1. scottt | Rated | 16 Feb 2007 | Add A Review

If you generally play on grass greens, I can almost guarantee you will not enjoy this course, or score well on this course.

Played here in a pennant match about 14 months back and it was a frutstrating day. There’s a couple of memorable holes, but they aren’t worth the long drive into the middle of nowhere.

I hate to be this negative about a course, but really, if the members had a grass green course of similar quality five minutes away, I guarantee most wouldn’t play at Portland.

On the plus side, the members are as friendly as you could find anywhere, the schooners are cheap and they have a full-size billiard table.

2. bencam | Rated | 07 Mar 2005 | Add A Review

Portland is a small course located just past Lithgow. It's primary claim to fame is it's sand greens and for many years it played host to the NSW Sand Green championsips - so I was told !!

I've played here once and must say sand greens are something else. The oiled sand greens are small (about 10 metres in diameter) and very flat. You get to prep the line to the hole each putt with a rake but it takes a few holes to convince yourself how hard to hit it.

The raking and putting is a real art which I didn't master. I did get plenty dirty as the oil and sand stick to everything !!

The other thing is balls won't "sit" on the green. Even a lob wedge will bounce through the green if pitched on first bounce so the key is the old chip and run into every hole if you want to get it close.

The rest of the course is quite lack lusture and dry but it's those sand greens you just have to go and try at least once.