Course no.6 for 2025 & 401 all-up: Safety Beach, NSW
The beautiful par5 13th with a local mother standing guard
Nomadic_golfer : May 2025 – Safety Beach NSW, review
Par 72 5678m Slope 128 $20
4 par3s 117-196m, 10 par4s 251 – 402m, 4 par5s 442 – 467m
My round at Safety Beach, just north of Coffs Harbour, came immediately after a sustained period of considerable rainfall and it was an absolute bog. It is a very pretty, tree-rich course set 1 km from the beach, amongst gums on rolling and mildly undulating ground. It is on the short side, and does get tight in spots. The majority of hazards are in the air with most fairways (if not all) tree-lined. A number of the greens are slightly elevated, while about half of the holes have greenside bunkers and a couple have fairway bunkers.
Kikuyu and broad-leaved grasses on fairways, while the (328 or something similar) on the greens was in pretty good condition considering how wet is was.
Hole highlights: both the short par4s on the front (270m 2nd and 280m 5th) which are driveable off the whites are real risk/ reward holes – both dangle an obvious carrot and the ask isn’t that tricky – but failure is penal. Then after relatively short and ‘easy’ holes from 1-6, the stretch from 7-9 is super tough. 7 is a 170m par3 that comes to a narrow neck about 20m short of the green with water right and a cavernous wasteland bunker left. The obvious good miss is long so they stuck two bunkers over the back to catch that. The large green has heaps of bumps and swails. 8 is the toughest – a 400 metre par4 with a boundary fence very prominent all the way down the left. The right side bail-out is a forest, then there is a water hazard that crosses the fairway 10m short of the green. 9 isn’t a great hole, but a flat 200m to a 2-tiered green is a definite hard-earned par to finish off the front side.
The stretch from 10 through 15 is interesting, containing quite a few quirks – 3 shortish par5s that all give you a chance and all have some chance of getting in trouble. 10 is something different – 460 with a steep uphill tee shot to a crest and then it goes just as steep downhill to the green. 11 is a pretty & short 3 of 120m with a 95m water carry, 12 a short4 with 5 fairway bunkers arranged in the shape of a v, spreading across the fairway from 200 to 230, then 13 & 14 are both par5s with water across the fairway at driving length.
13 might be my favourite hole on the course: 460m turning gently right with a pond encroaching from the left about 60% of the way across the fairway from about 160m to 200m from the tee. While its not the biggest carry, it does take some courage and that left side is where you need to be if you want a clear shot at the green in 2. The green is raised and sunk back in a little ampitheatre, with some wetland (playable) cutting across in front of the green. Check the pictures, it is quite beautiful.
Overall, looking past the boggy conditions, this is a fun place to play golf – its not long at under 5700m, has quite a bit of variety, sporty par5s, some good short4s, and a number of quirks. Its a country track worth playing for sure!.
