Blog 43 – The Springs

Nomadic_golfer : June 2020

Par 72, 5723, slope 127, green fee $40 (black is 6202m)

4 par 3s from 105 – 176m, 10 par 4s from 275 – 391m, 4 par 5s from 409 – 497m

Day 3 of Golf on the NSW Central Coast and we headed 20 minutes inland to Peats Ridge to play ‘The Springs’. The course opened in 1997, had three owners in its first eleven years and there was a period of time when the facility was closed. But its up and about now.

The course has a fantastic Aussie bush setting on hilly terrain and rustic club buildings; there is a unique feel about the place. The layout is good apart from a couple of fairways that are too narrow for the amount of undulation. There is a variety of different shape holes and different length par 4s, while the finish (last 4 holes) is a little short to give a strong golfing test. The front 9 is a real test and quite long (3196m off back tees). There are plenty of holes where water comes into play and very few bunkers. Fairways are a mix of grasses (kikuyu / couch) but were short of grass and thin. Greens are bent grass, quite large, have severe undulations/ tiers and the surface was fine.

The par 5’s are all ‘sporty’ off the whites, giving you a chance, with a bit of risk/ reward on offer while the par 3s were solid and generally attractive and there are some really strong par 4s. My favourite holes are all 4s: 3 (369m, uphill dogleg right around 2 dams to a green guarded by 2 bunkers and heavily sloping from left to right), 6 (downhill 380m with water down the left and cutting across the fairway at about the 250m mark, to a large green with hazards on the right) and 7 (downhill 400m with ob far right, and a large tree on the right blocking second shots, a fairway that slopes left to right. You need a tee shot down the left but a tree in front of the tee dictates that you need a right to left tee shot – there is lots going on with this fantastic par 4.)

Overall, a good track, but it has potential to be even better. Currently, I reckon there are better courses ranked outside of this one, in NSW. It has lots of pluses going for it but it just seems to lack some finishing touches (lack of bunkers, soft finish, maintenance levels) to take the next step to being an Aussie Top 100 track.