day 80 - what a day at Kingston Heath

Posted by Michael on 22 March 2010 | 2 Comments | Tags: Wow, Kingston Heath, Sandbelt, Bill Torrey, Melbourne

Kingston Heath has recently been crowned (by the reputable judges of the Australian Golf Digest) as the number one golf course in Australia. 

 

So it was with delight that day 80 of puregolf2010 featured a round of pure golfing at 'the Heath'. Kingston Heath was the last place that Tiger played tournament golf when he won the Australian Masters by 106 shots back in November.  And it is ranked as the number 29 best golf course in the WORLD by golf digest. Which makes it "officially" the best golf course we have played this year. It is fair to say that  today Kingston Heath did not disappoint.

 

We played as members guests courtesy of Bill Torrey, a mate of Dad's from Sydney who is a member of NSW.  Bill is a champion, a smart guy who shares our passions of golf, hockey and fine wine and cocktails.  We get on very well despite coming from different generations. Bill has played the Heath many times before with Dad and co, during their week of golfing wonderlust in Melbourne that I have previously blogged about. This meant that Bill gave us some quasi local knowledge which we got huge mileage out of.

 

The golf course that is Kingston Heath is exactly what I had initially expected a sandbelt course to be like.  It combines the best features of the courses of the previous week all bundled into one supreme golf course.  Kingston Heath is (almost) done with perfection. Firstly, the conditioning is first rate - it is in excellent nick. The fairways are pure, the rough is intense (knee high in many areas), and the greens roll true.   Secondly, the course requires precision shots all the way around. Bad shots result in bogeys. Very bad shots result in doubles. You need to spin the ball when approaching the greens or you can end up in deep trouble - most probably punctuated by sand of some description. Take, for example, the par threes (of which there are only three). If you hit a good shot onto the green it is likely that 3 is on the cards. If you hit an average shot, you will roll into a bunker next to the green, or a swale surrounding the green and with a stroke a genius 3 is on the cards (e.g., rolling in a 20 footer on the 2nd hole today).  Before confusion sets in for those who have played the Heath our second hole today is also known as the 19th or temporary hole for the members or the 11th during the Masters.  We played what is known as the inside/out layout that was used for the Aussie Masters last year. But to make life even more confusing the nines are played the other way around for the Masters� Anyway I digress.

 

Firstly, before I sing the praises of KH, I will share my one and only gripe. And that is that there are only three par fives, and they all run the same direction. On days like today, where the customary wind blows into your face on all three of these par fives (and the only short par 4), there is very little opportunity to reach any of these holes in 2 and accordingly it is only worth hitting an iron off the tee and playing them as genuine three shotters. I love risk reward golf, where a good drive could result in a simple birdie, whilst a bad one results in double.  

 

But a golf course is not all about hitting it onto greens in regulation minus one, and Kingston Heath had many quality golf holes that put an exclamation mark on this statement. For example the 10th hole (7th for the members) was a par five but had a short sharp slope at the front of the green which made any approach, whether it be from 180m or 80m infinitely difficult to the front pin placement. The slope caught out all three of us, and we rolled back to a swale where the texas wedge needed to be employed (even for Jamie who generally hates putting from off the green).

 

There were some cracker par fours. For example the stretch from 16-18 (which we played as our 7th - 9th holes). 16 is a blind tee shot out of a shute of ti-tree and to a strong dogleg right. At 400m and into the rather stiff breeze this was a true test. Jamie and I both bailed out into the bunkers short right which appealed a whole lot more than the OOB / scrub to the left of the green. Blind tee shots were a feature of the course, with another on the short, 330m par four 12th (9 for the members and see below). The 17th was another 420m test which has a green that slopes away from the fairway which means you have to land your second short and roll it up - a shot that is probably easier for the 15 handicapper than the 2 handicapper! 

 

I love short par fours. Despite playing the 15th (3rd for the members) like a girl's blouse it was still a real treat. At 270m long this hole begs for you to take driver and have a crack. When you get to the green it even slopes from back to front which means that a driver would even hold the green. But then again, the green is about 20 feet wide, surrounded by an array of bunkers which are duly surrounded by an even wider array of ti-tree. Perhaps driver is not the smartest play. So I tried to hit the 3 iron lay up shot which of course hooked into the ti-tree. Bugger I said and hit a provisional. But then I found it and hit a blind wedge to about 6 feet (and missed the putt). Anyway the story of the 15th is about how a small hole can really mess your round up. Jamie missed the green with a wedge (never the kind of thing that makes you smile) but from his downhill lie in the in the bunker to a tight pin on the concrete KH greens he was in somewhat of a pickle. His first bunker shot rolled through the green leaving another semi-impossible pitch to the back pin position. From the middle of the fairway on this short beast, he was quickly writing 6 on the scorecard. Great hole.

 

 

Lastly, the short holes. They're good. Very good. 15 (our 6th today) is a stunner with about 12 bunkers which if you were going to take a photo to describe KH this would be it (see below. To mix it up there was a 175m hole that we played as our 17th (the 5th for the members) which had a firm green where you invariably end up with a delicate downhill putt. Tough going for someone who has had their confidence on the fast greens knocked around a fair bit by this stage (take note Ed for when you play here one day). The other par three was the temporary hole which had rough around the green that came right up to  my knees - who knew the sandbelt was capable of growing the stuff!

 

 

 

So the round ended late in the day with the bumps and blemishes showing up in the low light filtering onto the final green.  A round to be remembered and a golf course that was a real pleasure to play. The final tally for the day ended with 79/87 and I took out the greens and putts to take blog writing honours. After a steady start, Bill had a couple of wipes and ended up second in the split sixes. But his strategic style of golf was impressive and got me thinking that this game is not all about belting it as far as possible...

 

Before the day was up, we went back to an old mate from St Andrew's (our high school) days by the name of Brendon Lucas (aka Ris - named after Chris Harris the legendary cricketer who was particularly well known for his fielding prowess). Back in the old days, Ris was the captain of our first XI cricket team and was a pretty hard taskmaster, well that's what I thought as the youngest member of the team... Ris and his better half Emma were spectacular hosts and we retired to their place to enjoy a home cooked meal (Ris has become something of a chef!) and a few stories over a couple of glasses of red. A perfect end to another great day of puregolf2010. Thanks to Ris and Emma for having us stay and Bill for hosting us as his guest at Kingston Heath - a supreme day.