1. caddy_shack | Rated | 03 Feb 2012 | Add A Review

A seriously tough track off the back tees in the wind. Course was in immaculate condition. Very little traffic.

PROS

• Layout
• Condition

2. padre | Rated | 23 Jan 2012 | Add A Review

Moonah Open is an interesting scenario.
A course built for tournament play with spectator viewing in mind, but nearly 100km away from Melbourne in a holiday region, where people would prefer to relax and play golf rather than drive for hours to watch it.

The course itself is an oddity. A mix of penal and bland design with crazy bunkers. The ridiculous bunkering 100m out on every par 5 being the ’highlight’ of the course for me.

Off the black tees the course is enormous, and insanely long and hard. From the blue tees the course is still long and brings ever stupidly placed drive bunker into play for me.

I played the course form the white tees and the course is manageable, actually quite good at times, most of the drives avoid the stupidly placed middle of the fairway penal drive bunkers and navigating the course is manageable. I think off the red tees this course could even actually be quite fun, but the green sites are all pretty tame and there are only a few really interesting approaches.

I have played this course three times and I have given it a chance to grow on me, but it is expensive, it is over the top, it is stupid and it is not a great course.

I would happily play it again, but only with a discount voucher. Given the quality of the courses in a 10km radius I would recommend plenty of better courses to play before this one.

PROS

• Challenging
• Conditioning

Cons

• Expensive
• Penal
• Stupid
• Lacks great holes

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• St Andrews Beach
• The Dunes Golf Links (Dunes)
• Portsea Golf Club

3. scenicpeak | Rated | 17 Dec 2011 | Add A Review

Played this course on the 9-12-2011.

The course is in absolutely fantastic condition. Greens aren’t too hard and fast yet as there has been more than enough rain.

Fairways as usual are immaculate. The course is a great test from any of the tees. I took 3 of my friends who’d never played it and all were stunned the course isn’t more famous than it is.

You can grab yourself a game for two on several websites for between $80 and $90 dollars (spreets, zizzle etc).

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• St Andrews Beach
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4. TheDivotMaker | Rated | 05 Sep 2011 | Add A Review

Played the Open Course on Friday 2nd of September.

Played using a Zizzle deal which was $90 for a round for 2 people, bucket of range balls and a cart.

All in all it was a ripper day. Obviously the course is amazing or they wouldn’t have held Aussie Opens there. Fairways and bunkers were in great condition.

All the pro shop, bar and ground staff were really friendly to us and made it a great day for us!

Unfortunately the condition of the greens was a little unexpectedly disappointing. They’d just been cored and it did impact the roll of putts with balls bobbling all over the place. But in hindsight it was probably the reason for the timing of Zizzle deal. A little warning might’ve been nice, but probably wouldn’t have stopped me snapping up the deal.

Overall a great day. Pity about the conditions of the green, but not the end of the world. If they hadn’t just been cored I would’ve rated the course 5 stars

Would love to go back and play again when the greens are in A-1 condition and my game is up to the challenge.

5. GPJ_Longdriver | Rated | 07 Apr 2010 | Add A Review

Played the Open course the other day in reasonably mild conditions (Blue Markers). The course is always set up well despite one or two flag positions which looked like they were about to leap of the edge of a cliff such was their closeness to the very edges of the green.

The course is designed to make you stop and think before each and every shot. There can be no "just step up and hit it" approach around this course, not for any shot.

Tee shot landing areas need to be well thought out and then executed as faiway bunkers lie in wait for the only mildy errant. Iron shots into the greens need careful consideration in terms of pin position, green and surrounds slopes, and then once you get on the smooth stuff, every putt need to be judged carefully for speed and slope on these fast and tricky greens.

Taking your time to consider all of the factors in your preshot routine will give you a good chance of a decent score around here, but only if you do take the time, and then execute accordingly.

The designers have done a wonderful job on this course, the on-going course management is first rate, and the weather always plays it’s part, so bring your A game and be prepared to smile as you pack your clubs away after your round.

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• The Dunes Golf Links (Dunes)
• Waterford Valley
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6. chimecrew | Rated | 26 Feb 2010 | Add A Review

I actually played the legends course because there was a comp on the Open course. The legends course is a beauty. The greens are tough and fast and some of the bunkers are enormous. Their is a wonderful variety of holes-long/ short/ medium. Be prepared to be up for some tough putts to make par and make sure your chipping game is on song as the ball has a tendency to roll and roll and roll.

Also Liked

• St Andrews Beach

7. nickbradfield | Rated | 15 Jan 2010 | Add A Review

Absolutely loved it. Condition was impecable. Pretty tough course: I’m a beginner and it didn’t do much for my confidence

8. slamothofr | Rated | 29 Dec 2009 | Add A Review

played this beast on boxing day.
What a pleasure hard bit fair course.
Rough may be a bit long but they are probably growing it for tournament.

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• Eynesbury Golf Course
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9. tochewajo | Rated | 26 Oct 2009 | Add A Review

It was not difficult to see where the rather expensive green fees were going on this course. It was meticulously maintained and rewarded good drives with lush, consistent fairways. The speed of the greens and even coverage made them predictable to judge, but the enormous size of the greens made putting a challenge none-the-less.

10. soar09 | Rated | 12 Jun 2009 | Add A Review

On the strength of two outings i regard Moonah Open Course as exceptional.

Off the black tees i witnessed Parry ,Lee and Len Mattiace take one step foward and just as easily two back in The M.C ’08. The Course requires respect and some long hitting. Holes such as 8 and 18 are brutal into any northerly and may be a little too punishing in such conditions.

The layout is spot on and contains no dud holes with perhaps the 6th the least inspiring challenge. Remember your serious bunker technique and get ready to hit some quality putts. And yes the ’Big Dog’ must be working well!

Course condition junkies say hello to exceptionally maintained fairways, laser levelled tees and sensible fast greens;Moonah Open ticks all these boxes.

11. PaulS | Rated | 13 Jul 2008 | Add A Review

I played the Legends course and for the money was good value. Wet and cold but it did not detract from the enjoyment. What did though, was following some of the clubs juniors who did not repair divots or pitch marks.

No real challenges off the tee apart from one “blind” dogleg but the greens (apart from pitch marks) were great fun to read. Worth the trip!

12. bencam | Rated | 22 Jun 2008 | Add A Review

Played both courses at Moonah recently and do agree they are very well presented and conditioned with excellent facilities. Sadly on the day we played the wind and rain squalls where coming in horizontally for second half of the day – gotta love Melbourne weather !!

The layout is loooong (we played in the Monthly Medal comp) and reasonably varied which demands you pull every club and shot out of the bag before round’s end. The $130 all day green fee inc cart is great value.

You definitely need more than one round here as there are some holes where you can’t judge the landing area too well from the tee and what you think is a perfectly struck tee shot rolls into a hidden bunker or the rough. Also some of the greens are overdone on the tiers and false fronts given their speeds. Subtly around the greens could have been used a lot more effectively in the design without compromising the challenge.

The only real downer here is the volume of players on the course – our round was dragged out with long waits due to large (and very slow) groups in front. No sign of a course marshall anywhere and the members in the comp with, and around, us were none too happy saying this is becoming a frequent occurring on weekends.

13. leroy8888 | Rated | 20 Apr 2008 | Add A Review

I had my doubts before coming to the course after hearing so many wonderful things about it. I can safely say they are all true.

Immaculate fairways which are soft enough to sleep on and greens that look like carpet. Bunkers are very well maintained with soft sand throughout although the size and depth of them borders on ridiculous.

Extremely challenging (and I was playing on a still day) and punishing anything not on target. Definitely not for the beginner as you will never want to play golf again after this place.

Wonderful, amazing and every other superlative you can think of !!!

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• Waterford Valley
• Patterson River Country Club
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14. Golfer70 | Rated | 12 Mar 2008 | Add A Review

This course is just magnificent. Just entering through the gates makes you feel like its an Australian top 10 course. The best facilities in Australia and at a relativly good price of around $75 is excellent value for an Australian top 10 course. Tough challenge with all the bunkers, sometimes the best option is backwards, they are extremly high. Best hole is the 17th par 3 around 170m if you drop short of the green even by just 1 metre you will end up 30 metres away with its steep downslope. Great Course

15. frizzante | Rated | 28 Feb 2008 | Add A Review

A golf course to rival the best.

I played this course yesterday in good conditions. The Blue Tees made the course feel long, but not impossible for an average golfer like myself. The one exception to this was the monsterous 18th.

I have been fortunate to play most of the best courses in Australia. In my opinion this course is a match for any of them. The greens are perfect, the fairways are in fantastic condition, the bunkering is very challenging and the whole feel of the place is superb.

This course is a ‘must’ for keen golfers. Walk if you can and enjoy the fresh air, or cart if you must, and you’ll have a great day. Moonah Links have a package for all day play, so you can play the highly regarded Legends Course as well. I have not played it, but can’t wait to give it a go.

16. pcc_ryco | Rated | 14 Jan 2008 | Add A Review

Tighten your spikes and bring your A game. Northerly or Southerly, when the wind gets up this course will bear its teeth, particularly from the black tees. Peter Thompson would receive fan mail daily with these undulating greens, tight fairways and cruel bunker design and placement. Some bunkers are placed smack bang in the middle of fairways with large rolling lead-ins. You think you hit a perfect tee shot only to be rewarded with at least bogey or worse trying to come out sideways from craters that can have 10 feet faces. Accuracy is the name of the game on Open course. Miss the bunkers and hit the “right” parts of the greens and you can score well. A true test for golfers of all levels.

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• Noosa Springs
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17. NoLuck | Rated | 24 Sep 2007 | Add A Review

Absolutely amazing golf course. Played the Holden Scramble so did not test ourselves individually, but had a great day and did not find the course intimidating. Anyone could play this course and not lose too many balls or feel that the course was too hard. We played off the blue tees so were not right off the back markers, but I don’t think they use them too often anyway. Greens were fast but not ridiculously so, although you had to be a bit careful with down hill putts as you would expect. I personally rate this course much higher than the dunes. One point of note is that when we were having a beer on the “terrace” after our round, we noticed a few green fee players hitting off and they were all hitting from the white tees, which would make the course very short and easy. I would suggest that if you are only looking to have a hit (not in a comp) that you check that you will be allowed to hit off at leat the blue markers. One more final observation, I don’t get to play the elite courses much but fair dinkum, you get to use a fresh white hand towel to dry your hands in the mens room and just throw it in the laundry basket when you have finished! No piped background music though!

18. shank1 | Rated | 21 Aug 2007 | Add A Review

The ultimate test of golf, the fairway driving bunkers are incredibly steep, the fairways are narrow and the bunkers cut into them and sometimes are slap bang in the middle. the condition of the course is exceptional and it’s easy on the eye. Bring your ‘A’ game, if you can drive the bunkers you will be rewarded with great roll down the other side but if you catch one it will probably take you atleast two shots to get out. You can’t compare your ability to the pros until you have crack at this course off the back markers.