Course no. 47, South West Rocks, NSW
A bit of everything from this fun country golf course
Nomadic_golfer : July 2020
Par 72, 5700m, slope 130, green fee $30 (Blue 6104)
4 par 3s from 127 – 159m, 10 par 4s from 240 – 370, 4 par 5s from 460 – 473m
We moved a couple of hours north in early July and camped on a property in Eungai Creek, 1/2 hour inland from South West Rocks, where my next round took place. SWR is a great little town of 5,000 people on NSW’s Mid-north Coast, near the MacLeay River’s mouth.
The course is honest, without being spectacular and I found it a good, fun country golf course set on quite flat land in what seems a very relaxed atmosphere. It has unpretentious surrounds and facilities but the course has a bit of everything. Some narrow fairways (first hole for eg.), some wide, some water, some sand. Lots of large trees; pines and gums but not much thick stuff at ground level so on most occasions an errant shot can be recovered with some low, punched, shaped irons. A mixture of fairway grasses has produced decent surfaces with full cover in the winter but preferred lies were in play. Greens are bent grass and were a good surface, medium paced and quite soft. They are very grainy, with the grain having significant impact on break and pace.
Holes that have an impact are: 6 (very short par 4, 240 if you go the long way but 200 if you go direct; it requires a high cut over early trees to a green surrounded by water on all sides, the ultimate risk and reward hole); 11 (370m right to left, pines/gums down both sides, elevated green looking diagonally at you from front right to back left); 12 (fantastic double-turning par 5, right to left off the tee with a corner that can be cut a little, then left to right and slightly uphill with a copse of trees that can be carried, topped off by water on the right of the green); and 15 (likely the signature hole, 370m right to left off the tee, narrow landing area with water on the left, opens up for a 2nd across water to a raised green..
Its a solid test off the blues, an easy walk and an enjoyable course that you share with hundreds of our large marsupial friends..
