Nomadic_golfer : My favourite holes in Tassie
All-Star 18
After playing 45 of Tassie’s 80-odd courses over the past 4 months, I have pulled together my ‘All-Star 18″. It is the compilation of my favourite holes by hole number, from the courses I played , ie favourite 1st hole, 2nd hole etc. Yeah, yeah, I know there’s no Barnbougle or King Island tracks in this list, but to spin that positively, this is the list from the Tassie courses everyone grew up with (almost!).
“What makes a good hole?” I hear you ask. For me it can be one or more of a number of factors that makes it memorable: aesthetics; risk/ reward choices; a unique or quirky feature; fear factor; exposure; tempting options; exhilaration factor; or even the inclusion of locally occurring natural features like rocks or craters.
I have picked my favourite, a 2nd place and given out a couple of honourable mentions. It is a mix of what you might have expected, with some icons (Tasmania’s par5 3rd that takes on Barilla Bay, Cameron’s Chasm at Port Arthur’s Tasman GC, which goes from one clifftop to another, & the magnificently designed, ‘tapered’ 500m par5 13th at Royal Hobart) and some country bolters (Tarraleah’s captivating par5 1st, St Mary’s quirky par4th 10th with fences and a road, & Geeveston’s short par3 11th, with a ripper of a redan green).
Some holes had multiple contenders, the 3rd was probably the toughest competition. Wynyard’s 300m par4 3rd is a beauty; strategically and aesthetically, but it is up against that iconic par5 at Tasmania, and there were four or five more 3rd holes of high quality that could have featured; like New Norfolk’s 177m par3 & Stanley’s 350m par4. Conversely, some holes took a bit of searching.
It throws up some weird outcomes; like the quartet of quality par3s for the 8th hole, while 3 of the 4 on 17 are par 3s too. Oh, and I do like a risk/ reward short par4, with 4 of these characters getting the chocolates. The 260m 6th at Stanley may well be my favourite hole in Tassie, and it might have a bit of Royal Adelaide’s 3rd about it – check out the photos
The conditioning of the respective courses hasn’t had much impact on my choices here, it’s all about design and characteristic.
| Hole | Favourite | 2nd | Honourable Mentions |
| 1 | Tarraleah 435m par5 | Rosebery 152m par3 | Oatlands 280m par4 Ratho Farm 164m par3 |
| 2 | Claremont 170m par3 | Launceston 536m par5 | Quamby Est 150m par3 Riverside 287m par4 |
| 3 | Tasmania GC 528m par5 | Wynyard 300m par4 | Longford 380m par4 Burnie 524m par5 Riverside 390m par4 |
| 4 | Pittwater 160m par3 | CC Tasmania 475m par5 | Orford 296m par4 Smithton 380m par4 |
| 5 | Claremont 400m par4 | Tam O’Shanter 370m par4 | Llanherne 501m par5 Ulverstone 160m par3 |
| 6 | Stanley 267m par4 | New Norfolk 115m par3 | CC Tasmania 500m par5 Poatina 390m par4 |
| 7 | Freycinet 387m par4 | Penguin 100m par3 | Tasman 370m par4 Swansea 130m par3 |
| 8 | Tasman 125m par3 | Tasmania GC 160m par3 | Mowbray 165m par3 Scamander 165m par3 |
| 9 | Penguin 319m par4 | New Town Bay 183m par3 | Kingston Beach 470m par5 Rosebery 505m par5 |
| Hole | Favourite | 2nd | Honorable Mentions |
| 10 | St Marys 394m par4 | Ulverstone 400m par4 | Iron Pot 390m par4 Freycinet 505m par5 |
| 11 | Geeveston 125m par3 | Tasmania GC 125m par3 | North West Bay 430m par4 Coal Valley 463m par5 |
| 12 | Elderslie 260m par4 | Mowbray 501m par5 | Oatlands 125m par3 Kingston Beach 310m par4 |
| 13 | Royal Hobart 503m par5 | Quamby Estate 389m par4 | Launceston GC 155m par3 George Town 470m par5 |
| 14 | Ulverstone 383m par4 | CC Tasmania 370m par4 | Oatlands 340m par4 Pittwater 490m par5 |
| 15 | Exeter 320m par4 | Riverside 524m par5 | Llanherne 342m par4 Oatlands 140m par3 |
| 16 | Kingston Beach 160m par3 | Ratho Farm 242m par4 | Royal Hobart 354m par4 Tasmania GC 554m par5 |
| 17 | Elderslie 111m par3 | Dover 141m par3 | Port Sorell 456m par5 Richmond 170m par3 |
| 18 | North West Bay 436m par5 | Royal Hobart 350m par4 | Ratho Farm 439m par5 Bicheno 450m par5 |
Refer to the previous blog for the full list of courses I played in Tassie.