Blog 301 – Palmer Coolum

Nomadic_golfer : July 2024 – Palmer Coolum, Qld, review

Par 72 5828m Slope 138 $110 (Blacks 6305 Slope 140)

5 par3s 123 – 187m, 8 par4s 295 – 361m, 5 par5s 452 – 522m

It was quiet on my visit, and the day started off brilliantly with an intro from David Webber (Golf Ops, ex R&A), who was a fantastic host. Among other tidbits of info and advice, David talked about the bunker restoration process that is almost complete. They are implementing the capillary system, where they place bitumen below the surface to prevent water leaching. Kevin in the pro-shop also helped me out and I had a 5 minute talk to Rob the greenkeeper who has also worked at Pelican Waters.

The history here is interesting – it hosted the Coolum Classic and Australian PGA Championships back in its day, then one thing led to another and the course was closed for 5 years in the late 2010’s early 2020’s, before re-opening in 2021. Work is also well underway on restoring and re-opening the resort, it is currently an eerie ghost-town like accompaniment, but was on track for the start of a staged opening in December ’24.

Prime course condition restoration is till WIP as disease and other grasses were prominent on re-opening but it is now in pretty good nick, recognising it will only continue to improve. Wintergreen couch on the fairways and 328 on the greens.

First impressions are of a spectacular layout (high wow factor) with lots of water, that can easily overawe you as you walk up to the tee on many holes. The clever, undulating design though (Trent Jones Jr) is more forgiving than you first think as there is always a safe option if you don’t take the shortest route or birdie-seeking line. The bogey golfer can readily accumulate his/ her one-overs (and the odd par) by leaving their egos in the car and taking an appropriate line off the tee (and choosing the most appropriate tee blocks to play from). You really do need to hit the right club though. If you take the driver, then chicken out and bail-out away from the big trouble once you have made that decision, you will block yourself from the green time after time. That is good design.

Trent Jones Jr designed this straight after he did the iconic Valderama in Spain, and the small greens (lots of shallow, narrow or 3-leaf clover shaped specimens) are an obvious feature and similarity with Valderama. It does feel more open than Noosa Springs. It is a track that would see a large difference in your scores between your good days and bad days – and I reckon that makes for interesting golf!

Hole configuration is 5 par3s and 5 par5s for its 72, and while the different tee blocks provide much variation in distance, the par4s don’t present as stretching you for distance with a lot of 4s off the Blacks between 340 and 380, and only 1 over 380 (lots between 320 and 360 off the Blues, with the longest at 361).

Highlights are aplenty, and you should also note they are currently playing the 9s in the opposite order to how it was played in the tournaments. My thoughts are they would change it back for any big events as the finishing stretch on what is currently being played as the front-side is much more suited to a tournament finish with risk/ reward choices everywhere. Having said that, the current config does provide a super start, (not saying the water-laden start to the other 9 wouldn’t).

The current front-side is a fantastic 9 holes of golf, and my favourite/ most memorables come from this side – the 2 par 3s, the par5 6th and the mid-length par4 9th which is a sensational finishing hole normally (see descriptions below)….. I did start to pull out the details of the holes that I thought had particular merit, and I got a bit carried away – here it is in current configuration:

The first (old 10) works well as a starting hole – a short par4 with a really cool tee shot to a table top fairway with bunkers each side and water left to catch an opening hook, to a green in an ampi-theatre setting of large fig-trees.

2 is a spectacular 155m heart-in-the-mouth, water carry challenge from an elevated tee with that water bordering the front and right sides – any bail out left needs to be short (see what I mean below).

I love the tee shot on the shortish par5 3rd – it is blind, to a fairway that steps down at about 220m (tee block dependent), with water on the left starting just after that. So if you want to get that extra 30-40m roll, the bigger hitters bring that water in to play too.

4 is another strong, short par4, bending slightly right to left around water all the way down the left, with a large bunker on the right outside corner from about 250m (wide fairway with plenty of options), to a narrow 2-tiered green that tilts toward the water with bunker short right presenting any right-side bail out from the tee with a much harder approach.

5 might be the hardest hole on this side – a ~200m par3 from the back (175 from the Blues) with a water carry of minimum 100m to a narrow, redan shaped green with water on that whole inside corner. This is the ultimate test of conviction here – choose the line appropriate to the club in your hand and execute, even if bailing out. Left pins are awesome here!

6 is a 560m par5 from the back (Blues 520m) with a 10m wide stream cutting across the fairway at the far end of the landing zone a prominent feature that also signals the start of a lake down the left side which continues all the way down to the green.

The short par4 7th is probably the blandest hole on this side, until you look up and see Mt Coolum as your backdrop!!

The par5 10th (1st for tournaments) is another scary hole on first sight, water all the way down the left until about 100m short of the green, where it crosses the fairway and borders the front and right sides of the green. There is a carry from the tee where you bite off as much as you want, protected by a bunker on the right at 220-260. The smallish green with very narrow entry presents a daunting target for anyone brave enough to have a crack at the green with anything more than a short iron.

Two tee options on the 140m 11th provide two really different angles with one presenting a diagonal narrow green from short left to long right, the other a shallow, yet wide green with bunkers short and long.

12 is a classic Coolum hole in a shortish par5, with heaps of water left (including greenside) and bunkers right catching unplanned bailouts.

14 is more of a ‘penal’ design mid length par5, requiring you to keep it straight between trees all the way down, without obvious expanses of water to put you off.

I found 15 to be a little odd. As the shortest hole on the course (under 120m), the green is normal size, with bunkers at each point of the compass but there aren’t any drop-offs or real bad spots to miss – it felt like a chance to breathe here!!

17 is a challenging 190/ 200m par3 to a narrow green with bunkers each side while 18 is another of those short-mid 4s, where water could catch you up either side.

Overall, this is excellent golf. Great design, great test of your courage and concentration, lots of fun. The only perceived weakness is the lack of longer par4s but it might not seem like that if you are bailing out, avoiding water and taking safer options. A must play that looks like it will continue to improve with current levels of attention!.