Course 30 for 2024 & 393 all-up: Palmer Gold Coast, Qld
A classic Robina hole, the tight 350m 2nd with very narrow green
Nomadic_golfer : June 2024 – Palmer Gold Coast, Qld, review
Par71, 6078m, Slope 129, $100
4 par3s 135-169m, 11 par4s 337-390m, 3 par5s 461-548m
Formerly Robina Woods, this 1990 Graham Marsh design is a little tighter and shorter than I expected as a novice on the subject of Gold Coast golf, with ‘resort-style’ front of mind. The course was carved out of a native forest of eucalypts, which now line the fairways. Water also plays a large part in the course defence with streams and small lakes coming into play on more holes than not.
There are lots of decisions to make off the tee, with overhanging branches and the need to shape shots between chutes of trees adding to the decision-making fodder as much as the water does. Greens are small, many narrow/ shallow and a few clover-shaped. These tough targets feels very appropriate on the mostly short-mid length 4s, but they are the staple diet throughout. This narrowness does dictate that there is quite a bit of strategy involved in plotting your way around here – there are preferred sides of the fairway to provide easier shots into greens and there are definitely preferred places to miss greens. There are also plenty of pin positions that call for a particular shape of shot to get close.
Bunkers are plentiful, both fairway and greenside, and those narrow greens make some of the greenside bunkers no-go zones. There are also some cool elevation changes which play a part in the two excellent finishing holes: 17 is a spectacular (and nasty) 169m steep downhill one-shotter with an ultra-shallow green that looks diagonally at you from short left and, depending on pin position, has very few safe misses – the bank over the back would cop many bailouts here; and 18 – a thought-provoking 514m par5 with a tee shot from an elevated tee with a right bank helping you out on your tee shot before giving you multiple options and questions on your second, to a very narrow & diagonally placed green that sits beyond a couple of ponds. The 163m 8th gets in on the elevation change act too. It is a half-brother to 17, also downhill but to a rolling, kidney shaped green set in a beautiful ampitheatre of gums.
The enduring memory here though is the number of interesting, short-mid length 4s (9 of them between 325m and 365m), typically tight with narrow greens. While the majority of them are compelling, it’s probably the course’s weakness also – there is just not enough variety.
Overall, this is a quality layout in a beautiful setting. It would challenge all levels of golfers and plays much tougher than it’s length suggests. There is no let-up in the need to hit quality shots, with precision required both from the tee and into the greens. And while this is more than a worthwhile golfing experience, the similarity in the par4s just brings it down a notch.
