Wakehurst Golf Club

WORDS: STEVE KEIPERT   PHOTOGRAPHY: BRENDAN JAMES

A noise louder than a chuckle could be heard across Wakehurst Golf Club in the mid-1990s when the club decided to embed sandstone markers on the edges of its fairways to show the 150-metre point from each green. The markers were beautiful but for a club with fairways that once held a reputation for being rockier than The Twelve Apostles, the irony of rocks being deliberately placed in the fairways was lost on few who knew the back story.

Second shots to the 12th are best tackled from the right side.

Indeed, Wakehurst’s is a tale reminiscent of the ugly duckling that flourished into a magnificent swan, and is a place where this writer honed his game through 18 years of membership from the late ’80s. The club occupies a stunning stretch of ocean-facing bushland in Sydney’s north with panoramic views across Manly and the northern beaches region. The location is ideal for urban golfers seeking a retreat from the hustle and bustle without leaving the city. Just a ten-minute drive from cosmopolitan and chic Manly, you would need bionic hearing to detect a road vehicle while walking the course.

Despite opening in 1971, Wakehurst held the dubious honour of being Sydney’s newest golf course for a startling 20 years until Terrey Hills materialised. And it was a chequered first two decades at that. The club’s original members tell tall and not-so-tall tales about the rough and rocky nature of the playing surfaces, where balls seemingly destined to find the middle of the fairway would ricochet off a protruding rock and carom into the surrounding bushland, never to be seen again. Even once the turf settled, the lengthy construction process of the back nine chopped holes in half in order to retain 18 holes. More often than not throughout the late 1980s and early ’90s the uphill par-4 9th hole was sliced into a short par-4 to the club’s practice chipping green then a par-3 to the true green. During this time the top nine was rubbish – literally. The club negotiated a deal to accept landfill from the World Square construction site in the city plus some other assorted junk to build up the fairways of the back nine, creating a period during which players ambled from hole to hole over and past piles of debris.

The treacherous par-3 16th hole.

But the story has a happy ending. Once complete, Wakehurst blossomed into an excellent layout in a setting few courses in large cities can match. The course is tight courtesy of the abundant bushland but most holes offer a bailout on one side, while some of the thicker areas of scrub have been pruned in places to make the course more user-friendly. It’s still a place where erratic golfers will lose plenty of balls but Wakehurst today is perhaps a little less penal at ground level.

Many fairways are essentially flat but are designed along a series of terraces that cascade with the sloping land. The front nine drops to the lowest point on the course at the par-5 4th hole, which brings the course close to Manly Dam, before climbing back towards the clubhouse on the highest point of the property. The second half hugs the higher ground but still includes the stepped design. The sloping ground between fairways requires players to be proficient at playing shots from steep side-slopes yet most fairways are level or close to it.

The club flipped its two nines in 1989 to the current configuration and gave the design a more natural progression from shorter, tighter holes on the front side to longer holes with less of a premium on accuracy on the inward journey. More recently the only significant course works have involved rebuilding a handful of green sites, the 1st being the freshest example. Other than these projects, the course has changed little since the major construction finished in the mid-’90s.

Tee shots on the par-4 3rd hole need to be straight to avoid trouble along both sides of the fairway.

Wakehurst opens with a cute and intriguing short par-4. The 282-metre 1st bends 90 degrees left around a stand of bushland, inviting players into a bold opening salvo across the dogleg towards the green. First-time players at Wakehurst won’t be able to visualise the width and camber of the fairway around the corner so a long or mid-iron to the corner then a wedge or short iron to the large but segmented green is a more prudent play.

The 2nd hole rolls downhill with bush far to the right and plenty of space left plus a lone fairway bunker to avoid. Slot the tee shot and the second is an uncomplicated downhill approach to a two-tiered green guarded by a pair of bunkers near the right edge and a smaller pot to the left. It’s a particularly alluring shot for left-to-right players, such is the subtle angle of the deep putting surface.

Things tighten up in a hurry thereafter with two crucial tee shots. The par-4 3rd and par-5 4th demand arrow-straight drives to avoid lost balls. The back tee on the 3rd sits high above the skinny fairway with impenetrable bush lining both sides. Two water hazards – one on the right side of the fairway that’s largely out of play on the tee shot and another directly in front of the green – add further danger. The green is broad but shallow so judging the approach across the water is a key to getting off to a good start. The 4th is similarly tight off the tee with a dam on the left side and out-of-bounds bushland along the entire right edge. The second and third shots are less confined but still require focus.

The par-3 5th is straightforward before an unusual green complex awaits at the 6th. The putting surface of the 343-metre par-4 is hidden by a hump in front of the green that can kick short-flying approach shots onto the green, but the back of this slope also feeds balls to the right and towards two of the deepest bunkers on the course. Canny use of the land here can help on a hole where staying below the cup is advised.

The 281-metre 7th can be driveable for long hitters but the tee shot needs to carry another rocky pond set in front of the green. A lay-up to the top of the gentle rise is smarter followed by a pitch to another steeply canted green where leaving the ball underneath the cup is paramount. Misplayed approaches at the 7th can leave some wickedly sloping putts.

The par-5 8th is the longest on the course and is an awkward driving hole due to the way the fairway bends left but the land tilts right. Balls frequently destined for the middle of the cut grass wind up in the right rough. The second shot plays over a rise to a broad lay-up zone and on to a two-level green that is set atop an open plateau that’s exposed to any sea breezes. Closing the front nine is a steeply uphill par-4 that bends right to a green benched into a hillside below the clubhouse. Long hitters thinking of cutting the corner across the bush needn’t bother because taking a direct line towards the green is ill-advised as such a line brings a pair of concealed fairway bunkers into play and makes the approach angle more acute. Staying straight off the tee instead opens up the line along rather than across the slender green.

The 10th is a narrow, short par-4 with a sheer drop-off on the right side. Hiding below is a water hazard that’s normally in play on the 16th hole but can catch drives erring in that direction. The green is another where staying below the cup is crucial to making par, even if that means missing the target in front. The next is a rare hole where out-of-bounds flanks both sides of the fairway. At its narrowest point, just beyond the driving zone, there is scarcely 30 metres between sets of black-topped white stakes as the scrub along the left and the Aboriginal rock carvings found in the pocket of bush between the 11th and 15th fairways necessitate the same penalty on the right side. The hole curves left and is often better played with less than driver from the tee. The shape of the green can aid an approach running from long range as a ‘lip’ along the left edge of the large putting surface will feed balls towards the centre of the green. Take four any day and go contently to the 12th tee, where the course opens up.

Although more bushland runs the length of the left side, this downhill par-4 offers plenty of space along the right and that side offers the best line into a long, narrow green that is angled front-right to back-left and protected by three bunkers. The par-3 13th plummets for its 150 metres but such a drop can make selecting the right club difficult in any wind. It might be a 5-iron one day and a 9-iron the next.

The par-5 2nd hole tumbles gently downhill and presents an early birdie chance.

The run home begins with the 415-metre 14th, a strong par-4 with another green that is difficult to run balls aboard due to the combination of angle and slope. It might be a less punishing hole for accuracy but it remains Wakehurst’s toughest for difficulty in all other aspects. The 15th offers the best birdie chance: a 458-metre par-5 where drives that carry the same pocket of bush that adjoins the 11th can kick off a side-slope and into the fairway with a chance of reaching the green.

The 16th is one of the coolest holes around. A series of staircase-like tees set into a hillside have it playing anything from 136 to 197 metres. There’s a dam short of the green and a drop-off towards the 17th hole to be avoided on the left, plus a bunker on either side of the target. The hole screams out for a controlled right-to-left shot that fits with the angle and slope of the green, which is contoured to feed balls towards its left edge. The gradient is subtle in places, sharp in others; I always thought of this putting surface as being similar to Augusta National’s confounding 16th green.

The two par-4s to close the round have wrecked many a good score. For many years the 17th was best approached from the middle of the 18th fairway and the 18th from the centre of the 17th, such is the angle of the two greens. Yet the growth of the grove of trees between the two fairways now precludes this and instead requires golfers to place their tee shots more precisely and/or work their iron shots. The 17th asks for a fade from the tee (for right-handers) and a draw into the green, and if either shot is slightly offline the gentle camber of the land pushes balls away from both targets. At the last, the fairway tumbles towards a dip before rising sharply to a sloping green where, once again, staying underneath the cup is vital.

It’s a common theme at Wakehurst: keep the same ball in play and keep that ball under the hole and you’ll enjoy far more than just the location and the views.

FACT FILE

THE COURSE

LOCATION: Upper Clontarf St, Seaforth. The course is a half-hour drive from the Sydney CBD. Cross the harbour to the Warringah Freeway and Military Rd and on towards Spit Bridge. From Seaforth, take Sydney Rd then Frenchs Forest Rd to Clontarf St, turning right into Judith St.

CONTACT: (02) 9948 6126.

WEBSITE: www.wakehurstgolf.com.au

DESIGNER: Prosper Ellis (1971).

SLOPE RATINGS: Men: 136/132; women: 133/131.

PLAYING SURFACES: Bentgrass (greens), kikuyu (fairways and rough).

COURSE SUPERINTENDENT: Ian Pycke.

PGA PROFESSIONAL: Andrew Webster.

GREEN FEES: $40 (weekdays), $46 (weekends and public holidays).

THE CLUB

MEMBERSHIPS: The club offers about a dozen different categories of membership. Seven-day membership costs $1,905 annually, six-day is $1,590 and five-day costs $1,250, each with a $550 joining fee. Junior membership is $1,000 a year (for 18- to 21-year-olds) and sub-junior membership (16 to 17 years) $620, both with a $250 joining fee. Cadet members (12- to 15-year-olds) pay $215 with no joining fee.

RECIPROCAL CLUBS: Mildura (Vic), Loxton (SA) and Murrumbidgee (ACT).

FACILITIES: Other on-course facilities include a practice fairway and practice green complex plus warm-up nets. In the clubhouse, Flavour Buds bistro and restaurant is open seven days, while the club also caters for weddings and functions.