Sports Betting Articles
Great Golf in Western Australia
By John Hartley
Western Australia is a great place to play golf. Not only are many championship length, but they are fairly inexpensive. Here are a few you should try to play if you are there:
Joondalup
The Vines
Kennedy Bay
Secret Harbour
Mandurah Country Club
The Cut
Meadow Springs
Most of these are easy to find, being well sign-posted or in places of the same name.
The Vines, which is used for several championships, is one of the toughest courses around, as are Joondalup, which consists of two courses. These are both to the north of Perth.
Royal Perth and Royal Fremantle
In the Perth area are Royal Perth, and Royal Fremantle, two fine but testing parkland courses. Parkland courses in Western Australia are generally lined with trees, and the ground around the trees is often soft sand, which takes some skill to get out of well.
Kennedy Bay a great links course
You will find plenty of variety and challenges south of Perth. Kennedy Bay, near Rockingham, to the south, is great links course, and one of the few true links courses in the area. It is quite long, and like most of these courses also has a good driving range open to visitors.
There is a lake to the right of the first, but otherwise, it is the humps and hollows and pot bunkers that are likely to catch you out. Each hole has a name, and on one you really do have to thread your drive through about ten pot bunkers. The greens are good, and not too tricked up.
Secret Harbour is further south and says it is a links course, but it is not really. It is not actually on the coast, but a little way inland and is surrounded by houses. Sure, quite a few of the holes are like links holes, but in an artificial way, and the turf is far removed from links turf.
Even so, Secret Harbour is a stiff test of golf, particularly the last three holes. It all starts simply enough with a wide first par four, with a lake on the right, but well out of the way unless you suffer from a very bad slice. Then there is a good par five, where you need to put your drive between quite large bunkers, and if you do that it is usually fairly straight forward.
One of the most interesting holes is the par three eighth, which is a water hole. You need to carry a kidney-shape lake to a shallow green with a bunker behind. However, you can go over land all the way to the left of the green.
Mandurah Country Club is an inland course, with each hole having tall eucalyptus trees on each, side and kangaroos relaxing around in the rough. The trees are evident on almost all holes, but don't form thick forests, so you can usually recover from a wayward tee shot.
Both the ninth and eighteenth holes are uphill to plateau greens in front of the clubhouse. A fair but good test of golf. This course hosts one of the major amateur championships in Australia, the Mandurah Easter Amateur Tournament. The winner gets exemption from qualifying for the British Amateur Championship.
Meadow Springs is on the north side of Mandurah, and was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. It is a long course, with four water holes. Most of the fairways are reasonably wide, but once into the rough you are into the bush - trees, scrub, sand bushes and you have likely lost your ball.
The par three eighth, is a tricky hole being about 180 yards in length, and the full length must be carried across a lake that stretches from the tee to the green. If you are not long enough you can hit a mid iron off to the right, but you still need to pitch across a stream to get to the green!
Meadow Springs is a good course, but is perhaps over-bunkered for club golfers, and is rather expensive.
The Cut is one of the toughest courses anywhere. It is right by the coast, and the wind can blow very hard, as it can at Kennedy Bay and Secret Harbour. The front nine are all links holes, and combine great variety with a stern test of your golf - and some great views.
The second nine are carved out of forest and bush, and you need to hit the ball straight to keep in play. There are too many blind shots up to high greens to make this a great course, but some of the holes are very good, nevertheless. If you can score well at The Cut, you can play well anywhere.
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