Course no. 19 – Leongatha, Vic
Fantastic, out of town bush setting with lovely fairways and harsh penalties for missing them. Layout a little repetitive.
Nomadic_golfer : February 2020
Par 70, 5785m (blue), slope 121 , green fee $40
4 par 3s from 137 – 186m, 12 par 4s from 295 – 420m, 2 par 5s from 475 & 479m
After the brief foray into Melbourne, we were back on the road and set anchor in the Gippsland region, where I had some tips of a few good tracks to play.
First up was Leongatha, a course set in peaceful looking bush-land 20kms out of the township. This course came highly recommended and I could see why on arrival. Very well manicured santa-anna fairways, framed by thick rows of trees and bracken.
The bent greens are unusually grainy for this neck of the woods but condition was good and while those beautiful fairways are wide, the heavily treed surrounds rarely give you a bail-out option. There are many elevated greens with harsh penalties for going long which does drive you to playing the short club when in doubt.
This is a quality golf course, with my only criticism being the high prevalence (5) of left to right doglegs on the back nine, with 4 of these facing the same easterly direction. There are however, lots of quality holes: 3 is an unusual but excellent short par 4 (and I love a good risk/ reward par 4), only 295m and steep downhill left to right with a sharp fall away left of the green; 5 (similar to 3 at 305m but with a sharp dogleg); 11 (a 420m beast of a par 4, turning right with the second shot uphill and into the prevailing breeze); and my favourite hole in 16 (150m over a valley to a narrow green with a massive drop off left and long, with a high bank on the right but a flat area to stop balls rolling back onto the green).
This is a good test of golf, suits the left to right player and is very well looked after. It’s well worth the trip to Leongatha.
