Course 2 for 2022 – George Town, Tas
View of The Tamar from clubhouse & practice green
Entertaining layout overlooking the Tamar in Australia’s oldest town
Nomadic_golfer : January 2022
Par 70, 5361m, slope 117, $20 green fee
5 par3s 138-175m, 10 par4s 256-389m, 3 par5s 430-466m
This is a fun 9 hole layout up in the North of Tassie, 5 minutes south of Australia’s oldest town (not city) in George Town. The course overlooks the Tamar River from the clubhouse high up on a hill, the holes routed on the river’s blindside, with wide fairways lined mostly with large pines.
After a benign short par4 to start with, the layout has some character and there are some attractive views from multiple elevated tees. The course is not long and plays shorter than its yardage at this time of year due to the fairways and rough being very firm and hard-running. There are a handful of greenside and fairway bunkers and a water hazard, but the pines dominate the landscape and determine the shape and line of most tee shots.
Condition in the middle of summer was only just, with fairways (rye/ bits of kikuyu) brownish, but sound. Greens were not great at this time of year, some dry/ dead patches on spongy surfaces which might have a bentgrass base.
Memorable holes for me were: 2 (very pretty uphill right to left short (320m) par 4 between 2 rows of pines with a long narrow fairway bunker down the right); 12 (tough 175m par3 with bunker diagonally across front of green); and 4 (plays as 390m par4 & 13 a 470m par5. This hole is an exciting ride for what is basically a straight hole: blind, flat drive over a crest between 2 rows of Titleist-swallowing pines, then goes hard downhill over the crest and with the hard running fairway (and rough), the run on that drive is endless. The last ~50 metres is slightly uphill to an elevated green with water short and right. Hitting this fairway is critical.
A couple of the short par 4s have character too – reverse camber fairways and narrow greens, appropriate for the length of hole. It’s no snack here, and the par 3’s all play tough/ tricky: 12 (per above ); 5/14 (uphill 140m to a green on a hill/ dome); and 7/16 (160m uphill, very firm around green and ground slopes down to the left, green drops off long and left). It also has a very strong finishing hole, 390m slightly left to right around a large gum that juts into fairway, slightly uphill 2nd to an elevated green with drop-off left and long.
Overall, this track has some character & some good design. It’s quite open, hard and running in summer, putting a premium on driving it in the fairway. Condition is a bit scratchy, and it has a couple of blind holes and multiple hazards to add some spice.
