Flashback - Royal Adelaide on day 90 - photos added

Posted by Michael on 1 April 2010 | 3 Comments | Tags: monthly competition, royal adelaide, Adelaide, Clayton, Royal, Mackenzie

1:  Royal Adelaide on a crisp Adelaide morning. We jump out of the car, meet Andrew the General Manager, grab a classical looking score card and tee off the first.  This course is old and has a warm but quaint feel about it. Around since 1906, it is nearly 90 years since Dr Alastair MacKenzie had a play with the design in 1926.  The first is a par four, with bunkers on the corner of a slight dogleg left.  I get up and down from the bunker so Jamie is the crab. We're away. [Note: more pictures to follow when we get a decent internet connection]

2: Between the first and second holes is a railway line. Trains fly through the golf course every 20 minutes. Andrew tells us that some days it feels like every 10â?¦ The clubhouse used to adjoin a train station so that the members could jump straight off the train and start their round. Number 2 is a par five and our first real taste of the South Australian red sand bunkering that surrounds the green. Jamie and I make two very different fives.

3:  A blind tee shot where, from the tee, we can just see the top of the flag. A 269m par four. It is at this point we wish we had some local playing partners to tell us where to hit it!  I take 2 iron and flush it at the pin. JP goes with the aggressive play and pulls driver.  Over the hill is a truly great golf hole. The green is an inverted pear shape with the narrowest of entries between long rough of either side of the green. I've had a couple of firm bounces and am 20 ft from the cup just off the green. Birdie. Stoked.

4: The blind tee shots just keep coming. And over sand dunes this time.  I sneak another birdie with a raker from off the green. Stoked. Game on to win the day 3-0 and try and take out the monthly competition.

5: JP and I just keep hitting fairways.  They, along with the rest of the course, are perfectly groomed.  The 5th is another strong hole that doglegs right. Jamie drains a left to right bomb in front of the camera as a train hurtles by. Great footage.

6: A 420m hole that Norman complained about during the 98 Aussie Open because he couldn't reach the green in two. Pansy. But I did hear that it was quite windy that day. Jamie chips in for birdie. Game on.

7: The first short hole. 160m uphill from a newly aligned tee block to a green surrounded by about 7 bunkers. Visually intimidating but the green is actually massive. Jamie drains an absolute bomb for 2. I three putt. Ouch. No complaints though as the greens here are pure. 

8: Golf holes don't need massive features to be difficult. The only real defense of the 8th is a solitary fairway bunker to make you hit 3 wood / iron off the tee and then a very narrow green which angles to the right yet tilts to the left. Jamie and I both miss it on the left. But thankfully the up and down is manageable from this side and we make 4. Right would have been a certain 5.  Beautifully subtle golf. 

9: The front nine is rounded off with a couple of fives and we are both square with the card.  We share a quip with a friendly local playing behind named John who we met prior to the round. John is having a match against another member, Henry and is up at the turn. 

10: The 10th green still frightens me as I write this.  An upturned saucer if ever there was one. A green that Peter Thompson dreams about and has tried to replicate 793 times.  Despite having 70m to the green for my second I make 5. Just. Nearly a four putt (first from off the green).  Supposedly Danny Lee 4-putted this green during the '08 Eisonhower played here (and at the Grange) in 2008. Imagine Ed on this green.

11: The hole that epitomizes Royal Adelaide. Carry over a bunker (which JP topped it into and took two to get out of) to a tight fairway with bunkers left and right. The green sits in a natural amphitheater amidst perfectly set in the red sand dunes.  Natural wasteland is short of the green for 60m or so, which my second finds its way into.  This hole hasn't changed much from the scene set on the huge canvas photo from the 1920's which greets you as you enter the stately clubhouse. I absolutely love the hole even though I make 6. Jamie makes a rabbit-out-of-the-hat 5. Check it. 

12: Downhill 200m par three that normally plays into the wind. Supposedly the pro's all take iron and leave it short because their ego wont allow them to hit a wood. That's what the locals say. JP and I combined take 5 shots, my turn to sink a bomb.

13: Blind tee shots - don't we just love them.  At the green Andrew comes out to see how we are finding the course. A nice touch. He says some greens look undulating but don't borrow much, yet some really swing. The 13th is the latter and we don't sink any putts on this hole. One of Jamie's two pars for the back nine  ( Tour golf deteriorated on the back nine). 

14: We tee off from behind the railway lines on this strong par four. There is a pond, not really in play on the right. It is very interesting that water in Australia is used more for storage purposes than as an obstacle. It's essential over here to make the most of a scarce resource.

15: A short par five which slides its way between the aforementioned hazard which is now very much in play. I go into it and make 6. New wasteland on the left makes this the tightest driving hole on the course, which will only get more difficult as the scrub on the left grows up and becomes a prime 'lost ball' zone.

16: The final short hole. This hole requires some iron shot to get on the green. Always a sign of a great par three. My one-putt three means the putting point for the day is looking promising. Fairways are an issue however.  Jamie is craving a sandwich in the clubhouse.

17: Where do I begin.. Mike Clayton's contribution to Royal Adelaide. And I'm sorry to say it is not a good one. A 120m wide fairway (wide enough that you can hit a full wedge from one side to the other) with three gigantic bunkers plonked in the middle of it.  Supposedly McKenzie designed this hole so that you could take various routes with your tee shot. I would suggest most good golfers just take the direct route straight over the bunkers. Particularly down the prevailing wind.  But upon inspection of McKenzie's masterplan (positioned up in the clubhouse) there is no way that you can interpret his 17th fairway as being wide enough to land a jumbo jet on.  The bunkering on this hole was completely different to the rest of the course (but yet very similar to a similar designers newly renovated holes at the Grange East course). The bunkers on 17 could have been transplanted from the Dunes or 13th Beach. Bizarre.  I hit driver over Clayt's sandpits to leave a 7 iron in. But the fairway has a number of dead elephants in it (also unique to this hole) and from my sharp upslope I pulled it into the green-side bunker where my srixon duly plugged deep into the face, a feat that is impossible on any of the other manicured bunkers on the course.  I scramble a one putt 6 after two hacks from the bunker.  The 50m long green is about the size of all the other greens on the back nine put together.  Simplicity of design is key, and this, to me, just didn't fit at all with the rest of this idyllic course.

18:  Jamie hits a smooth 5 iron onto the fairway to take the fairway point for the day.  And the statistics match for the month of March. Two months in a row for Mr Patton. Congrats.  The scores finish 79 / 81 which is very disappointing considering the potential after the front nine. But we loved the course. Dearly.  This is one of the best courses in Australia hands down, it has a real character to it.  I just hope they don't try and alter it too much, ala 17.  

After the round we have lunch in the clubhouse with the chaps behind, John and Henry.  John has won their closely fought match 2 up.  Henry has seen it all here after being a member for almost 50 years!. We hear about the club culture and atmosphere which from our experience is nothing short of extremely welcoming and comfortable.  The lunch is pretty sharp too!  Fast golf is a feature here for the members and you are expected to get around in 3hr 20 minutes if you play on Saturday before 1030am. That is my kind of golf. 

We share golfing stories with these gentlemen for an hour or so over lunch and discuss the golf course in depth.  John tells us about some of the amazing golf he has played in this vast place that is Australia. Then he introduces us to some other members who hear all about our three months of non-stop-can't-get-enough-golf. 

Before we leave we soak in the history around us - photographs of the 11th hole through the ages; photographs of the galleries lining the fairways at the various large tournaments hosted by the club; and the masterplans of the course as created through the ages.  Andrew and his team are to be complimented for the wonderful golfing experience that is Royal Adelaide.  Thank you very much for having us.