Blog 286 – Bright

Nomadic_golfer : January 2024 – Bright Country Golf Club, Vic review

Par 72, 6078m, Slope 122 $45

4 par3s 136-158m, 10 par4s 272-404m, 4 par5s 458-516m

I have had multiple recommendations to play at Bright, at the foothills of Victoria’s snowfields, and I was not disappointed. Designed by Tony Cashmore (with The Dunes, Thirteenth Beach, The Heritage, McCracken, amongst his other works) and opened in 1989, the course is situated on ex-forest property, as is also the case with my other favourite ‘bunker-free’ course in Millicent (SA).

Adjacent to the Ovens River, the summer aesthetic was top notch – driven by the surrounding pine-rich mountains, the large trees on the course (lots of pines, plenty of gums), the presence of water (no sand as I said) and the splendid playing surfaces. Those surfaces (firm-based, santa-anna fairways and bent greens) were in superb condition, greens on the slow side but probably only because of some length kept on them, and extra water in recent days due to a forecast hot spell. Condition was a credit to the groundstaff of 2.5.

Without bunkers, Cashmore has done a great job of introducing other hazards – while there are a lot of them in the air (trees), there are a heap on the ground also. Water is prevalent on a number of holes, particularly on the front (prominent hazards on 4, 6, 7, 9, 14, 15), and there are a number of drop-offs and swales to ensure missed greens aren’t met with a simple chip.

The trees are a mixture, and are typically big – they line every hole but all of the large pines are cut at the bottom so a 4 ft 8 golfer like myself still gets a swing from out-wide on occasion. The fairways are a little wider than your standard country course, though not modern day Gunnamatta or Cathedral width, and penalties for missing fairways aren’t huge – apart from the water, there is typically an option to bunt something 100m forward under those pines, at worst.

Hole make-up and design is strong and consistent, and apart from the first 3 holes pointing straight at the rising sun (I am a first-light type of golfer), my only design knocks were probably because of forward tees used on the day (the difficult par4s in 7 & especially 8, have more options from the back tees than from 40m forward).

1 and 2 are strong starts, the first being a mid-length par5 with a green tucked to the left of the line of play, where the approach is required to negotiate a large swale. 4 is a super, short par4 of 240-270m, to a dome-shaped green tucked right, directly behind a pond. Depending on your preferred length of approach, you could hit anything from 7 iron to 3 wood as a lay up. 6 is a beautiful 150m downhill 3 to a small-ish green, mountains as backdrop, reed-filled water hazard over the back and drop-offs on 3 sides. The 398m (from the back) right to left par4 7th might be my favourite hole – it is quintessential Alpine – a rock-bordered stream hugs the left side and pines guard the bail-out right. Pick off as much as you can across this stream and then execute – it is a little blind off the tee, so it’s definitely one that you would have more idea about, 2nd time around. The 136m 11th is also a ripper (could be my favourite too); uphill to a narrow-ish, reverse redan shaped green with some false-frontage, very steep drop-off right & short and a sizeable tier cutting across the middle of the green.

The 516m par5 14th is the most unique of the strong quartet of 3-shotters. It turns left continuously, with pines hugging the right side and a very unusual large step down from the right hand side of the fairway to the centre. 15 is another super, short 4 of 250-270, with a blind tee-shot over a crest leaving the last 50-70m steeply downhill to a flat green. There is a heather-rich hazard behind the green which that downhill approach brings into play, and tree-trouble left. A10m tongue of thicker growth 20-30m short of the green brings another dimension to this enthralling tee-shot.

Overall, this is an excellent golfing experience and one that surprised me on the upside (I’m carrying the club’s towel on my bag now, as evidence). I’m not sure whether the lack of bunkers is a weakness here – they have many features to counter this, and to me its almost just a point of difference. There is also a theory that not having any bunkers might just assist in abiding with MacKenzie’s theory to make courses easier for high-handicappers and challenge the scratch-markers. Shots that miss the green on firm, fast surfaces will bound away and leave you with a more difficult recovery than what a vanilla bunker shot poses to the scratch marker!!

The hole design is very high quality; it has a great set of differentiated par 3s, a feature-filled mix of varying length par 4s with 2 super, short risk/ reward types and 4 very strong par4s over 390m. Each of the par5s has some positive defining element, 3 of them dangling a tempting option with risk attached. Bright Country GC may well be my ‘favourite bunker-free Aussie golf course’. [Note that Ulverstone in Tas does have a few bunkers (9 & 18)