Course 8 for 2024 & 378 of all time – Nhill Golf Club, Vic
Super green setting on the short par3 7th
Nomadic_golfer : January 2024 – Nhill Golf Club, Vic review
Par 70, 5692m slope 119 $30
5 par3s 122-178m, 10 par4s 321-403m, 3 par5s 446-489m
As a South Australian living in Victoria, I have travelled through Nhill dozens of times in the last 30 years and didn’t even realise they had a golf course – they have a very good golf course at that.
Initial thoughts are swayed by the obvious smallish, dead-square parcel of land between paddocks, next to the airfield, and of tree-lined fairways where about 95% of trees are pines of all the same height (circa 30ft). On my visit, dried grass clippings were lying on the fairways which also wound down the aesthetic. But once you get into it, these characteristics become just quirks inside what is a quality layout on very good surfaces of couch fairways & tees, with a touch of kikuyu (it is winning the battle on 11 & 13), and medium-large bent greens, maintained by 1 paid greenkeeper, supported by a host of volunteer members and a good supply of bore water.
The treelined fairways are not your standard super-tight country width and there aren’t too many tight chutes to drive through but most of the hazards are in the air, represented by the trees. There are plenty of hazards on the ground too, with greenside bunkers on most holes and a couple of water hazards (no fairway bunkers). While the green complexes are a highlight, there is a certain similarity to most of them; high at the back, low at the front.
The back 9 does open up a little, with less of the lines of pines and more variation in design. The stand-out hole is the 400m par 4 16th, which works its way into the far, NW corner of the property. With pines and OB down the length of the left-side, the fairway dips after 200m and rises slightly to a picture-perfect green complex, slightly elevated, mounds left, bunker right, framed by 2 magnificent ghost gums and a windmill in the immediate background.
From a memorable viewpoint, the par3s do it for me. There are 5 of them, and they are all of high quality, vary in make-up and direction, and are very easy on the eye. The shortest one – the 122m 7th, which my playing partner and I missed on the first pass and went back and played after 18, is the most picturesque; downhill to a slightly elevated green, contoured bunker left and 2 staggered copses of gums, 50m short left and 20m short right. The 140m 4th is quality too – across a gully to an elevated green with yawning bunker short right and a gum left that gets in your head. But the highest quality is probably the 160m 14th, where a bunker slides across the front from the leftside of a very large, 2 tiered green, where a front left-pin gives a number of options to seek that pin.
I’m tipping Nhill has played second fiddle to its bigger brother Horsham over many years, but this is a very good golf course. Overall, my message to anyone who drives the Western Hwy between Adelaide and Melbourne is don’t drive through Nhill again without stopping.
