s very temperate on the coast. Mainly nor-east winds, no humidity. If we’re high 20s, western Sydney might be 40 degrees. And the reverse with the frosts – we get very few.”

The par-4 15th hole is a real rollercoaster ride. Don't leave an uphill approach here. PHOTO: Supplied/Gary Lisbon.

The fires of the summer of 2019/20 were close but didn’t damage Hilltop. The Beachside course became a refuge centre. The nine-hole course was full of caravans that couldn’t get out. The town was locked in.

“We opened the function room and people could sleep inside. It was daunting,” West says. “But fire wise, Sussex Inlet just north of here, Lake Canjola, back of Milton were affected. We had black carbon in the sky.”

Going forward plans include renovating the clubhouse at Beachside and creating a mini-golf facility, virtual golf and an entertainment area.

“We’ve put down a 1000-square metre practice putting green, that’s pretty cool, there’s people on it all the time,” Pullinger says. “We’d also enhance the Hilltop clubhouse a bit more, we’re going to do a minor renovation – golf shop and bar. And we’ve got plans to extend. It’s designed to go up, there’s four feet of concrete in the ceiling. We’ll add a function room and a balcony. You’ll be able to see the water and down the 18th fairway.”

Hilltop hosts the Mollymook Senior Masters each year on the Legends PGA Tour. There was a WPGA event in November that was qualifying for the NSW Open and brought 42 women for two days of Pro-Ams. They’ve had the NSW Mid-Amateur and are still looking to get a NSW Open.

Hilltop’s biggest tournament is the South Coast Open where 120 pros and elite amateurs try to qualify for the NSW Open. Last event Daniel Gale shot 11-under for the two days. He also shot four-under 68 in the Pro-Am when “it blew a gale,” according to West.

“It was a ridiculous round, if it blows here, 74’s not bad. That’s how it proved this year: even par won the two days. Normally about four-under wins. The pros think it’s awesome, they love the layout. We’ve won best tournament of the year before.” 

There’s also the all-comers Mollymook Open in August. “It’s always full field,” West says. “We get 200 entries. There’d be 40 players on plus- or better. Normally around even par wins. Our four-time club champion, Jye Halls, won it this year. He’s represented Australia as a junior and is a member of NSW off plus 4.5 or something. He shot six-under first day and blew everyone away, won by six.”

Blown away by Molymook’s Hilltop? Sounds about right. 

FACT FILE

LOCATION:  Clifford Close, Mollymook, New South Wales.

CONTACT: (02) 4454 1912; (02) 4455 2055 (pro shop).

WEBSITE: www.mollymookgolf.com.au

DESIGNERS: Bill Andriske & Ken McKay Snr (1977).

PLAYING SURFACES: Kikuyu (fairways), bentgrass (greens).

COURSE SUPERINTENDENT:
Mark Pullinger.

PGA PROFESSIONALS:
Mario van Zyl (head professional), Brad Wall (teaching professional), Mark McFadden (Legends Tour pro).

GREEN FEES: Visitors $69 (weekdays, 18 holes), $79 (weekends); Member’s guests $35 (weekdays) and $45 (weekends). Bookings essential.

MEMBERSHIP: Mollymook is currently not accepting new golf members. There is a waiting list, which you can apply to join via the club’s website.

FACILITIES: Mollymook has two modern clubhouses – one at the Hilltop course and the other beside the par-33 Beachside layout where you will experience fantastic views overlooking Mollymook Beach.

ACCOLADES: Ranked No.69 in Golf Australia magazine’s Top-100 Public Access Courses for 2023.