Course no. 21 – Heyfield, Vic
Looks can deceive – condition here is pretty rough and ready but the layout is good (quirky at times), and has you engaged. I enjoyed it. The course has character.
Nomadic_golfer : March 2020
Par 72, 5718m, slope 119 , green fee $20
4 par 3s from 129 – 199m, 10 par 4s from 238 – 389m, 4 par 5s from 446 – 489m
Day 3 of golf in Gippsland, it’s early March and we are staying at the Heyfield Oval. Heyfield is a progressive little town of 2000 people, 206km east of Melbourne, on the Thomson River. It has a fantastic wetlands and park area on the south-western entrance to town.
Today we visit the Heyfield Golf Club and what a character this track is, even before the fake snake on the outting green (below). Small, soft, slow greens, no bunkers, predominantly sparse kikuyu fairways and patchy uneven tees; but the hole composition with the variety of shapes/ direction and use of mildly undulating terrain set against heavily wooded rough, is magic. Signature hole amongst locals is probably the 18th (middle, bottom photo), 136m across water but there are many stronger holes. My favourites were: 2 (390m straight par 4 flanked by pine trees and ob all the way down the left); 3 (unusual, diagonal approach for a 130m hole with fall away left of green); 7 (gently bending par 5 protected by large trees on the inside of the turn, with tee set back in trees over a gulley); and the short par 4 15th of 276m, sweeping left giving a risk / reward choice with trouble down both sides. No sameness about any of the holes, though the finish is let down a little by 15-17 all being short 4s, bending left. Layout good, condition ordinary, Character (intangible) everpresent.
