Blog 57 – CT West

Course no. 57, Coolangatta Tweed Heads, West Course, NSW

Premium on driving, well treed with narrow fairways

Nomadic_golfer : August 2020

Par 72, 6018m, slope 128, green fee $55 ($30 Mondays)

5 par 3s from 140 – 174m, 8 par 4s from 282 – 405m, 5 par 5s from 467 – 502m

This was the furthest north we ventured in 2020, the first of 3 August trips to Tweed Heads, first up was the West Course. I had played here 37 years earlier in some schoolboys golf and I could recall 8 of the holes.

A pretty solid track, fairways are generally narrow and rough has lots of medium sized trees, close together so miss a fairway by more than 5 yards and you are chipping out. The fairways look to be a broad leafed couch and were in good condition for the middle of winter, overall lies were good. The greens are large, were quick and very firm; grass is TifEagle which looked dormant in winter and had been scarified but they rolled very well. Most holes are well bunkered. I really like the 5 par 3 and 5 par 5 set up and the 5’s all give you a chance, with perhaps the incline to the oft-photographed 18th green (main photo below) making that the most difficult to hit in 2.

My favourite holes were: 3 (170m well-bunkered to green looking diagonally at you from short left to long right meaning a right hander must be very sure about the shape they want to hit); 4 (480m par 5 that has some risk/ reward; starts off like most holes here, requiring a drive between native gums, before it opens up to a water hazard all the way down the right from about the 300m mark to the front of the green. The left side has a number of bunkers to tackle if you opt for this safer route); and 12 (393m bending right off the tee, then back a little left – a number of different options for line off the tee, then a sneaky water hazard left of the green – 4 is a good score here).

A good overall test of golf; good condition, plenty of well placed bunkers & lots to think about off the tees. I might be on my own, but I actually rate this above the River course, which I think takes the driver option off the table on too many holes – I’ll be back at the Monday $30 rate.

  • Approach to 18th