Blog 79 – Wauchope

Nomadic_golfer : October 2020

Par 71, 5823m, slope 126, green fee $29

4 par 3s from 116-187m, 11 par 4s from 281-402m, 3 par 5s from 450-493m

2nd round out of our Port Macquarie camp was in the town of Wauchope, population 6k, on the Hastings River, 406km north of Sydney and 19km inland from Port Macq.

Lush looking track that has kikuyu tees, surrounds and fairways, and bent greens. Trees are mainly gums, quite large and all very clear at ground level so there is almost always a route out when you miss fairways. There is a moderate amount of bunkering. With not much length in the par 4’s, a long drive gone wide is typically easy to repair with a low punch up to very receptive green surrounds. Condition was pretty good in October, fairways on the verge of needing preferred lie, greens had some other grasses invading and some were patchy but overall they were fine, some quite small.

The course is a tale of two 9s. The front nine carries the holes from the original 9-hole course and is short at 2648m par 35, with no par 4 over 340m and a fair bit of ‘up and back’. Two pretty par 3s help the 9 with the 116m water carry 4th providing some variety, while the 150m 7th over a grassy gully to a very small elevated green with grassy mounds at the front and trees right, being the pick of the bunch.

The back nine has some length, over 3000m off the blues, with the 417m 13th the pick of the 4’s. The tee-shot is through a chute of overhanging branches, downhill so doesn’t play its full length but it turns right and is surrounded both sides by the largest trees on the course. The 2 par 5’s on this 9 are probably the best holes on the course for me though; 11 is 476m with an uphill tee shot to a plateau, then turns right and has a stream crossing the fairway at about 70m out to force a go or lay up decision. 17 gives you a chance at 450m, dogleg right with 4 ponds on the inside corner for anyone getting too bold off the tee.

Overall, a nice golf outing, not too testing and no real unique defining characteristics to differentiate itself though.