Blog 200 – Tassie All Star 18

I love the super-shallow green on the short par4 9th at Penguin GC, bordered by an old stone wall

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.

HoleFavourite2ndHonourable Mentions
1Tarraleah
435m par5
Rosebery
152m par3
Oatlands 280m par4
Ratho Farm 164m par3
2Claremont
170m par3
Launceston
536m par5
Quamby Est 150m par3
Riverside 287m par4
3Tasmania GC
528m par5
Wynyard
300m par4
Longford 380m par4
Burnie 524m par5
Riverside 390m par4
4Pittwater
160m par3
CC Tasmania
475m par5
Orford 296m par4
Smithton 380m par4
5Claremont
400m par4
Tam O’Shanter
370m par4
Llanherne 501m par5
Ulverstone 160m par3
6Stanley
267m par4
New Norfolk
115m par3
CC Tasmania 500m par5
Poatina 390m par4
7Freycinet
387m par4
Penguin
100m par3
Tasman 370m par4
Swansea 130m par3
8Tasman
125m par3
Tasmania GC
160m par3
Mowbray 165m par3
Scamander 165m par3
9Penguin
319m par4
New Town Bay
183m par3
Kingston Beach 470m par5
Rosebery 505m par5
HoleFavourite2ndHonorable Mentions
10St Marys
394m par4
Ulverstone
400m par4
Iron Pot 390m par4
Freycinet 505m par5
11Geeveston
125m par3
Tasmania GC
125m par3
North West Bay 430m par4
Coal Valley 463m par5
12Elderslie
260m par4
Mowbray
501m par5
Oatlands 125m par3
Kingston Beach 310m par4
13Royal Hobart
503m par5
Quamby Estate
389m par4
Launceston GC 155m par3
George Town 470m par5
14Ulverstone
383m par4
CC Tasmania
370m par4
Oatlands 340m par4
Pittwater 490m par5
15Exeter
320m par4
Riverside
524m par5
Llanherne 342m par4
Oatlands 140m par3
16Kingston Beach
160m par3
Ratho Farm
242m par4
Royal Hobart 354m par4
Tasmania GC 554m par5
17Elderslie
111m par3
Dover
141m par3
Port Sorell 456m par5
Richmond 170m par3
18North 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.