Golf.com has just released their biennial ranking of the Worlds Top 100 golf courses.  The rankings are always hotly debated and also used by fanatical golfers as a travel planner to attempt to play the entire list, many such as John Sabino still face the toughest challenge, getting on to Augusta National.

There are no changes to the Top 10.  The iconic  Pine Valley Golf Club in  New Jersey still sits at number one in the world.  With  Cypress Point, Augusta, St Andrews Old, Royal County Down, Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach, Oakmont, Muirfield and Merion (East) rounding out the Top 10.

South-east Australia shows that it is one of the World’s great golfing destinations with  six courses in the Top 100.  Royal Melbourne West sits just outside the Top 10 and will be in the international golfing spotlight in November as a key part of the composite course to host the Presidents Cup.  Kingston Heath, New South Wales and Royal Adelaide remain internationally recognised as the best in the world, but its the remote North East coast of Tasmania that has become a new golfing mecca.

Joining the already iconic Barnbougle Dunes in the Top 100 is the superb Lost Farm course, now surely one of the Worlds great 36 hole layouts.   Lost Farm is one of only four new courses worldwide to debut in the Top 100.  The two Barnbougle courses would also be close to the best value and most accessible of the entire Top 100.  Richard Sattlers vision and combination of stunning topography and worlds Best course architects have combined to produce golfing brilliance.  Wonder if Richard is planning a third course?

Australian courses and rankings in the 2011 Top 100 Golf Courses 13. Royal Melbourne (West) 27. Kingston Heath 34. New South Wales 41. Barnbougle Dunes 82. Barnbougle Lost Farm 85. Royal Adelaide

Check out the full list at Golf.com, there is also an interactive map view of the Top 100 courses.

So Ive designed a composite course of my favourite 18 holes from both courses.  The composite layout includes some of the classic short par 4s from both courses especially Lost Farm’s 14th and Barnbougle Dunes 4th, and the short par 3s that require pinpoint accuracy.  The composite course finishes with two tough par 4s, the dogleg 5th at Lost Farm and ends with the brute of a hole, the long 8th at Barnbougle Dunes.

Barnbougle Dunes & Lost Farm Composite Layout 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 4, 4, 3,4   Out: 33 5, 3, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4   In: 36

1. 3rd Lost Farm – Par 4, Wide fairway narrows to a green protected by sand and large dunes

2. 15th Barnbougle Dunes -Plenty of fairway to play with, dont be left of the green

3. 7th Lost Farm - Tee shot must navigate the dune in the middle of the fairway

4. 13A Lost Farm – Luckily Richard Sattler kept this sublime little par 3, best 13A hole ever!

5. 4th Lost Farm - Sitting on top of a dune, little more than 100metres, should be easy right?

6. 11th Lost Farm – Demanding tee shot needs to carry the ridge and avoid huge trap on the right.

7. 12th Barnbougle Dunes – Par 4, only 250metres, another short but subtle hole

8. 7th Barnbougle Dunes – Who said Par 3′s had to be long, very small green, big bunkers, tough into wind

9. 16th Lost Farm – Tee shot needs to be left side of fairway to provide angle into the protected green

10. 10th Lost Farm – Par 5, drive threads a gully to a receptive fairway, tricky green

11. 5th Barnbougle Dunes – Downhill par 3, huge bunkers protect an accommodating green

12. 14th Lost Farm – Another cracking short par 4, layup or attack?

13. 15th Lost Farm - Par 3, Exposed tee provides no protection from the wind.  How about that view!

14. 17th Barnbougle Dunes – One of the toughest drives on the course, especially into the wind

15. 4th Barnbougle Dunes – Short par 4 tempts with a risk and reward drive, green well protected, Awesome hole

16. 8th Lost Farm – A great par 5, slight dogleg follows contours of a dune to the well protected green

17. 5th Lost Farm – Massive dune obscures the tee shot, uphill second to huge green. Toughest hole at Lost Farm. 18. 8th Barnbougle Dunes – Very tough Par 4, multiple placement options from the tee sets up a huge uphill approach shot over bunkers and rough.  Toughest hole at Barnbougle Dunes.

Round 1 – Lost Farm
Early start and a short flight from Melbourne to Launceston, followed by a one hour drive got us to the first tee at Lost Farm at lunchtime. Weather was about as good as it gets in this part of the world, slight breeze and a few clouds. Kel had an additional handicap using a borrowed putter after realising that his putter was back in Canberra. I opened the scoring with a birdie, possibly peaking too early and after an early struggle to tune the putter, Kel found his range and racked up the points.

Lost Farm 4th Hole

Lost Farm is in sensational condition for a course so young, it can only improve over the next few years. After a great start, my game fell apart on the 9th and never recovered, meanwhile Kel and Nige were sinking some big putts and Steve found his game off the tee. The rough at Lost Farm is thick, impenetrable dune grasses and bushes, a wayward shot is almost certainly lost.

Steve tackles the rough on the 14th

The back nine is a long one with two extra holes (13A and 18A), and the scoring slowed as the swings got tired, and the lure of a cold Boags beckoned from the clubhouse. The climb from the 13th green to 13A tee is real mountain goat stuff, but is worth it to play the sublime 13Ath hole. Then the heartrate lifts again as the view down the short but testing 14th comes into view. Then the 15th adds yet another wow factor.

Lost Farm 15th

Sitting on the deck with a cleansing ale overlooking the front nine at Lost Farm, we reviewed the scorecards and the days play. Kel had the lead with 37pts, Nige 35 pts and Mike and Steve both carded 32pts.

Round 2 – Barnbougle Dunes
After staying the night in the nearby sleepy seaside town of Bridport, we teed up the following morning at Barnbougle Dunes. The more established course of the two, Barnbougle already has an impressive trophy cabinet of accolades and course rankings. And by the time you stand on the 4th tee, you already know why. The stretch from the 4th to the 8th is awesome golf, with the approach to the 8th green one of the toughest you can get. Kel was making it tough for any of us to catch him by playing some great golf, over the front nine and held the lead coming into the final nine holes.

Approach shot to the 8th green at Barnbougle Dunes

As if on queue, as we walked to the 10th tee the wind gusted up and started to really blow. Barnbougle was about to turn ugly. The large accomodating fairways started to narrow, and even putts had to allow for the wind. The masochistic golfer in me was thrilled, this is links golf, shots have to be adapted, margins are narrowed. The layout of Barnbougle meant that holes were either played with a huge tailwind, or back into the teeth of the gale. 12, 15,16,17,18 were all played straight into the wind, short holes got tough, tough holes got brutal.

The second trip to Barnbougle improves on the experience, the two courses are indeed gems, the remoteness and landscape adds to the mystique, the design and layout are exceptional. Words cant really explain how good this place is.

Barnbougle Dunes, 15th green

Kel handled the conditions the best, and finished with 30pts for a total of 67. Congrats to Kel on winning his second Purple Jacket and King Challenge. Nige finished second with 65 pts (35,30), an impressive effort, Mike third with 63 (32,31) and Steve fourth with 57 (32,25).

More pics from our Lost Farm and Barnbougle Dunes trip on Flickr

Kel & Steve, Mike and Nige

Kingston Heath – Australia’s new number one course

The Top 100 listing is always going to be subjective but provides a strong comparison of the best courses in the country and generally is pretty spot on. A couple of issues that the list raises:

To Composite or not to composite
This year AGD ranked Royal Melbourne seperately rather than as the composite course. This is the way it should do, as for 99.9% of the time it has two courses – the East and West. Only during professional tournaments, and a charity event once a year does the composite course exist.

Out of bounds
Ellerston is ranked at number five in the country, a fine course it must be, but who would know. The private Packer course is one of the most exclusive courses in the country, typically 6 people play the layout per week. Should it be in the list of best courses if no-one can play it?
Conditioning v Layout
One of the reasons that Royal Melbourne suffered was its conditioning, the drought has taken a toll on the course much more so than other sandbelt clubs. The AGD rankings however weight ‘shot value’ twice as important as design variety, memorability and conditioning. So an excellent layout testing accuracy and finesse that loses condition, will still rank higher than an ordinary layout that is brilliantly conditioned. Hence Laguna Whitsunday is still in the top 100. Laguna is in a sad state at the moment, and has fallen 32 spots to 53rd. But is this still too generous, it is still an excellent layout, but I would not go back until its had a lot of TLC!

Access
Australia is lucky to have public access to many of its top golf courses, such as #4 ranked Barnbougle Dunes which also ranks in the Top 100 in the World. Its also good to see St Andrews Beach on the Mornington Peninsula ranked at #32. For a while there it looked as though this links layout would cease to exist but thankfully its back and is open to the public.

Victoria is the place to be
With more than half of the top 40 courses in Victoria (21), 10 of the Top 100 in the sandbelt and a further 9 on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria has again proven its place as Australia’s golfing Mecca.

For the record
I’m lucky enough to have played 49 of the Top 100 courses in the country including the 6 of the top 10. Having played Kingston Heath late last year, I completely agree with the top ranking.

Steve didnt give away the number one spot which will be announced in the March 2010 issue of Australian Golf Digest, but did note that it wont be Royal Melbourne for the first time since they started ranking courses. This is likely to be a result of the course being ranked as two layouts (East and West) for the first time rather than as the Composite and courses like Kingston Heath and NSW getting additional work and conditioning due to hosting key tournaments.

I would put my money on Kingston Heath to take the Number one ranking, its a classic sandbelt layout requiring plenty of thought on all shots, exquisite bunkering and can be tamed but will also tame. Kingston Heath will have plenty of competition from New South Wales, host of the 2009 Australian Open and even Barnbougle Dunes, the Doak designed links layout in Northern Tasmania. Word is that the new Crenshaw design course, the Lost Farm at Barnbougle is due to open in October 2010 and when matured will be even better than the current layout and will also threaten the top spot!

It will also be interesting to see what happens to some of the other courses in the Top 100, Laguna Whitsundays was listed at 21 in 2008, but when I played there in January 2009 it was in very poor condition and whilst the layout is still superb it didnt rates as a Top 100 course.

The March Issue of Australian Golf Digest will be out in the next week or so.

Unfortunately the ambitious project struggled, land sales and memberships didnt meet targets and the course eventually fell into receivership and closed. Thankfully a consortium of saviours reopened the course in October 2009. The following information from the website explains the current situation: “Since reopening in October as a result of the demise of the former ownership structure, much has happened and whilst we have a long way to go in changing this once exclusive and private golf club into one of Australia’s premiere pay to play venues, some major hurdles have been overcome.

For the record, Golf Services Management P/L, has a 3 year management contract to operate the golf activities as a pay to play venue and has no connection or association with the former company Golf Club Properties P/L whatsoever. The maintenance is carried out by The Golf Course Company P/L.”

Thankfully the course is still well and truly playable, the greens are excellent and the fairways are still in great condition. Id recommend packing the clubs into the car with a couple of fellow golfers and playing St Andrews, and a word of advice, if its hot, or you arent feeling too energetic, grab a cart as its a fairly tough walk! Review to follow soon.

Played golf after work yesterday with colleagues Nige and Linds. Teed off at about 5:30pm at Yarra Bend Golf Course, only a short drive from Melbourne CBD. The summer twilight golf deal is excellent, $15 unlimited golf from 3:30pm. There arent many golf courses around that cost less than $1 per hole!

Yarra Bend is in excellent condition for this time of the year. Green keepers across Melbourne have been rejoicing thanks to the recent mix of warm weather and rains. The fairways at Yarra Bend are the best I have seen them, and the greens are reasonably fast and firm. Some of the rough especially around the greens is deep and tough to escape from. All this from a course that gets massive amounts of foot traffic. Speaking to the pro last night, there was one tee time left for the following day at 6am, the next spot was 4pm! Booked solid.

Would recommend a twilight round at Yarra Bend over Summer

Graham Marsh has designed courses throughout Australia, North America and Asia.  He makes the most of the surrounding terrain and landscape and keeps the natural feel of the landscape.  Whether its the dense rainforest of Far North Queensland, ancient Gum trees or an original sheep station, this is integrated into the course.  The Marsh courses I have played are:

• Growling Frog – My home course, I love the Frog. North East of Melbourne, the open layout winds through undulating terrain well protected by bunkers, small water hazards and creeks and ancient River Gums.  The course is tough but fair, I’ve played many rounds on this course, and it tests the game every outing.  The clubhouse and restaurant is also excellent.
• Eynesbury – West of Melbourne near Melbourne, Eynesbury has quickly joined my list of favourite Melbourne courses.  Built on an 1870s sheep station the layout is challenging and in excellent condition for a course still in its infancy.
• Paradise Palms – North of Cairns in Far North Queensland, Paradise Palms offers a tough tropical test of golf.  Seemingly hacked out of the rainforest (though in reality it used to be a cane farm), Paradise Palms requires accuracy on many holes to avoid thick inpenetrable rough, lakes, bunkers and creeks.  Always try to play this course when in Cairns.
• Palm Meadows – Hosted the final round of a King Challenge. Located on Queenslands Gold Coast, this resort course layout is tough, especially when playing the 18th in a torrential downpour.
• Robina Woods – Another Gold Coast course, Robina Woods winds through gum trees in the foothills of the Gold Coast.  Another good test, King Challenge venue, and location of Kel’s infamous swing meltdown
• North Lakes – A tough test of golf in the suburbs of Brisbane.  A manicured course, plenty of water and some strong par 4′s. Had a shocker of a round here!
• Horizons – Really enjoyable layout on the NSW central coast.  Scene to a partial drowning as we played through  torrential rain.  The course runs through wetlands and requires accurate play throughout.
• Secret Harbour – A residential resort course south of Perth in W.A.  Played nine holes with Sam, liked the layout

If I had a spare few million I would buy some land down on the Mornington Peninsula and get Graham to build a course down there, not that there is a shortage of courses on the Peninsula, but a Marsh design would improve the choices! http://www.gmgd.com.au/home.htm

1. ROYAL MELBOURNE (West course) (1) Designer: Dr Alister Mackenzie (1931)

2. KINGSTON HEATH (2) Designer: Dan Soutar (1925)

3. NEW SOUTH WALES (3) Designers: Alister Mackenzie (1928); Eric Apperly (1937 & 1951); Peter Thomson & Mike Wolveridge (1985); Jack Newton, Graeme Grant & John Spencer (1993); Greg Norman & Bob Harrison (2000).

4. BARNBOUGLE DUNES  (5) Designers: Tom Doak & Mike Clayton (2004)

5. ROYAL ADELAIDE  (4) Designers: Herbert L. Rymill & C.L Gardiner (1904); Dr Alister Mackenzie (1929); Peter Thomson & Mike Wolveridge (1979 & 1997).

6. ROYAL MELBOURNE (East course) (6) Designers: Alex Russell (1932)

7. ELLERSTON (NR) Designers: Greg Norman & Bob Harrison (2001)

8. THE NATIONAL (Moonah course) (7) Designers: Greg Norman & Bob Harrison (2000)

9. METROPOLITAN   (8) Designers: J.B MacKenzie (1906); Dr Alister Mackenzie (1926); Dick Wilson (1959) 10. VICTORIA (10) Designers: Oscar Damman, William Meander & Dr Alister Mackenzie (1927); Mike Clayton (2001). (Full Top 50 Listing) No real surprises here. Some comments:

• Golf Australia choose to split the two Royal Melbourne courses, rather than rank the composite course that no-one can play.  Fair enough, and the two courses still both rank in the top 10 (1st (West) and 6th (East)
• Barnbougle Dunes jumps to 4th, just have to play there one day!
• St Andrews Beach is ranked 12th, its a great layout but unfortunately struggling to survive financially, still no clubhouse and no gaurantees going forward
• Have played 23 of the top 50

• Yarrambat Park – A public course in North Eastern Melbourne, fantastic layout let down by a lack of water and probably a lack of maintenance budget. Ive played many rounds on this course, long for a public layout, and you need to play every shot in your repetoire.
• Goonawarra – North of Melbourne Airport in Sunbury, Goonawarra is another great public course layout that gets a lot of traffic.  Great resort course style with water and large open bunkering
• Kingston Links – A favourite venue for many Melbourne golfers, has hosted a number of “King Challenge” rounds. Good rounds are possible, but a lot of water and an open links layout susceptible to the wind means its not a walk in the park.
• Bright – A possible contender for ‘Hidden Gem’ status, played the course with Ben a couple of years back and was impressed.  Set in the foothills of the Victorian High Country, the course offers great views and some challenging holes.
• The Dunes – ranked in Australia’s Top 50 courses, the Dunes is a classic links course layed out over the wonders of the links landscape of the Mornington Peninsula, huge raw cavernous bunkering, undulating fairways, greens open to the wind that can rip in from Bass Strait.  A classic course.
• 13th Beach (Beach Course) – also ranked in the Top 50, 13th Beach is on the other side of the Port Phillip Bay from the Dunes.  An equally classic links layout set in the sand dunes.  The par 3′s are a work of art.
• Heritage Golf Club (Henley Course) – As reviewed, a young but already testing course, and sure to be rated highly

Hats off to Mr Cashmore, I’ll keep an eye out for future Cashmore designed courses, as Im sure to want to play them. http://www.cashmoredesign.com