Course 98, Temora GC, NSW
Dry, rocky and running in an Aussie bush setting
Nomadic_golfer : December 2020
Par 71, 5922m, slope 112, green fee $20
4 par 3s from 118-171m, 11 par 4s from 295-429m, 3 par 5s from 467-487m
Back at Coolac NSW in mid December and an hour trip north-west to Temora for a late afternoon round with some thunderstorms present. Temora is in the north east of the Riverina region, population ~6000. The town is probably best known for housing the Aviation Museum, founded and presided over by the Lowy family.
It’s very dry out here and the track reflects that. December would not be it’s prime time, suggest Winter would be much better. The course is in a very Aussie scrub setting with gums, the odd pine, red sand and low lying bushes. There are a handful of bunkers and a couple of hazards. Nine par 4’s between 338 and 364m and with the run on the fairways, that’s no more than driver-wedge at most. Lots of straight holes, most fairways quite wide and lots of leeway for errors.
Tees are kikuyu + couch and are quite good, fairways are almost bereft of green grass at this time of year and lots of the lead ups are covered with rocks. Greens are small to medium, soft, an ok pace, I think bentgrass and were patchy but rolled well. Best holes are: 2 (348m left to right, where you can choose how much to bite off the corner and there is a grass drain running through the landing area that catches lots of balls, no great penalty); 7 (a pretty 148m, with dam behind the tee, trees left, 120m of rock carry and the green set in the bush, like most are); and 17 (467m bending left at about 290m, with a dam right and a stream to carry about 100m out) while I reckon the 10th at 429m may well be the longest par 4 I’ve played this year – its slightly downhill and with these rock hard fairways it doesn’t play that long.
Overall, its more of a winter course, would play much longer and get you cycling through other irons in the bag. There is some character there but the wide fairways, lack of penalties and flat greens are reflected in a low slope of 112. And wow, there were some ferocious skies that evening, a real contrast against the straw coloured fairways.
