Blog 278 – Penola

Nomadic_golfer : January 2024 – Penola Golf Club, SA review

Par 72, 5887m slope 112 $35

4 par3s 140-198m, 10 par4s 284-379m, 4 par5s 434-465m

Down in premium wine country in the South-East of South Australia lies this picturesque track in a beautiful bush setting on a lovely sandy base. It boasts a breathtaking variety of flora, including massive gums, pines & cypress providing a lovely array of colour. Condition of kikuyu fairways was ok, bent/ poa greens ok but soft, and typical country size (small to medium) without too many nuances.

Unusual, but noticeable is a number of the exceptionally conditioned and laser-like flat tee blocks (eg. the 1st!). A few of those blocks also have planted flower-beds as borders which add to the aesthetic.

Most of the trouble you can get into as a golfer here is ‘in the air’ with those large gums and pines determining your lines off the tee. It starts off a little open but gets pretty tight and thick through the middle and parts of the back 9. There are only a few bunkers and no real prominent hazards, as such. Plenty of natural ground-cover provides hazard enough, with the bracken-fern etc out wide.

In general, it plays quite tight and while there is definite strategy and scope for risk reward on the shorter 4s & 5s, the size of the trees has rendered most of those opportunities as ultra tough with very severe shot-shapes required. The par 5s in 3 & 8 and the short 4 11th are prime examples where you can see the shot the designer wanted you to take on, but it is now a remote chance at best for the scratch golfer, which takes away a bit of the fun.

In terms of holes I like – the 360m 1st is a good start, with subtle features. The fairway bends gently right to left and that shorter left-side line has more of the trouble. The green make-up is one of my favourites on the property, slightly elevated with a narrow tongue at the front protected by a bunker short-left. That front pin position is a beauty. The 360m 6th was probably my favourite of the many doglegs – it goes hard left to right around some gums, with the fairway running out at ~210m where some bracken will hinder your progress if your attempted cut should stay straight. It then opens up to a beautiful green set in front of a couple of large ghost-gums amongst some deep green pines. The 284m 12th is my pick of the short 4’s – while it looks to have less features from the tee – it does have some executable risk/ reward in that it plays shorter, is straight-away and has OB down the left, very adjacent to the direct line. It would be even better with a narrow green to penalise those who bail out right off the tee. With those severe angles on 3&8, the 460m 14 was my favourite of the 5s, as I think it has the execution of the strategy right – take on the challenge of a (not too severe) right-to-left teeshot around some gums, or carry those gums, and a line to the green does open up for your 2nd – a straight tee-shot will leave your 2nd blocked by pines that line the right side and narrow-in the further you proceed. Oh, and I did like the quirky little par3 13th that goes straight across the corner of an OB fence.

Overall, Penola is a beautiful place to play golf. Condition was pretty good for this part of the world and you do need to make lots of decisions on the tees (which is a good thing). My only gripe is that the executable options on some of what may have been good risk/ reward holes have been taken from the golfer as the angles required are now so severe.