1. repspec | Rated | 25 Jul 2011 | Add A Review

Played here 22/7 just after a day of heavy rain. Course held up ok, however had to take care walking round on the back 9 rather boggy.
Course is challenging with the fairways mostly all lined with gums and kangaroos.
The greens were very unpredictable and fast even after heavy rains which made putting challenging.
Bunkers on almost every hole. Price is a bit much though.

PROS

• Nice views

2. q-tip | Rated | 18 Aug 2010 | Add A Review

Measures 6071m Par 73 with four par 3s ranging from 125-176m, nine par 4s ranging from 292-408m and five par 5s ranging from 434-528m. Course is in goog condition with greens running true but not overly quick, but by no means slow. Fairways are not lush in early August, though I would imagine to be so in summer. Teeboxes were flat and well kept.

Lots of kangaroos on the course. Front nine is built on a slight bushy upslope north of the clubhouse, whilst the back nine is located south and below the level of the clubhouse amongst the homes of the town. All greens on the course are guarded by bunkers and there is no water which comes into play.

The opening 2 holes are par 5s which seem a little tame and with its wide fairways a certain par can be penciled in. Ten of the 18 holes on the course have slight-moderate doglegs. This makes the course a little too predictable.

Highlights include the 340m slight dogleg right 5th, with fairway bunkers o the dogleg right corner, with a fairway which slopes off the right and play uphill from 130m to the green with a deceptive bunker short left. The 176m 6th is one of the best bunkered holes on the course.

Although your outward nine opens with a tame downhill blind dogleg left 292m par 4, with the weak 125m-par 3s 13th and 16th, apart from these 3 holes, the back nine is the most challenging.

Highlights include the 408m 14th with sloping fairway to the left to a long green guarded by a bunker on the left. The 366m 17th plays straight uphill to green which slopes from rear to front with a bunker short left. The 455m Par 5 18th is reachable in 2 with its elevated tee, you play the hole uphill with the clubhouse in full view from tee to green. There is a large bunker 30m short right from the two-tiered green.

Played here 9/8/10 and paid $45 green fees for a round interupted by a few happy tourists on the 14th more concerned about the kangaroos than my booming drive. Good testing walk with its hills, but not sure what all the fuss is about.

3. m0nty | Rated | 17 Feb 2010 | Add A Review

I have been a member and played every week here for the past two years. Sadly, my time here is coming to an end. The first thing to be said about this course is that it is a test for both mind and body. The 6000+ metreage and the constant elevation changes over every hole make it a physical grind, while there are no easy holes for gimme pars or birdies with challenges both obvious and subtle designed into the landscape.

Yes, there are a lot of tourists, though they mostly stick to the carpark. If you get accosted by one of them demanding to see kangaroos, point them to the chipping green behind the putting green where there are usually some resting. The roos themselves rarely cause a problem for golfers, usually lolling about in the light rough or under tree cover. Their major contribution is the omnipresent pellets of roo poo, which occasionally intrude in great numbers onto greens.

Having played weekly for two years, I have seen the course go in and out of good nick. A constant source of grey water from the nearby factory (seen puffing away in the distance from the 15th tee) means that the course never dries up, but during winter the lower points of the fairways can get severely waterlogged, making some fairways a mudheap at times. You could never say the course was lush at any time of year, which is in keeping with the bush setting, I suppose.

There are a handful of very long holes – the par 5 2nd, the par 5 12th and the par 4 17th which is all uphill – but otherwise the challenge in this course is more nuanced. Take the par 3 16th, whose elevated green has a diagonal front edge and a sand trap lurking to the left, meaning a shot that would be pin high if hit straight at the flag would end up draining into sand if hit just a metre to the left. Or the par 4 5th, whose tee shot is drawn left to avoid the fairway bunker on the right, but the second shot to an extremely elevated green requires either hitting over another bunker, or flying to the back of the green and relying on the camber to roll the ball back down to the hole. Several holes have hidden tricks, like the 7th which always seems to play at least a club longer than you think standing over your second shot, and the 13th whose green has a sharp left-to-right borrow that looks like an optical illusion if you don’t know about it from previous experience. A fair percentage of holes also have gently sloping fairways which can drain your straight tee shots into the rough if you’re not paying attention.

A quick note on the half-blind teeshot on the 10th: the club has installed a CCTV monitor which should assuage any fears of injury or lawsuits.

This course is a pleasure to play, if you’re playing well. The roos, ducks and myriad varieties of native birds give an entirely authentic local bush feel to your day. The facilities are top notch with drinking fountains everywhere, and toilets at the 4th, 6th and 15th tees. The 19th has everything laid on, including an open-air drinking area where you can laugh at the other bozos attempting the 18th.

Unless you’re painfully unfit, I would recommend this course to anyone who can afford $50 for a round.

PROS

• Beautiful course with native fauna
• Highly challenging
• Social days usually not filled with players

Cons

• Roo poo and leaves can make putting a chore
• Length and hilliness means it might be beyond the less-than-fit
• Can get waterlogged in lower parts during winter months

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4. Scarlett | Rated | 24 Oct 2006 | Add A Review

I read the reviews and checked out the Golf Course Guide (brilliant for green fee players like me) and everything seemed positive about this course, but after the round I was dissappointed. Sure it was a nice enough course and there were hundreds of kangaroos about, but in all honesty it was just a standard sububran (or country town) golf course. I just couldn't see what the fuss was about, even given the (slowly diminishing) VIC-centric nature of the Golf Course Guide.

The course is set inland in the coastal town of Anglesea, on the hills so has plenty of elevation changes. The base is pretty much sandy as you'd expect being coastal, and the native vegetation is a type of mid-sized eucalypt. That might have been my first problem, whilst the Australian bush is pleasant to play through and around, the eucalypt species there is so homogenous that it quickly became annoying. A complete lack of diversity in the trees meant the holes started to blend in with one another, and that detracted from the round.

There were large mobs of kangaroos on most holes of the course. Like most 'roos that live around humans, they pretty much wandered where they liked and didn't care whether you were swinging a club two metres away from them or not. They also didn't care about hopping across the greens and bunkers and the sheer number of them must make life hell for the greenskeepers.

Here's a warning though - The kangaroos attract tourists! Although there are signs near the clubhouse and carpark warning non-golfing visitors and tourists not to wander onto the course, they do anyway. The 10th is a downhill dogleg left hole playing away from the clubhouse / carpark. From the tee I played a shot down the left hand side of the fairway to try and cut the corner and take advantage of a sloping bank that pushes balls back into the fairway. Good thing I did too, as when I trundled down from the tee there were three young ladies standing pretty much in the middle of the fairway at about 150m from the tee. They were watching the 'roos and taking photos and seemed oblivious that a hacker (me) had just smacked a hard projectile in their general direction. I couldn't see them from the teeing area until I'd walked about 30m down the fairway, so it wouldv'e been an interesting argument if they'd been hit.

Nothing special, just a pleasant local course set in a coastal town. Not too expensive for the round and par 73 for something a little different.

"No gimmes, no mulligans; play golf"

Scarlett

5. robfindlay | Rated | 09 Sep 2005 | Add A Review

This is a great course, much improved over the last ten to fifteen years from a dry dusty track to a lush well-maintained course of two halves - the first nine is carved out of the bush, with difficult shots from the tee more than anything, and the second nine negotiating the land closer to the main road, but still as a full round a beautifully picturesque experience with both challenges and respites along the way, and a suitably long 18th to test your endurance - a great course with fond memories and challenges ahead.

6. ninjagolfa | Rated | 20 Feb 2005 | Add A Review

Let's start with the bad points, as there's not too many! No driving range...well, there is, but you provide your own balls. OK...that's it, there's nothing else to pick on unless you have weak knees as the course is very hilly.

For tourists...this place must be the mecca of golf in Australia...good Aussie bush setting, more kangaroos than you can poke a stick, or wayward Titleist Pro V1 at, down by the Great Ocean Road...it doesn't leave much out.

As a golf course, it is well laid out with great facilities. Plenty of drinking water around the course, toilets, views, kangaroos (seeing a pattern here?). The greens are high-quality, great bunkering with predictable sand and the fairway grass is top notch too...if you can get your ball to stay on it...there's plenty of slopes.

Variety of holes is good and will probably see you try every club and shot in your bag. Lots of holes with views overlooking valleys that just beg for the driver and a solid belt...especially the 18th. The 18th green, set into the hillside immediately beneath the clubhouse with its multi-levels and ridges must play out for some interesting spectator comments...it's a doozy.

One other thing that would be an interesting addition is to get a few of those kangaroos with targets painted on their sides :-)

7. mavrick5 | Rated | 21 Jan 2005 | Add A Review

I remember playing here as a kid with my father. Very picturesque course with lots of kanagroos wandering around. When I played there, it was very lush and green, but that was a long time ago.