Twin Creeks Golf & Country Club

IN: COURSE REVIEWS | BY: Rob Shine | | REGION: Sydney, NSW DATE: 10 Jul 2006 | Rated

Hole 17

Bunkers. If ever one word summed up your initial memories of a golf club, for Troon's new development at Twin Creeks, "bunkers" is that word. From your first view of the opening tee shot to the tough approach to the closing hole, you just can't get away from the sandy monsters. And boy did we have fun trying.

Twin Creeks is another in a series of new golf developments to open in Greater Sydney and can confidently claim to be within an hour of the CBD. Our Sunday morning drive from the Eastern Suburbs took just 40 easy minutes, door to welcoming door. Situated west of the city close to the small suburb of Luddenham, Twin Creeks features a new Graham Marsh designed 18 hole course plus a residential development.

In common with Troon's other properties, directions to the course were well signposted and on arrival it was easy to find the car park and pro shop. The new clubhouse unusually has views of both the first and the eighteenth, but more of that later. We were greeted with a warm welcome and with only a handful of members on the course, (despite it being the Sunday morning rush hour everywhere else); we were offered the full use of the practice facilities before we started.

Twin Creeks is predominately a private club and the members here have it good. There's a first class open driving range with the luxury of good practice balls and tees in plentiful supply, washed and ready to go. There's also a huge putting green and separate chipping area, plus a huge practice bunker. Spoilt for choice, we took the opportunity to hit some much needed iron and wood shots in the vain hope of discovering our Sunday best swings but stupidly didn't make time to take advantage of the cavernous practice bunker. It was to be our first mistake of the day.

Front Nine

Standing on the first tee, it was soon obvious why. Once you've teed off at the par four starting hole, you realise the landing area is quite forgiving, but from the tee, all the eye can see is bunkers, left, right and far into the distance. And these aren't your "Old Tom Morris" traditional round potholes dotted across the fairway or small hazards like you might find at Woodhall Spa, which famously has a bunker for every day of the year. No, these are Bunkers with a capital B. Big sprawling shapes with tentacles of rough eating into the sand from all sides. It's common for a ball in the bunker to be a ten metre walk or more from the safety of the fairway. This is not a course for anyone with even the mildest form of sand phobia.

It is however a course where you don't need to be overly long off the tee and on the first hole a "safety first" prod up the middle will open up a medium iron to a large green fiercely protected by the first examples of some of the biggest sprawling sand traps I have ever seen.

With two par threes and two par fives, the front nine offers plenty of variety but the bunkering remains the distinctive feature. The cleverly designed third hole for example is a touch over 300 metres from the very back yet the adventurous drive requires careful navigation of both a creek on the right and two or more clumps of bunkers, depending on how wild your tee shots are. With hindsight, another prod for safety off the tee would have left a fairly simple wedge into an inviting green. Unfortunately hindsight's of little use in golf, especially when you're playing your third shot from one of a number of areas helpfully signposted as "snake habitat".

Adventurous souls who choose to play off the plates will meet their nemesis when they come to the par three sixth. For mortals, it's a shot over the creek to an open green and one more club than normal should see you safely home. Off the plates however it's a wholly different story, with the tee position forcing you to hit through a narrow opening in the trees with the creek cutting right across your line. If you like your golf tough, then good luck. I was more than happy with a two putt par off the normal tees.

There's no respite as the front nine comes to a finish, with the tough 8th hole requiring an unusually long uphill approach to an angled green. The tricky par five ninth is a challenge of navigation as much as anything through a veritable sea of sand. The spectacular view from the raised tee offers a number of possible routes and there's plenty of room to hit a safe tee shot as long as you're not greedy. Straying off line however means more of the sandy stuff and a struggle to make a much needed par.

Back Nine

If you haven't been on the beach by the time you reach the 12th, the odds are definitely beginning to stack against you. Brilliantly designed, this shortish par four tempts ambitious hitters to take the tiger line over all the trouble whilst safer players will hit away from the hole to the left. Trouble is, even by Twin Creeks standards, there are bunkers literally everywhere. Add in a green with a mound in the centre and you have proof that in Graham Marsh's book "short" doesn't mean "easy". I'm sure I won't be the only player to hole out here having not once touched the fairway!

The character changes dramatically as you turn for home. The par three 14th features a tough shot across a gully to a green situated on a high ridge. The 15th is a narrow par five carved through the forest and the equally tough 16th features water for almost the full length of the hole. It's a tough though enjoyable finish with a little relief at the pretty short 17th before you reach the final hole.

I'd like to have another go at the 18th (albeit with the benefit of a map this time) as my natural urge to steer the ball well clear of the water off the tee left me with no real chance of getting home in two. Putting out under the watchful eye of the golfers finishing their lunchtime aperitifs, it's a memorable closing hole, as long as you're not needing four to win!

For a course that's barely a few months old, Twin Creeks is in terrific condition with greens, that whilst not lightning fast, were fair and true. We saw a few members walking but for most of us I'd recommend taking a cart, especially when the weather warms up.

As all reviewers have commented, the bunkering is very striking, but there are an awful lot of them and anyone having a bad day will spend an awful lot of time raking sand. I'd rate the closing five holes as the most enjoyable of the eighteen and by the time I'd finally found my way to the putting surface at 18, I wanted to nip back to the 14th and have another go.

Talking about his views on course design, Graham Marsh once said "golf's about an experience, to be with your friends and have a challenge". This is definitely a course that you'd approach more confidently with the benefit of a practice round under your belt, but despite its newness, his design here at Twin Creeks definitely qualifies as an enjoyable challenge.

We were made to feel very welcome here and with just a handful of people out on the course couldn't fault the service we received from the pro shop or in the bar afterwards. Twin Creeks is a private club so anybody wishing to play should call the club beforehand to avoid disappointment. Once again, I'd recommend that you do so now, before word gets out!

Although the course is private, Twin Creeks does accept social and group bookings of 16 players or more.

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