"currently battling with my dear friend, the Silverstripe CMS" - 18 hours ago
"is thoroughly relaxed at another Irish farmhouse B&B, this time one run by a character and a half, Sharon Moore.... http://fb.me/Fd1zVe5z" - 1 day ago
"Is this the Nellie bunker you were talking about mate? Safely avoided I'm pleased to report http://fb.me/EHAvCmyU" - 2 days ago
Playing the two magnificent courses at Moonah Links back to back, Mike and I thought it better to combine our thoughts on each day into one blog. The Home of Australian Golf, as it's branded, has two championship layouts - The Open Course and The Legends Course. Both are gorgeous; both are very different; and both are among the best we've played this year.
The Open Course, which we played yesterday, is the first course built in Australia with a championship in mind - namely, The Aussie Open. Hence there are few trees, and most holes are separated by spectator (but not golfer)-friendly mounds of tussock. It's pretty long too, at 6783 metres or so off the blacks. (We played off the blues, weighing in at a more modest 6300 metres). Despite pretty serious rainfall in recent days there was a fair bit of roll (drainage is good in these parts, thanks to the sand-based soils sitting atop the Peninsula) - so The Open Course didn't quite play as long as it reads on the scorecard. Still we were hitting a few mid and long irons; and had the wind got up we no doubt would've been faced with a more daunting prospect.
Peter Thomson the designer refers to Hobbes when describing The Open Course "a Leviathan of a course" on the Moonah Links website. In a perverse way it's a shame that the wind didn't blow its guts out yesterday and that the black tee markers weren't laid out, because Mike and I like a challenge as much as Keith Richards likes a drink. Nevertheless we could see - having stood on a couple of the black tee blocks to visualise how it would play - just what a beast the course could be, in its element. Next time...
The opening hole is a fairly gentle introduction, although the approach shot is pretty tricky if you've laid up with an iron off the tee as we did. Actually the 1st was indicative of what was to come throughout many of the following 17 holes; a pretty straightforward tee shot very seldom precedes a straightforward approach shot. If you've got a wide open fairway to aim at, chances are you'll have a tiny (or himalaya like) green ahead that you're almost squinting to see, that's surrounded by the bunkers that the Mornington Peninsula is famous for. Now don't get me wrong, there are a good few holes where this trend is reversed, and it's the tee shot that needs to be threaded carefully between sandtraps, the approach being the milder challenge of the two. Good variation, characteristic of a carefully laid out track.
A good example of this dynamic is the 3rd hole, a wee gem of a par 4. Off the tee a rising fairway doglegs right out of sight between 3 bunkers in the landing zone. If you hit driver as I did you need to fly the ball about 220 / 230 over the first one cut at the corner of the dogleg, and stop it before the twin traps at 260 / 270 on the far side fo the fairway. A visually exciting shot. From there it's a straightforward wedge further up the hill to a big green, which I unfortunately 3 putted (one of several yesterday).
Your work's not over when you reach the green at The Open Course. 2 putts is often a good result. Thomson has managed to create authentic links greens that are difficult to read - something that must be a lot harder than one would think. Many new courses fall into the trap of cutting huge, severe hillocks in their greens, making it easy for the golfer to see the break their putt will take. Not so at Moonah, where I often couldn't decide whether the ball would break left or right. And putting's usually the strongest part of my game. The subtlety aside, the undulations are significant, and often sufficient to take a ball rolling onto the green away from its desired location. You have to be precise here.
Wayne, the Golf Ops Manager at Moonah, described The Open Course this morning when I spoke with him as the course you play when you want a test of golf. He wasn't wrong. Probably the most confronting bunker attack we've experienced in 2010. Poor Mike had 5 bunker shots on the 18th, at the time needing to hit the green in reg to tie the stats match.
The Legends Course, in Wayne's words, is the more enjoyable of the two; the one you play if you're looking for a pleasant round on a weekday evening. We played it this morning, with Michael from Tourism Victoria, and pleasant is certainly one word I'd use to describe it. Fun is another. Where The Open Course is relatively open, and austere, ti trees lining The Legends Course make for a tranquil, calming round of golf. Few holes border others; most snake through the bush, and bunkers (of course). It didn't feel as severely bunkered as its bully of a brother, although there were several massive waste bunkers one of which unkindly gobbled my ball.
Playing off the white tees (the blacks weren't out, again) Mike and i both found the course short, but that's not to say it doesn't have teeth. It does. Like yesterday, approach shots - even though many of the greens were big - had to be hit with precision, to avoid having triple breaking 50 footers. Mike started the day with back to back birdies on 1 and 2 (a par 5 and a driveable short par 4), and made another on the par 5 12th. I had birdies on 6, 10 and 12. We should have had more (I hit about 12 greens and Mike wasn't far behind).
A feature I particularly enjoyed on The Legends Course was the countouring of the fairways. Some funnelled tee shots into menacing bunkers; others funnelled the ball away from the ti tree back to the centre. Good shots can end up in nasty spots; average shots can turn out peachy. That's something I like. I also enjoyed playing a few blind tee shots, although it probably helped that our guest for the day - Michael - had a bit of local knowledge (and a GPS). Michael came down for the day from the city to join us, and show us round. A very nice chap indeed, whom we'll hopefully meet up with again in Melbourne in the coming weeks. He actually writes his own golfblog, on which he's done an enlightening review of the Moonah courses (Open and Legends), which I encourage you to check out if you're interested.
Mike, Michael and I had a split sixes haggle on the way round, never being ones to miss an opportunity for a match. Despite Michael H hitting the ball like an arrow off the tee all day he somehow managed to come 3rd; the ever competitive Michael G in second; and yours truly on top. Compounding Michael G's frustration was a loss in the daily March haggle (the stats match) - he lost greens in regs and putting (but was spared a (metaphorical) downtrou' by hitting more fairways than usual, and beating my pathetic 5). On The Open Course he lost fairways and greens (usually his forte), so he'll be looking to get on top of me (not literally) at Flinders in the morning. If he doesn't manage to scrape a win, he might not talk to me for a few days - those of you that know him will know he's a competitive wee fella, and that he doesn't like losing. He hates it in fact.
Overall impression of Moonah: a fantastic facility. Two great golf courses - each has its own virtues, and we both really enjoyed the variation (neither course runs up and down; holes on each run to all points on the compass, ensuring the wind doesn't have a one dimensional impact on your game, unless it swirls!). The staff at the resort were incredibly obliging. You can see why this place has a good name. Perhaps the thing that struck me most about Moonah was the number of young families we saw in our two days here. Kids were zipping round with mum and dad on the buggies, and getting up to mischief on the deck outside the clubhouse. It's refreshing to see a golf facility of this calibre being so family friendly; it creates a relaxed atmosphere that sometimes can't be found at exclusive clubs home to far less superior golf courses. So well done Moonah Links - a resort that's got something for everyone, and somewhere I'd happily bring my girlfriend (although she might not come!) and, in a (good) few years, my kids. Oh, and top quality golf.
After farewelling Moonah we shot up the road at a gallop for Foxy's Hangout winery, to join friends of my mum and dad's (and their two lovely daughters) for lunch. Roger and Lorraine knew my parents back in Edinburgh when they were my age (or thereabouts), and shared a few stories over some fine fare and fine wine (chardonnay I thought was particularly decadent) about what a rogue my old man was in his day. Now he's settled down, of course. [Dad, if you're reading, the Spanish Inquisition is coming this evening - you have some explaining to do.]
Tomorrow we're playing at the picturesque Flinders, and will catch up with another of my dad's pals - Nigel Bruce (whom we stayed with in Rotorua on Day 7/8). Bring it on.
Shinnecock
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