Course no.9 for 2025: St Andrews Beach, Vic
The beautiful, uphill 169m par3 6th. From the white tees at only 125m
Nomadic_golfer : June 2025 – St Andrews Beach Vic, review
Par 70 6074m Slope 139 $115
4 par3s 147-197m, 12 par4s 276 – 457m, 2 par5s 477- 497m
7.30am, Tuesday 10th June 2025, not a breath of wind, sun recently risen and peaking through between clouds, I’m on the first tee of this ‘World Top 100’ course, and there is not another soul out here, and only one other group on the tee-sheet before midday. Golfing nirvana.
The recently annointed world no. 89 in ‘Officialtop 100’s’ June 25 world rankings is Tom Doak’s first choice among his courses of ‘courses he would like to play more often’. The sign on the gate says “Simply a great golf course”, while the website says “A pure golfing experience’ . I wouldn’t argue with any of that. And what I experienced at first light on a dead calm, partly cloudy early winter’s morning, with only one other group on the tee-sheet before noon, was just exceptional.
Doak famously didn’t move much dirt in establishing these fairways and the rolling, wildly undulating ‘Cups’ land not far from Gunnamatta beach provided the perfect canvas for Doak to express himself. He left lots of that wild coastal stuff out wide, and in view – dunes with wicked, ball-swallowing tufts & clumps, and lumpy sandy lies – but this is typically out pretty wide. Defining characteristics are the wide, undulating fairways, with tricky approaches to smallish, often narrow, greens. The green sites are magic; varied and imaginative. Some are perched high, some tucked away, some chiselled into dunes, and a couple of a punchbowl variety. The angles required to ensure your best chance of hitting these greens, make it quite strategic.
Diving deeper reveals the big trouble is typically out pretty wide, a number of deep fairway bunkers, and that the smallish greens have sizeable undulations and a lot of sand (both formal bunkers and sandy wasteland). The typically firm and fast conditions exacerbates the impact of those rollicking surrounds, with errors into greens compounded and small misses often ending up a long way from the pin.
Most hole-specific discussion centres around the wildly undulating and sand-laden uphill, sometimes drivable par4 2nd and the very polarising 457m par4 13th, with table-top fairway and small, tiered, punchbowl green. They are stand-outs, but so are the blind approach to the par5 first over a row of bunkers on the left side of the fairway, and the approach to the 405m par4 3rd, where an ultra generously wide fairway squeezes to a very narrow and penal bottleneck at the entrance to the green. The long par3 16th might just be my favourite though, as it feels so unique. The unusual green composition on this slightly downhill 200m one-shotter, comprises a downhill approach which lends itself to using the ground more than the air, a bunker mid-green on the higher right side and a drop-off on the lower left side.
Doak also got a bit cheeky, with 3 of his smaller greens at the end of 3 of the trickier, longer approaches (4, 10 & 13). The gently turning and exposed 387m par4 5th which turns gently left around a large, ‘magnetic’ bunker and finishes at a green that looks miniscule from the fairway due to a very prominent short left pot, and the 400m 18th with bunkers crossing the fairway diagonally at driving length, where the braver line is rewarded with the easiest approach, are two classic strategic designs that represent a microcosm of SAB.
There are no frills to persuade you here, no bells & whistles, no sprawling club-house, nor expansive off-course facilities – just a rustic & pure golfing experience for about 100 Aussie dollars at the newest member of the world’s top 100 golf courses.
