Day 47 - Muriwai Links

Posted by Michael on 16 February 2010 | 0 Comments | Tags: , ,

The Muriwai links, west of Auckland, is renowned as a pretty stern test of links golf.  The course is a tale of two halves in my mind.  The front nine is open and sparse and there is very little trouble, either tee to green or around the flat greens. It is a nine that is very much subject to the wind, which meant that on a calm day like today it was uncharacteristically easy.   The scoring on the front nine reflected the benign conditions. In particular from one of our playing partners, Robert, who shot a spectacular 34 (2 under par) off a 10 handicap. Epic.

Robâ??s golf also combined well with JP and it was a tough ask for Craig Batty (our other playing partner) and I to keep up.  By way of introduction, Craig is a good guy and golfing enthusiast that we met while in Christchurch. He is in the insurance game and has the flexibility to get out for a round or two of golf midweek which is the way to go! Both Craig and Robert are proud members of Titirangi where Craig is also a member of theit an interclub (pennants) team. This matchplay experience proved handy as we turned to play the 10th hole 5 downâ?¦

The back nine was much more challenging with tee tree and scrub catching misdirected shots and more undulations on and around the greens.  This nine is set amongst the sand dunes and is more of a typical links. Shots to elevated greens, shutes off the tee between the sand dunes and gnarly pot bunkers made it a better test of golf. 

The standard of golf remained high on the back nine, but the format we played - best ball, but second ball counts if it is a tie - made a comeback easier for Craig and I. We quickly started gnawing away at the lead and by the 17th had it back to 1 down. At that stage our combined score for the back nine was level par, with Jamie and Robert not too far behind.  Then Craig came to the fore, sinking a 12 footer to keep the match alive on the 17th, and then an incredible double breaker for birdie on the last to win that hole and halve the match. High fives all around. And no weetbix punishments for the match.

I think that playing golf with guys who are scoring really well makes you compete with them and subsequently score better.  That was the case for both Jamie and I at least until the last when I bottled it for a triple. The scores ended 78(38 points) and 83 (34 points).

Final thoughts on Muriwai are that I would love to play it again in the wind to get a better feel.  It has some awesome holes, like the 100m par three 17th sitting on the highest point on the course and completely subject to the elements. And the 13th where you hit to a narrow and elevated green with three tiers and trouble both sides. The course was very green and the kikuyu grass was very spongy which made it not play like a typical hard and fast links. There were good sandy and scrubby lies off the fairway which required some creativity, particularly around the greens. But for me, the course could have been much better â?? it does not capitalise on the natural terrain enough, particularly to give it the wow factor around the ocean, the par fives all run the same direction (a pet peeve of mine) and there are few holes that require decisions off the tee â?? there are no risk reward par fours or â??three shotâ?? par fives.  That said, I think Jamie rated it as one of his favourite in the country.

The day ended with a good chat on the drive home, and a very nice meal with Geoff and Jill Burns where the banter for tomorrows round begun..

 M

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