Course 9 for 2024 & 379 of all time – Ballarat Golf Club, Vic
Short par4 16th – with it all spelt out
Nomadic_golfer : January 2024 – Ballarat Golf Club, Vic review
Par 72, 6214m slope 132 $45
4 par3s 136-193m, 10 par4s 296-415m, 4 par5s 469-533m
Ballarat GC laid claims of being the oldest continually played course in Australia until it moved to a partially new course in 2008, with its history spanning back to 1895. Perhaps it still lays the claim of oldest club still playing part of its original layout!!
Thomson Perret drove the revamp and it does have that Thomson stamp – rolling fairways, prominent fairway bunkers with whispy surrounds, and large contoured greens with multiple pin options that can change the feel of a hole. There are a lot of decisions to be made off the tee here, where fairway widths are on the narrow side, protected by sand and a mixture of whispy and gnarly rough, more so than hazards ‘in the air’. This is particularly true on the back 9 and even more so off the middle tees at 5800m where you see a lot of mid length par 4s, and some orange tee markers btw.
It does have that linksy feel to it and you don’t ever feel really comfortable letting the driver ‘rip’. On my mid-summer visit, the condition was pretty good, santa-anna fairways in solid nick, not overly firm though. The bent/ poa greens were quite soft, probably not at their fastest at the hottest time of the year but were very smooth. I believe challenges do remain in keeping surfaces firm over winter.
Despite it not having overly wide landing areas, this is a FUN golf course, with plenty of options and some fantastic risk/ rewards on offer (short 4s and 5s). Most memorable for me were:
– the 3 shortest par4s which from the right tees and the right wind, would all dangle a large tempting carrot in front of you to have a crack at the green – the 2 on the back 9 being the standouts (12 – 280m from the middle/ 318m from the back to a rolling fairway with OB well left and water right, and a green protected by large pines flanking the left) and 16 (my favourite at 292m from the middle with a host of options from the tee as the severe right to left dogleg is littered with bunkers and a high pine-tree carry on the inside corner on the direct line to the green); and
– the 4th-5th combo (4 is a tight 313/354m, with water left off the tee, a large pine on that left side and a narrowing fairway which means you need to get straighter, the longer you hit it. The right side gives the best line in to a long, narrow green but the fairway cambers right, bringing a large bunker and bushes into play. The tee on the par4 5th at 384/412m points you at a bunker on the outside left corner of this long 4 which moves slightly left to right and pinches in at an area likely to be driving distance for many off both tees. It then opens up but anything taken down that right side has to deal with overhanging trees and a large bunker short right.
Overall, I really enjoyed playing Ballarat. The layout is fun, has you making plenty of decisions and rewards good ball striking.
