The Eastern Golf Club has a proud history as a private suburban golf club in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.  In 2013 the Club embarked on a huge transformation, selling the valuable sloping plot of land in Doncaster to be redeveloped into housing and moving to a new facility in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley.   The club appointed Greg Norman Golf Course Design to design a 27 hole layout with an additional 9 hole par 3 course, complete with Country Club style clubhouse and facilities.  Only a short drive from Melbourne, surrounded by wineries, local produce and scenic views, the course joins Yering Meadows, The Heritage, Gardiners Run and Healesville Country Club as one of Australia’s new golf destinations.

The Layout

The Norman design incorporates holes that have been carefully routed to work with the existing topography, capitalise on the dramatic views and to ensure that the holes have a mix of orientations to prevailing winds for an exciting golf course.

As at early 2016, there is a composite 18 hole layout of completed holes. (1,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,27 – 19,25,26,13,14,15,16,17,18)

Favourite Holes
7th Hole (Composite 5th) Par 4 364 metres

The 7th hole looks fairly tame from the tee with a wide welcoming fairway, however the landing area tapers further down the fairway, with the green protected by contours and angled in line with the approach shot offering a narrow landing zone.

26th Hole (Composite12th) Par 4 386 metres

Viewed from the tee, there is a lot of water in play.  The lake immediately right will place fear into those who slice their drive.  Water also runs along the left side of the fairway and will catch a pulled drive.  Again the angled and slightly raised green is protected by 3 bunkers and needs an accurate approach.

14th Hole (Composite 14th) Par 5 537 metres

At 537 metres from the Blue tees, this is a brute of a par 5.  Bunkers on the right draw the line for the drive to the right however water on the left needs to be avoided.  The longest of hitters could cut the corner and attack the green which is well protected by mounds and bunkers.  Mere mortals will need to layup avoiding water hazards, then play an accurate approach to the green.  A tough hole!

18th Hole (Composite 18th) Par 4 414 metres

The final hole is a fantastic finishing hole, standing on the tee with the clubhouse behind the green, and the Yarra Ranges in the distance.  The 414 metre par 4 requires a solid drive to find the fairway and setup the approach.  The green sits on a ridge and anything short or left will face a tough up and down.  A par on the last is well earned.

The Word
The Eastern Golf Club is a challenging but rewarding layout.  Having played the composite course of completed holes, there were sneak peaks at the yet to be completed holes, the final layout will be more than impressive.  Given that the holes have only been open for play for less than a year, the course is already in excellent condition, and will only get better.  The Clubhouse facilities are five star with large open bar and dining facilities providing a welcoming country club feel, and service to make you feel like you are a tour professional.  This is a private club, with possible opportunity for Managers introductions for interstate and international club members.   Or there is the option to access the course as a guest staying at the boutique Yering Gorge Cottages

Course details
Eastern Golf Club
– 27 Holes, and Par 3 Nine hole course
– Address: 215 Victoria Road, Yering, Victoria, Australia, 3770
– Web: http://www.easterngolfclub.com.au/

Tee shot on the 18th hole at Eastern

Shark tee markers

The 2016 Masters had an unbelievable finish, with Danny Willett firing a gutsy final round 67 to join fellow countryman Nick Faldo as the only other Brit to win the Masters.  But the 2016 Masters will be remembered for two key moments that prove that this wonderful game of golf is bloody hard, and makes us mere mortal amateurs on a handicap realise that even the best can make mistakes!

1. Putting – Ernie Els
All golfers have suffered from the nervous moments over a short putt, and the pain of a three putt green, on the rare occasion, the dreaded four putt.  So spare a thought for Ernie Els who SIX putted the first green on Day One of the Masters, from less than 3 feet.  Ernie had a brain fade and a case of the severe yips.  He went on to card a respectable 80 following a 9 on the first!

2. The Short Game – Jordan Spieth

Jordan Spieth came to the short 12th hole at Augusta after dropping 2 shots on the previous two holes, but still with a 3 shot lead.  His 9 iron tee shot was short and rolled into the water, a mistake but no need to panic.  The third shot, a wedge was hit fat and went into the water.  It was a wedge shot that Ive hit countless times, poor timing, deceleration through the swing, flying left elbow.  Which made it all the more extraordinary to see one of the World’s greatest golfer essentially lose the Masters with a fat wedge shot.  He went on to lose to Danny Willett by 3 shots.

Caveat

Whilst these shots prove that the best golfers in the World are human, these professionals werent playing in the local stableford weekend competition on a flat goat track public course, they were playing for the Masters on one of the toughest course’s on the planet.

If you own an Android smartphone and play golf, there is a good chance that Google is following you!  Google Location is a setting on your phone that when activated tracks your movements to “let apps better define your location”.   These locations are all stored by Google, and by visiting google.com/maps/timeline you can find a history of your movements.   Ive been able to see a history of my movements around Barnbougle Dunes Golf Course in Tasmania during a recent golf weekend.  Some of the tracking is so accurate that you can see how I played individual golf holes (some better than others).   Dont go left off the tee on the 5th hole at Barnbougle Lost Farm or the 8th hole, as the location tracing below sadly shows!

As the USA celebrations came to an end following their narrow win over the International team at the President Cup in South Korea, the world golfing spotlight was turned to shine brightly on Melbourne.   In great news for golf in Australia, Melbourne will host the 2016 World Cup of Golf, and the 2019 Presidents Cup.

2019 Presidents Cup
The Presidents Cup is a teams event, similar to the Ryder Cup, matching the best US golfers against the best of the world (excluding Europe).  The teams play a mix of foursomes, fourballs and singles matches. In eleven previous events, the US team have won ten.  Melbourne has previously hosted the Presidents Cup in 1998, the Internationals only win,  and again in 2011.  Both events were held at Royal Melbourne composite layout, still recognised as the best course in Australia, and one of the World’s top courses.  Royal Melbourne is an ideal venue for the Presidents Cup format and is an excellent spectators course.  Whilst the venue for the Presidents Cup is yet to be named, Royal Melbourne would be the ideal layout.

2016 World Cup
The World Cup of golf is a tournament featuring teams of two representing their country in a 72 hole stroke event, with an individual winner, and combined team winner.   Australia has hosted the World Cup four times, most recently in 2013 at Royal Melbourne when Jason Day won the individual event and Australia winning the team event.   The venue for next years World Cup is yet to be announced, Melbourne is spoilt for choice with world class courses to host world class golf events.  Whilst Royal Melbourne is an ideal choice, Metropolitan Golf Club, Victoria Golf Club or Kingston Heath Golf Club are both excellent layouts for tournament golf and should be considered as host venues for next years event to be held in November 2016.

15th Hole – Metropolitan Golf Club

Last Sunday, Jason Day was putting like a Champion, again, to win his third tournament in four weeks.  The win in the Barclays capped a remarkable month which was highlighted by Jason’s breakthrough major win at the PGA Championship and also the Canadian Open.  In the final round of the Barclays, he made the hole look as big as a basketball ring.  So all eyes turn to the putter that Jason Day is using, is that the edge I need for my putting game?  If I buy the putter used by Jason Day, will I putt like Jason Day?

Jason doesn’t walk into the local pro shop and grab a putter off the rack like the weekend golfer, his weapon of choice is custom built to his requirements. In this case, Taylor Made start with a Ghost Spider Itsy Bitsy putter, and modify the hosel, face insert and finish to create a unique putter.  As a handcrafted model, you will never find this in a proshop, golf shop, online store or ebay,  however Taylor Made did produce twenty exact replica’s of the Jason Day prototype, priced at $750 each.  http://vault.taylormadegolf.com/jason-day-itsy-bitsy-proto/

I’d love to say that I had the chance to actually road test the TaylorMade Itsy Bitsy Spider Proto putter, however they sold out virtually straight away.  At $750 I hope they do improve the putting of the lucky owners.    So my road test will be conducted by Jason Day himself, check out the video of his 28 foot putt on the 10th in the final round of the Barclays, the putter works all kind of  awesome!

 

 
Here is a short video on the making of the custom putter for Jason Day

Have been watching a lot of tennis recently during the Australian Open (lucky to live in Melbourne and be part of such a fantastic event), and play competition tennis at a very average level.  But got to wondering what golf would be like if the player was able to have two attempts at a tee shot, as the tennis player has two attempts at the serve.   Surely most players would have improved scores with the option to take a fault off the tee and play again.  And how often do you hit the best drive of the day as your provisional ball following the first drive that has hooked into the trees and deep rough.  It would also allow you to take more risks off the tee, maybe go for that short par 4 green with driver and knowledge that you could always grab an iron and play a safety second tee shot.  And there would also be the risk in claiming a fault in your first tee shot, that the second shot was worse.   There would be no going back to the first!

Of course, this is completely impractical and would make rounds of golf longer and more tedious as a foresome spent forever looking for up to 8 balls!   I will suggest this as a novel way to change up our next social round of 9 holes and report back.  In the meantime, back to the tennis!