Blog 20 – Maffra

Nomadic_golfer : February 2020

Par 72, 6065m, slope 119 , green fee $30

4 par 3s from 139 – 207m, 10 par 4s from 290 – 397m, 4 par 5s from 461 – 484m

Day 2 of golf in Gippsland, still in late February and we are staying on the lake at the Lake King Waterfront Caravan Park, just out of Paynesville.

Today’s subject is the Maffra Golf Club, deep in dairy country in West Gippsland, about 220km east of Melbourne. Maffra is a town of about 4000 people with amongst its claims to fame, a very pretty main street and the holding of a Mardi Gras every March.

The golf course is on a flat piece of land about 5 km out of town. The kikuyu fairways were patchy in February but were being transitioned to a couch. The bent greens were the conditioning highlight; medium sized and paced, firm under foot but had seen plenty of water and quite smooth.

The course is a decent length at 6065m. The fairways are on the wide side and it’s not very penal: rough is patchy but not thick; the tree coverage is quite sparse; green surrounds are soft; and there is just a splattering of bunkers/ hazards.

The stand-out feature for me is the tough stretch of holes from 7 through 16, with 5 par 4s over 375m, and par 3s at 170 & 207m, you need to be striking them well to string pars together on this stretch.

The best holes in my book are: 3 (short par 4 of 330m, sweeping sharply left and protected by water on the inside); 9 (380m turning right and narrowing at the 200-240m range); and 13 (397m with a gentle downhill tee shot before turning slightly left and demanding a long iron to a green that does have bunker protection on both sides).

After a ho-hum start over the first 6 holes, this course does poke you in the ribs on the 7th tee and make you play a lot of mid-to-long irons from then on. A good test of golf, without anything spectacular, but worth a hit if you are in the area.