There’s only one thing better than the weekend and that’s a long weekend... or two. In the second part of this limited series, we recommend more three-day golfing adventures with plenty of highlights on and off the course.
SOUTH WEST COAST, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
In just under two hours’ drive from Perth, via the Kwinana Freeway and Forrest Highway, you’ll reach Bunbury – the northern gateway to WA’s incredible South West.
The South West is home to world renowned beaches and equally famous vineyards. The salty spray of waves and towering ancient forests awaken the senses, while premium wines and exquisite local produce provide a memorable appreciation of the region that lies between Bunbury and Margaret River.
Bunbury Golf Club is home to the South West Open, which boasts an impressive list of past winners including Craig Parry, Mike Harwood, Greg Chalmers, Terry Gale and Nick O’Hern, so following in their footsteps adds to the appeal of a round here.
The course, which dates back to the late 1940s, is laid out on good golfing land between the Collie River and the Leschenault Estuary. It rolls across a 180-acre bushland setting, with mature native trees lining every hole. Length is not the course’s primary defence, but the tight driving lines from most tees to the tree-lined fairways demands accuracy to score well.
Bunbury is unique in that par-3s open both nines. The shorter of the two is also the best. The 124-metre par-3 10th is the signature hole at Bunbury. From the tee near the clubhouse, the view from the elevated tee extends well beyond the green to Samphire Bay. The tee sits nearly 40 metres above the level of the green, exposing it to sea breezes. The angled green, guarded by large bunkers left and right, demands good club selection and the hint of any breeze can really complicate hitting a successful tee shot. A par here is well-earned.
Heading into the back nine, many of the fairways are quite narrow with the exception being the 390-metre par-4 14th hole where the rolling fairway is relatively wide and offers a little more room for error. The fairway slopes gently from right to left, which makes the long approach to the small green a tough one.
Lying 45 minutes away, and roughly halfway between Bunbury and Margaret River, Busselton is a popular beachside town where golf has been played for nearly 120 years.
Busselton Golf Club, which lies six kilometres inland from the town’s famous jetty, dates back to 1907 and much of the course winds between beautiful redgums and peppermint trees.
Extensively redesigned by Murray Dawson in 1979, Busselton is widely regarded as having some of the best playing surfaces in regional WA. In 2022, it was awarded the Golf WA Regional Course and Regional Facility of the year.
A feature of many holes is Dawson’s green complexes, where the putting surface is protected by sand and is angled to your approach.
One of the best examples of this is on the 169-metre par-3 6th hole where the green, sitting beyond two bunkers, lies at almost a 45-degree angle to your tee shot. The right-hander who can fade the ball has a distinct advantage here but it’s still a precise shot to leave yourself a putt for birdie.
Play a round here and you will be following in the footsteps of the club’s favourite son Stephen Leaney, who won tournaments on the European and Australasian Tours and was runner-up in the 2003 U.S Open, nearly 20 years after he won the Busselton Junior Championship.
Another 45-minute drive south will have you in the middle of Margaret River wine country.
And one of the area’s increasingly popular attractions is the highly regarded layout at Margaret River Golf Club.
The par-72 course officially opened for play in 1955 and over the ensuing 35 years, passionate member volunteers developed the course from clearing the fairways, digging bores for water, planting grasses and maintaining the sand scrapes. In 1992, the club employed its first greenkeeper, which coincided with the conversion of the sand scrapes to grass greens – a program that two years to complete.
Today, Margaret River is considered one of the finest courses in the region.
Set on 65 hectares of beautiful natural bushland near the mouth of the Margaret River, the layout winds its way up and down the slopes of the coastal ridge. This gorgeous setting is complemented by an abundance of indigenous bush and trees.
Although not heavily bunkered, the course features several water hazards on the front nine holes, which is relatively flat and easy to walk. The more undulating back nine requires careful shot consideration and execution to negotiate the sloping fairways and large trees that line most holes.
Two of Margaret River’s most memorable holes are deep in the front nine. The 454-metre 7th is a wonderful par-5 with a straight, wide fairway dissected by a creek about 80 metres from the green and features a pond short right of the putting surface. Laying up short of the creek is always an option here but the length of the hole makes the green reachable for some solid hitters. But water and tree trouble await if the second shot flies wide. While the temptation of a birdie is clearly there, the 7th should be treated with respect.
The creek cutting through the 7th fairway, also plays a major role on the next. The water hazard almost creates a semi-island green on the 142-metre par-3 8th, as the creek winds from the right of the green, across the front and away to the left (and across the 7th fairway). This is a hole that offers as many birdies as it does bogeys … and worse. It all depends on the tee shot. Stay out of the water and you should make par or better as the green is pretty flat
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
LOCATION: Bunbury to Margaret River, South West region, Western Australia.
HOW TO GET THERE: Bunbury is about two hours’ drive south of Perth’s CBD.
GREEN FEES: Bunbury GC – $55 (18 holes); Busselton GC – $65 (18 holes); Margaret River GC – $55 (18 holes).
WHERE TO STAY: The Sebel Busselton offers a scenic and relaxed getaway. Positioned midway between Bunbury and Margaret River, the hotel is ideally located for guests wishing to enjoy the renowned wineries, restaurants, and golf courses of the region as well as the swimming, snorkelling and diving opportunities in Geographe Bay. Along with modern self-contained apartments, the hotel features a wide range of leisure facilities, from tennis courts to swimming pools.
The Grand Mercure Basildene Manor is set amongst manicured gardens about five minutes’ drive from Margaret River GC. The manor offers visitors luxury and a taste of old world charm. Featuring 19 rooms and suites close to wineries, restaurants and cafes, the manor features spacious rooms and suites, a fireside reading room, conservatory, pool, sun deck, tennis court, lakeside pergola and BBQ facilities.
WHERE TO EAT/DRINK: If you’re in Bunbury and desperate for some quality Italian, Nicola’s Ristorante is the place to go. The family-owned restaurant is renowned for its seafood, but you will also love the veal saltimbocca with garlic and chill spaghetti.
In Busselton, the Deck Marina Bar and Bistro, with its incredible sunset views, can’t be missed.
Morries in Margaret River specialises in tapas and cocktails. It’s a good fun place to sit, eat and listen to some music for a few hours. The pork belly is highly recommended.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: With world famous wineries spread across the region, it’s almost certain you will have a list of cellar doors earmarked for a visit.
WEBSITES: www.bunburygolfclub.com.au ; www.busseltongolfclub.com.au ; www.margaretrivergolfclub.com.au
CENTRAL COAST, NEW SOUTH WALES
From Broken Bay at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River, the Central Coast stretches north towards Newcastle and includes a mix of bays and inlets, pristine beaches, lakes and lush hinterland.
If you are looking for the highest ranked courses in the region, you can easily fill three days of golf playing Magenta Shores Golf & Country Club, Shelly Beach Golf Club and Kooindah Waters Golf Club, which are all within close proximity to one another.
Kooindah Waters was designed by Ross Watson in collaboration with Craig Parry. It is a short, tight and rustic layout with its unkempt swamps and orange-hued bunkers with railway-sleeper faces.
Ranked No.62 in Golf Australia’s Top-100 Public Access Courses in the nation, Kooindah Waters might lack distance for a modern course, but it is tight and trouble-strewn. Yet, the designers ensured there are multiple opportunities to take on ambitious carries and daring playing lines.
Precision is of the utmost importance on the 6,083-metre layout, as is certainty over club selection. Several approach shots require water carries with little leeway offered as a bail-out. In many instances the looming water is obvious, as you will see on the all-carry par-3 2nd and 17th holes, but on other occasions the trouble is more subtle, with a hidden bunker or other hazard lurking partially out of view.
While Kooindah Waters is not a links course, Watson and Parry’s links golf knowledge has saw them incorporate elements of that seaside game into their creation here. Many of the greens feature a wide opening where you can bounce your approach onto the putting surface. The deep greenside bunkering is also a feature of the layout, as are the railway sleeper retaining walls on selected bunkers.
The toughest challenge of the round is left until last at the 397-metre dogleg left 18th hole. The par-4 is flanked by wetlands to the left, while water cuts the fairway in two about 80 metres short of the putting surface. Bunkers and more water surround the green, ensuring a par made here will be remembered and a birdie treasured until next time.
Shelly Beach Golf Club was designed by Al Howard in the early 1950s when it was known as Tuggerah Lakes Golf Club.
Howard’s design remained largely unchanged for decades but several holes have been redesigned or modernised in recent times, which has markedly improved the course and seen it become entrenched in Golf Australia’s list of Australia’s Top-100 Public Access Courses.
Shelly Beach is a wonderful place to play golf. It is an easy-walking 6,007 metres from the back markers and is a prime example of the coastal course conundrum – the holes closer to the water are so good they can often overshadow the quality of the holes away from it.
The layout is divided by Shelly Beach Road, with the 1st to the 6th, 9th, 10th and 16th to 18th holes grouped on the north side of the road and sharing an open, windswept feel that takes in the vast ocean views. The remaining holes – the 7th and 8th as well as the 11th to 15th holes – lie on the other side of the road and are characterised by more heavily tree-lined fairways that run predominantly north and south.
The two most memorable holes also offer the best ocean views. The 361-metre par-4 5th is a devilish hole where a blind drive needs to be followed up with a precise mid or short iron to the green, depending on the strength and direction of the breeze.
The following hole measures just 333 metres from the tips but it plays much tougher than the scorecard suggests. It is a tight driving hole, especially into the wind, and club selection for the approach is always challenging in the windy conditions that often prevail.
Wind is also a major factor when you head north from Shelly Beach, across The Entrance Bridge (which spans the inlet linking Lake Macquarie and the ocean) to Magenta Shores Golf & Country Club.
From the Pacific Ocean vistas of the front nine to the sheltered dunes of the inward half, Magenta Shores is as visually stunning as it is challenging.
Much of the course was formerly a sand mine and rubbish tip – featureless land necessitating the man-made mounds and dunes that were formed during construction and the raising of the land profile by several metres. This, however, takes little away from the calibre of Ross Watson’s design and its inherent scenic beauty. The rolling fairways and ever-present sea breezes make for perennial difficulty even at times when the wind is at your back.
The layout is not outrageously long, measuring slightly more than 6,000 metres from the blue tees and 6,322 from the tips. Instead, the strength and direction of the wind is a major factor in the difficulty of almost every hole, giving Magenta Shores a volatility that seduces golfers into thinking they have the game to tame it.
Take, for instance, the closing hole. At 550 metres from the back tees, a summer nor’easter makes this seemingly long par-5 play far shorter than the scorecard distance indicates, however in a strong southerly, it requires three almighty blows to carry the nest of huge bunkers set 30 metres or so short of the putting surface. Likewise, the opening holes are susceptible to the conditions, dictating whether caution or aggression is called for.
Magenta Shores is a private club. However, guests of the adjoining Pullman resort can access the course while there are some limited visitors tee times.
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
LOCATION: Central Coast, New South Wales.
HOW TO GET THERE: Wyong (and Kooindah Waters) is about 45 minutes’ drive from the M1 freeway entrance at Wahroonga, on Sydney’s northern outskirts..
GREEN FEES: Kooindah Waters GC – $75 (18 holes, weekdays), $95 (weekends); Shelly Beach GC – $50 (18 holes, weekdays), $55 (weekends); Magenta Shores G&CC – Available upon request of a tee time.
WHERE TO STAY: Mercure Kooindah Waters has some great stay and play packages including 18 holes with cart hire, four-and-a-half-star resort accommodation, and a full buffet breakfast for two people. The resort has standard king golf view rooms as well as one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
The Pullman Magenta Shores is one of Australia’s premier golf resorts, overlooking the course of the same name. The resort has apartment style accommodation set amongst landscaped gardens and just a short stroll from all facilities and the beach. All villas include open plan living areas and private furnished courtyards or balconies.
The Shelly Beach Holiday Park, next door to the golf course, has a range of cabins with most offering beautiful ocean views. Each cabin and studio sleeps between two and six people, depending on the style and are self-contained.
WHERE TO EAT/DRINK: The Watersedge seafood restaurant in The Entrance is more than just a high-quality seafood eatery. You can also do breakfast here, while soaking up the views. If you head back for dinner, try the Sri Lankan fish curry, made with barramundi. Yum!
If you stay at Kooindah Waters you won’t have far to travel to experience great food. Karinyas Restaurant overlooks the course and offers an extensive menu of dishes created from local produce as well as a huge wine list, dominated by nearby Hunter Valley wineries.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: In the warmer months, any of the 40-odd beaches on the Central Coast is well worth a visit.
WEBSITES: www.kooindahwatersgolf.com.au ; www.shellybeachgolfclub.com.au ; www.magentagolf.com.au.
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