Mona Vale Golf Club
Sydney, NSW | User Rating: 
(4.0) | Add A Review
Set right on and overlooking Mona Vale beach, this must be one of the prettier public courses available to social golfers. The club house is set high on a hill some 300 metres from the sand. You get an incredible view from the clubhouse that in itself is spectacular.
Mona Vale has become one of the most popular Sydney metropolitan courses and it’s easy to see why. Fairways and greens are maintained by the club to a standard required for championship courses in Sydney’s Metropolitan area. It is well bunkered and with tree-lined fairways and water hazards it will test every standard of golfer.
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09 Jan 2012
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28 Dec 2011
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08 Jul 2011
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19 Mar 2011
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04 May 2010
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08 Jan 2010
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1. q-tip | Rated
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22 Jan 2012
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Add A Review
Measures 6068m Par 72 with five par 3s ranging from 129-180m, eight par 4s ranging from 323-409m and five par 5s ranging from 460-510m.
Course has lush (and mostly wide) kikuyu grass fairways with medium-to tall sized tree-lined fairways. The medium-sized poa/bent grass greens are smooth but not overly quick with couch grass surrounding most greens. The course has 7 water hazards and ponds and apart from the 15th and 18th you have to be pretty wayward to find them in the tree-lined rough. There are 37 bunkers with the 15th and 18th being the only entirely bunkerless holes on the course.
The front nine layout is fairly mundane with up-and-back style holes identical to those holes played previously like the 1st/2nd and the 5th/6th and 7th/8th – which feature a longer hole followed by a similar length par 3 – but the front nine has slightly more and better bunkering than the back nine.
Highlights include: the 510m 5th (index 7) which doglegs 60 degrees left from 360m off the tee to a green with 2 leftside bunkers; the 180m uphill 6th (index 4) to a 30m long front-sloping green with 2 bunkers left and 2 bunkers short right; the 370m slight bend left 9th (index 2) with the tee above the fairway with OOB along the entire leftside with tall paperbark trees on the right to a green with 2 bunkers; and the short 330m slight uphill dogleg right 10th (index 8) with the only fairway bunkers on the course off the tee to avoid to a green with a bunker short left.
The course’s closing 4 holes are the most challenging part of the course with fewer trees and bunkers, doglegs with most flags not visible from the teebed, a large pond, OOB and an interesting elevated tee at the short par 3 which require special mention: the 409m slight bend left 15th (index 1) with the large pond on the right off the tee with the elevated bunkerless green above the fairway below the clubhouse; the signature 129m 16th (index 17) with an elevated tee with the ocean horizon as a backdrop behind the green guarded by 3 bunkers; the 379m straight 17th (index 5) with OOB thickly vegetated Mona Vale Beach shrubs along the entire leftside rough to a green guarded by a bunker 10m short right; and the 386m slight bend left 18th (index 3) which plays similar to the 15th with the same large pond on the left off the tee with the elevated bunkerless 20m wide x 15m long green which plays uphill from 70m out on the fairway with the clubhouse overlooking the green to the left.
There are a few holes near the clubhouse with the teebed above the fairway (on the 1st, 7th, 11th & 16th tees) but otherwise the course is entirely flat. Holes 1-10 are on the Pittwater Road (western side) of the clubhouse whilst holes 11-18 are towards the hospital and beach.
Apart from the par 3s near the clubhouse the par 3s were generally weak, but there some good short and longer length par 4s holes and the par 5s were of similar length and challenge for all golfers.
I agree with others and I feel the course should finish with the 15th as it is challenging into a northerly wind, and unlike the 18th, its green is in full view below the clubhouse…
Played here again off the back member plates in 4.5 hours late on a Thursday afternoon with $39 green fees or $25 twilight fees after 3.30pm (AEDT).
I was waiting on every hole, but you have to expect this during the busy summer December-January holiday months, especially with 5 out of 10 northern beaches golf clubs being private-access only, MVGC is amongst the most popular public-access course on the northern beaches.
Great clubhouse views which is very popular with functions, and remembering on this website that 1 star indicates “basic golf facilities” and 5 stars denotes “golf at its absolute best”, MVGC is well conditioned and is an above-average public-access golf course.