The Global Golfer

Pymble

2012-01-07T22:06:00.002+11:00

Approaching the par five 7th from the right is preferable, but even here on the less claustrophobia-inducing area of the course, the trees are plentiful and never far from the fairway

You gain a better angle to the 13th from the right, but the dead ground behind the bunkers plays with your depth perception

Course name: Pymble
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Needs 30 more acres

Pymble is fairly representative of northern Sydney golf courses in that it's on some fairly good land - maybe tending towards too steep in places - but suffering from having 30 acres or so less than would be ideal.

The result is a lot of fairways side-by-side and too close together, several bending around one another, with trees the obvious and necessary but unfortunate solution to the safety issues presented by such an arrangement.

It's not surprising that the best holes are concentrated around the more spacious eastern and central areas of the course. The 7th through 11th and 13th are the stars of the show.

The 7th is a downhill par five with offset drive bunkers either side of the fairway that ask for a draw between them, or for a drive that nestles against the further right-hand trap for a better angle to the green. If laying up, a bunker just short and right of the green needs to be considered.

Next is a long par three playing from ridge to ridge over a deep depression, and offering some assistance to bounce one in from the right, followed by two par fours featuring drives in opposite directions over a diagonal ridge, with the 9th then playing uphill to a benched green and the 10th downhill for the second shot to a green that's surprisingly steep.

After the short-one shot 11th -- made interesting by the bunkering and green-front slope -- the final standout hole is the 13th, a pick your poison short par four where a better angle in from the right is offset by a partly obscured green and dead ground that foreshortens the view, while the easier drive to the left means encountering a deep trap short of the green, but visability is far better. It's far from perfect, but given the boundary issues present it's a fairly smart, playable compromise.

The 16th has the potential to be a highlight, but the temptation of driving down the right and threatening the fairway bunker is destroyed by the tall gum tree that overhangs. On a course choked with trees, that's definitely one that needs to go.

The neighbouring 5th and 17th holes are good examples of the frustrations found elsewhere, doglegging awkwardly about 150m from the tee necessitating a snap cut from a right-hander who wants to hit the fairway without hitting a six iron off the tee.

The 14th also is overly narrow for any land, let along the downhill/sidehill is occupies, while the 4th is a long, narrow slog without any real interest.

Once you're at the green on such holes as the 1st, 2nd, 6th, 16th and 17th there is some fun to be had, but those holes present little else from tee to green.

There's also some awkwardness in the routing, with a walk of about 200 metres from the 14th to 15th that involves walking around the 8th hole and passing within about 50m of the 15th green before doubling back another 130m to the tee.

All things considered, there just isn't enough land here for an 18-hole, 6000-metre golf course, though the better holes are worth seeing.

Yale

2011-09-28T20:32:00.001+10:00

The 2nd green introduced the boldness and grand scale, the putting surface set about 20 feet below the green

I love the way the 4th green slides naturally off the hillside

A look at the brilliant 8th from the tee

The Biarritz is every bit as amazing as you hope it will be - unfortunate about the front pin

Looking back from behind the green at the Alps hole

Far from a pure Redan, but the 13th is a great hole nonetheless

The Principal's Nose and Double Plateau unite at the 17th

Course name: Yale
Location: New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Four Word Course Review: The boldest you'll encounter

One of the downsides of the "family" of template holes Macdonald and Raynor built -- particularly their quartet of par threes -- is the ease with which those like holes are compared.

As a result, the discussion of some fantastic holes will be framed negatively because of a direct comparison to the Redan at National, Short at Fishers Island or Biarritz at Yale, whereas the same hole were it not a template would be discussed only in terms of its own merits.

An example of that is an analysis of Yale's par threes such as this from Darius Oliver's fantastic "Planet Golf USA" book:

"Interestingly, the par threes here are the same foursome found at the nearby Fishers Island Club, and again they show the limits of imitation versus creation. Although the Short, Redan and Eden holes are quite good, they are not among Raynor’s best and these replicas do get less interesting the more of them you see."

Were the Short 5th, Redan 13th and Eden 15th three unnamed holes by another architect, they would be discussed for their many strengths instead of compared to some of the best holes in golf.

When talk turns to underrated and underappreciated golf courses, Yale deserves to be the first topic of conversation. The course is filled with unique and memorable holes and features, and set on an enormous scale.

The two-tiered front right down to back left green at the 1st introduces you to the bold features that dominate the course and while the opening six holes might not contain the highlights of the round, the approach shot to an angled green flanked by extremely deep bunkers at the 2nd, steep and well-bunkered green at the 4th and small, elevated green at the Short 5th are other highlights of the stretch.

The gorgeous 7th presents a testing uphill approach to a ski slope of a green from a low valley fairway, before one of the best 1-2 punches in golf at the 8th and 9th.

The 8th bends left somewhat in the manner of a Cape hole and the second shot can be shortened by taking the risky left-hand line -- which also gives best use of the green's kickpad, but by driving down the right you can place your ball behind a channel (they call it Raynor's Notch) cut in a ridge that runs across the fairway, giving you a precious look at the green where otherwise the approach is blind.

The greenside bunkering is an even more muscular taste of what was presented at the 2nd hole. Undoubtedly one of the best par fours in golf.

And then comes the Biarritz 9th.

When I was about 13 years old and had just fallen for the game of golf in a big way my grandad had a book called "How To Play Par Threes". It featured 18 of the world's best one-shotters and the author played them with the club pro, who detailed the smart way to play the hole for different levels of player. I immediately noticed there was something cool about this hole and -- 10,000 miles away in country Australia -- lamented the fact I would never play it.

But then one thing led to another and lo and behold I was standing on the tee here with a club in hand and butterflies in my stomach. There's not much to say that hasn't already been said, but I will say there is no way a photo can do this setting or the green justice. It's a marvellous hole, with immense "butt pucker" factor.

Golf doesn't come more dramatic than the mid-length par four 10th. A drive over a ridge to a blind landing area, an approach 40ft or so uphill, a green with a steep slope between tiers. One I'd have described as "a love/hate hole" if I had ever met a single person who doesn't love it! One thing it certainly is is one of the most hard-earned pars on the course.

The quirk continues at the uphill par four 12th -- Alps -- two more blind shots and another green with a steep tier, but this time sideways, putting a premium on accuracy with what's likely to be a short iron.

The 13th might be called Redan, but played downhill and with a false front to the green it's no purebreed, but it's certainly a great one-shotter, with the green shifting the ball to the left as any Redan should.

The 14th (Knoll) and 15th (Eden) each ask for fun shots to the green, the former testing short iron accuracy like the 5th, but this time from an almost certain downhill/sidehill lie -- a great shot to be asked to hit as you enter the business end of the round.

The 16th is a regrettable low point after the incredible run from the 7th to 15th, but the final two holes return to the bold design that makes Yale such fun and such a sensory overload, the 17th teaming a Double Plateau green with a Principal's Nose bunker complex and the 18th a super long par five over the most dramatic terrain on the course.

I defy you to play Yale and not enjoy yourself. At the very least you'll get a handful of the best holes in the game and a heap of memorable shots that you just won't encounter elsewhere.

National Golf Links of America

2011-09-25T22:23:00.001+10:00

Course name: National Golf Links of America
Location: Southampton, New York, United States of America
Four Word Course Review: The original and best

Charles Blair Macdonald's masterpiece. America's first great golf course. The birthplace of template holes. National Golf Links of America is among the most important golf courses in the world for a number of reasons.

Most importantly, National is as packed with thrilling and fun shots as any course I have played, is home to maybe the best set of greens I've seen, is built on fantastic land for golf in a beautiful location, is playable for any standard of golfer and is far from a pushover despite modest length.

That is a remarkable list of attributes.

And where criticism of the Macdonald/Raynor style often includes the words "unnatural" and "engineered", National is a perfect example of the fact that the two need not be mutually exclusive.

This really is golf at its absolute best. Disregarding the history, the exclusivity, the lobsters and the Southsides, the golf course is everything you could want. The rest is just extremely welcome window dressing!

The routing: The course begins in the bottom right of the above picture and heads towards the top of the frame, staying on the right of the course, before the back nine begins at the middle of the picture and snakes its way back to the 18th, seen sitting beside the water at the bottom.

Significant changes of direction come at the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th and 18th -- showing once more that an out and back routing needn't mean that the wind will be hitting you from the same predictable directions all day.

At the top centre-left of the picture is Shinnecock Hills and Sebonack Golf Club now occupies the wooded area on the right.

1st - Valley - 315 yards All yardages from the green "regular" tees, which measure 6505 yards. The "championship" course is 6935 yards and the "short" course is 5771 yards. From all three tees the course plays to a par of 72.
The opening drive may be the most unnerving on the course. It looks more narrow than it plays, but at such a modest length an iron is a definite option. The temptation is to drive down the left to avoid a blind second over the centre-right fairway bunker to maybe the most complex, wild green on the course, though that requires a longer carry over rough and blind bunkers. The yardage screams "birdie", but there can't be too many golfers who are disappointed to write down "4" as they walk to the 2nd tee.

2nd - Sahara - 290 yards
The first of several blind drives, with but ample room right for a safer tee shot. The green can be reached, but doing so requires a brave line roughly half-way between the sand and windmill in the picture below. Those trying their luck at reaching the green can't afford to err to the right, where the fairway falls away dramatically, feeding the ball towards rough, or at best an uphill half wedge from a sidehill lie to a slightly domed green that's largely sloping away from you! As with many holes to come, your potential for distance is only as good as your likelihood of successfully executing the shot, because while there are great benefits for bravery at NGLA, there is also tremendous punishment for a misguided display of brawn.

3rd - Alps - 407 yards
The first of the iconic holes. The drive is all about trying to get as far up the right-hand side as possible to reduce the blindness, or so it seemed to me. There was a little flat saucer in the right of the fairway about 270 from the tee (see second pic), leaving about 140 yards in from a level lie (rare in this fairway) -- about as ideal as you could want. About 250 yards off the tee is a little bunker to catch a ball that either doesn't fade or is drawn too strongly, and of course short and left of that is plenty of fairway for even the meekest bail-out. The boldness of the green surprised me, and unfortunately I didn't get a photo that did it justice, so you'll just have to look at the drama that leads to that green and imagine a surface in keeping with that!

4th - Redan - 181 yards
All the fantastic features of the original Redan hole at North Berwick, with the added feature of seeing your well-executed draw land at the front right and release towards the hole. While pictures of greens rarely convey a true sense of slope, I think the below image shows how the green is the perfect combination of sufficient tilt to do what a Redan should and flat areas to provide pin positions. And to those who categorise MacRaynor design as unnatural, just look how the hole sits on the the hillside as comfortably as you could want. I can understand why this hole is held as the ideal Redan.

5th - Hog's Back - 451 yards
Formerly a par five, this hole is now considered a two-shotter on the scorecard. Having avoided the central trench bunker off the tee, your long approach has every chance of running onto the green, which feeds nicely with an open front and right-hand (high) side. For me, the lion's share of the challenge is in picking and committing to the right line on the blind tee shot, with the braver line left of the bunker to a narrower finger of fairway improving the angle to the green.

6th - Short - 123 yards
Short has one of the most interesting greens on the course, with front right, front left and rear segments connected by a central bowl, where you see the pin cut below. With a wedge in hand, the demand is for precise execution. The green edges feed into bunkers in several areas, reducing the actual green area to aim at. The wind is also likely to be a factor, blowing across as you play down from the elevated tee. A great example of challenge being created without reliance on length and without stopping a golfer earning a birdie with strong play.

7th - St. Andrews - 467 yards
One thing the best courses I have played -- Royal Melbourne, Pine Valley, NGLA -- have in common is great tee shot interest courtesy of diagonal hazards that offer incremental reward for the golfer who knows his limitations, but is willing to demand all of his ability -- or savvy enough to shape a drive that turns along the length of the hazard to steal precious extra distance. They also have wonderful greens that combine artfully with tee shot strategy. Nowhere is that combination more successfully achieved than on this hole, with a natural rise providing the blindness created by the tram sheds on the original Road hole, with bunkers and tall fescue replacing the out of bounds on the 17th at The Old Course. The green is a perfect recreation of the Road Hole green's features -- severe front pot bunker, steep rise, dastardly hazard at the back of the green (a 10ft-deep bunker in this case) to demand that even if your brave drive down the right brings you in range of the green, you need to be absolutely precise to be putting for eagle. It's an ideal "par 4.5" hole with modern technology.

8th - Bottle - 385 yards
Do you thread your tee shot down the tree line on the right and come in from an angle? Do you take on the diagonal bunkers entering from the left for a flatter approach to the green? Do you split the difference and cosy up next to the central hazards? It seems to me that this is as much of a "pick your poison" tee shot as you can get and the daily conditions will contribute to your decision as much as what's on the ground. The approach is pure fear, playing over the deep front cross-bunkers to a green with a gigantic false front that is all you can see of the putting surface from even 80 yards short. With the slight uphill nature of the hole it's likely you'll have a mid iron at least for what appeared to me as one of the two or three most fearsome shots on the entire course, though putting is generally easier than elsewhere on the course once you've found the green. On a hole many will fail to reach in regulation, I also enjoyed the downslope from 60 yards and in that creates an awkward half-wedge and rewards the player who lays up smartly further back.

9th - Long - 534 yards
Another great question off the tee courtesy of the diagonal bunker that allows the player who drives down the right to avoid having to fly "Hell" bunker on the second shot. Though technology allows us to get past that deep expanse of sand more easily than in years gone by, it is still a hazard best bypassed. From the elevated tee you also see the varity of bunker styles employed at National: the deep, narrow trench bunker to carry; steep-faced expanse of sand on the left and, cutting off the fairway up the right, grade-level areas of exposed sand. All three are used well throughout the course. The approach is one of the easier wedges on the course provided your first two strikes were true, though as the sedate green slopes slightly away from you, distance control becomes tricky to a back pin.

10th - Shinnecock - 420 yards
And so, having snaked to the far reaches of the property with changes in direction after the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th, we turn for home and find the hole's namesake course through a narrow grove of trees to the right. The drive is to a wide fairway with a carry bunker easily flown to set up an approach to an enormous two-tiered green, its high back platform occupying perhaps just 20 per cent of the surface and that epic front portion blind from many points in the fairway. We are on the flatter land of the course from here until the 12th and to hold the golfer's interest, Macdonald built three of the most fascinating greens on the course. Making that small back section easier to hold, there is a steep backboard that keeps balls from running long if they are struck slightly too hard.

11th - Plateau - 418 yards
A brilliant Double Plateau green here on a flat piece of land, obviously built by man, but when it creates such interesting shots you'd be a hard marker to complain. Adding to the approach shot interest is that the target will be blocked by the mounds that protect the road crossing the fairway (which you also hit across with your drive at the 8th). The entire near side of the green is free of bunkers, so you can choose an approach -- aerial or running -- to suit the distance, pin and daily conditions.

12th - Sebonac - 427 yards
The final hole in the trio of lengthy two-shotters that begins the back nine asks for a drive over a gentle slope with a greater kick forward provided to balls that flirt with the bunkers up the left. The green is domed, with a ferocious deep bunker long and a false front short, while the golfer's approach view is unbroken until the far side of Bullhead Bay, making depth perception tricky. Like the 5th, 8th and 15th greens, there is little internal contour, but the steady slope ensures anything left above the hole will be far from a comfortable two-putt. False fronts feature on a good number of holes on the course, perhaps best at the 8th, here and the 15th -- in all three cases you feel you have far less target area than you do in reality.

13th - Eden - 159 yards
A fantastic recreation of the original hole at TOC -- a steep green, well-placed Hill and Strath bunkers, a deep trench bunker behind the green substituting for the Eden estuary and ample space on the right to cut the pin behind Strath. You can even see Shell bunker just over the maintenance road. As with the other two par threes at National, this hole turns perpendicular to the general out and back direction and plays in a prevailing crosswind. The back bunker wraps right around the right-hand side of the green.

14th - Cape - 341 yards
The major challenge here lies in choosing a line off the tee that is neither too far left, where it will find leavy rough, nor too far right, where water lurks along with sand. The fairway is the most "linksy" on the course, almost certainly making for an uneven lie and/or stance on the delicate approach. The built-up green juts out into the hazard that wraps around its right-hand side, but an open front allows for a running approach, something thankfully provided for by the conditioning.

15th - Narrows - 368 yards
The name doesn't lie. After playing to generous fairways for most of the round, this one -- still not narrow by modern standards -- feels like a single carriageway and the severity of the green means you're keen to cover every possible yard of the journey on the tee shot. The green looks like it is 90% false front, though in reality there is more room up top than it seems. But playing on your mind is a 10ft-deep bunker at the back, with the green sloping away from it -- a shot you don't ever want to leave yourself. The result is a shot like those at the 8th and 12th where both long and short are bad results and you're just trying to gentle one to any part of the green that will hold the ball.

16th - Punchbowl - 394 yards
A chance to open the shoulders, though accuracy is paramount if you want to tread the tightrope of the high ground in the centre of the fairway that separates deep bowls both left and right. The greensite, set down low over a dune as the name suggests, is subtle and understated and with the windmill set above it on the hillside it might be one of the most idyllic spots on the entire course. Of course it also provides that great thrill of hitting a solid approach and then cresting the dune in front of the green minutes later to find out where your ball settled. A great example of Macdonald (and Raynor) using the natural movement of the land in siting their templates.

17th - Peconic - 342 yards
From a high tee with an expansive view over the bay, you have to decide whether you can carry the partially-obscured trench that runs down the left at a diagonal, or if you're going to veer right and navigate over or between the central bunkers in the fairway. Either flank will afford you a view of the green, but by splitting the difference you're left behind a dune of exposed sand with just the top of the flagstick in view. With the deep bunker that sits behind the green, it's really a shot -- although only a wedge or even a pitch -- that you'd like to undertake with a clear view of the target. And with no shelter from whichever wind is blowing, your tee shot line is as dependent on the day's conditions as any shot on the course.

18th - Home - 483 yards
The drive is exciting, with two cavernous bunkers on the left and a steep drop on the right-hand bay side of the fairway, leaving an uphill, blind second to an area that is wide, but dotted with sand -- though it is more visible if you have successfully challenged the bunkers off the tee. The green provides a stern test for your final full shot of the day, running to a cliff on the right and far deeper than it might seem. To make the back pins even tougher, the green narrows at its rear and a miss to the "safe" left-hand side is no picnic either. This and the penultimate hole pair well with the opening two to create a start and finish that play far tougher than the card distance indicates.

Magenta Shores

2011-08-27T23:33:00.006+10:00

The par three 4th is a great example of the highs Magenta Shores reaches

The short par four 6th has an interesting green and bunkering scheme, but for most players it is more interesting from the ladies' tee, from which point the drive options are maximised

This view of the 13th green gives an idea of the expansive bunkering around many greens

The short iron 15th is the last in a quality set of one-shotters

Course name: Magenta Shores
Location: The Entrance, NSW, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Fun, despite significant annoyances

I hadn't heard or read much about Magenta Shores before my round there, other than that a lot of people have quite enjoyed it with a caveat or two and that Golf Australia magazine rated it #25 in the country. Having now played it, I'd agree with both those sentiments. I'd place it well behind the likes of Peninsula (North) but ahead of, say, Yarra Yarra and I enjoyed myself with the exception of a few factors that grated on me.

The things I liked and disliked were fairly systematic throughout the round and it seems to make sense to break the course down into drives, approaches and greens:

Drives: The course repeatedly asked for a draw off a distant bunker on the RHS, either around or near a LHS bunker - often with the land assisting that shape. The driving zones also seemed to lack much benefit for hugging the hazard, with the man-made undulations equally severe in the "ideal" spots, reducing the benefit of hitting the ball there.

The holes were also generally quite narrow, with three holes squeezed into a parcel suited to two, or two in a 1-1.5-fairway corridor, almost all the way through the front nine, while the back is largely one-hole corridors through what will eventually be a residential area (glad I got there before that happened) and is wider.

Ross Watson doesn't really seem to believe in building drive bunkers that the golfer can challenge/attempt to carry heroically, it's more a case of sidling up to them as the ball rolls out. Between Royal Sydney, Bonnie Doon, Concord and now Magenta Shores, I can't think of more than three or four examples.

At Magenta, it seems often driving near the fairway bunkering is both formulaic and not greatly beneficial.

Approaches: This is the course's major strength. The par threes are all quality holes, IMO, offering great variety - which is probably just as well given the course was largely man-made. As with Watson's work elsewhere - courses mentioned above - the par threes are probably the highlight.

And at Magenta Shores, if we disregard the drives on the par fours and fives, they almost all present an approach shot that is at the very least extremely appealing visually. They are fun shots to play and to look at. There is some advantage to be had from lateral placement.

The bunkering at the greens is huge in scale and is extremely appealing. The size looks great, the shaping is pleasant to the eye - another highlight of the course, but there can be little argument that the course is overbunkered, particularly for the wild shaping that has been created throughout.

Greens: The greens are quite wild in places and will present some challenging and adventurous putts, but it seems they haven't really been designed with consideration for the hole at large.

In lots of cases, the wild undulations don't seem to take into account the shot you'll be playing into the green and don't set up so that the golfer who has played the riskier shot off the tee is rewarded. In isolation they have some great features, but those features don't seem all that well combined with the rest of the hole.

There's also some fairly over the top greenside runoff shaping that I might start another thread about because it is best looked at alongside comparisons from other courses.

Reading that back it seems a bit overly negative. Magenta Shores has some fun holes and a heap of really attractive shots, and looking back at the course guide it seems some of my criticism of the fairway bunkering might have been addressed by playing the middle tees, as someone who carries a driver about 215-220m.

But there's the feeling throughout of something lacking from the experience.

Among the frustrations is the fact that the golf course has just 500 metres of ocean frontage, which is entirely used up by one par five that, after the drive, plays away from the coast. It seems a perplexing way to utilise the site's major natural feature.

All told, there's enough annoyances that I'd be unlikely to make the 90-minute drive from home and pay the $99 greenfee, and when the homes are built throughout the back nine that feeling is only going to increase.

Newcastle

2011-08-27T13:19:00.002+10:00

The 376m 1st is a sturdy opener - a good drive leaving this mid-iron approach to a dunetop green with few places to miss

The 3rd is an interesting hole of 217m that will force most plays to decide whether to play it as a two-shot or one-shot hole, with the short left bunkers adding interest

Call it a par four or call it a par five - what won't change is that a long iron or hybrid approach to the green at the 414m 4th is a fantastic shot. There aren't enough holes that present such a shot for the average player

There are many drives on the course similar to this at the 368m 5th

The ideal drive at the 367m 6th challenges the left-hand dune to earn an approach that need not carry the fearsome front right greenside bunkers

The superb 148m 7th hole, showing the exposed sand and ferny vegetation found in many rough areas of the course

There's great benefit to driving right at the 326m 11th

The 14th, measuring 391m, is the first of two consecutive long par fours with low-profile greens

One of the most challenging shots on the course is the long iron to the 17th green - another tough two-shotter measuring 385m

Course name: Newcastle
Location: Stockton, New South Wales, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Defines 'natural' and 'understated'

Newcastle is a little bit of a sleeper in Aussie golf, at least that's what I have found. In Sydney (2hrs to its south), when talk turns to top golf courses nearby people will rarely mention "Newie", but any time it gets mentioned, everyone in earshot will mention how much they love it and how great it is.

It's a remarkably endearing place, an extremely friendly club and the course is as idyllic as you'll find - other than on 17 and 18, which flank a fairly busy road. The sea is only a few hundred metres away from the course, so wind is generally a factor.

Above all it uses some very good land extremely well, playing over the sizeable undulations with a good variety of greensites, and accepting the blind (or blind-ish) drives (1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15, 18) with generally ample room to accommodate the reduced visibility.

As well as being really natural, the course is fairly subtle - particularly at the greens, which don't feature many large undulations but have enough going on that there aren't many straight putts. Even inside five feet.

For the most part the greens use steady slopes and very slight ridges and gullies to create challenge. In a lot of ways Newcastle's greens remind me of The Valley Club of Montecito. At both courses it's hard to see much in the greens from 100 or even 50 metres away, but the movement is there and it's critical that you keep your ball below the hole.

In and around the greens there is no superfluous shaping. What's there is there for the golf - effective and simple.

I also really like the natural and low-key bunker aesthetics. The course could perhaps handle some bolder bunkering on the wilder land, but in some ways I think the bunkering sums up Newcastle GC: understated, not showy, but effective and well thought out.

The most famous stretch of holes is the 5th through 7th, two mid-length par fours and a mid iron par three.

At the 5th, a draw down to a blind saddle sets up a mid iron approach, unless your length allows you to run down a steep ridge to about 110m from the green. The green is pressed up fairly severely, making a lateral miss an almost certain bogey, while the front of the green is set just beyond a slight upslope - another feature of the course.

The 6th heads back up the hill - also doglegging slightly to the left. A draw is again the best shape, with the ideal driving position down the left beyond the dune. There has been some tree clearing here recently and if the left were opened up a bit more I could see merit in a drive bunker set into the dune on that side, perhaps. The depth of the green is hidden from the driving zone and it uses steady slope to make putting tough.

Finishing the loop, the 7th is slightly downhill to a green defended front right and middle left with sand and behind with a steep run-off.

The three holes are all tremendously challenging and offer really different, interesting shots. That's largely a strength of Newcastle - the approaches are all different and test different shots.

The course doesn't feel long, yet it measures 6200m and the par threes will generally require a wood (217m), a mid to short iron (148m), a long iron (173m) and another hybrid or wood (212m).

The par fives only measure 414m, 473m, 485m and 445m, but the 4th and 9th play up steep hills to the green and both the 9th and 10th play over heavy fairway undulations.

The fours are a varied set, with seven between 361m and 391m, another at 352m and the last couple at 325m and 326m - but with such a variety of land very few play similarly.

Lastly, the vegetation - mostly native species including ti tree, eucalyptus and some ferny heath - is well managed and makes the course feel undoubtedly Australian in character.

Concord

2011-05-15T15:10:00.003+10:00

A bunkerless hole designed by Ross Watson. I know what you're thinking, I couldn't quite believe it either!

Course name: Concord

Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia

Four Word Course Review: More typical Watson design

Sydney is full of golf courses on too little land with too many trees and while Concord is better than most, it falls a long way short of its potential.

Like all Ross Watson courses, it's choked with bunkers in patterns that sure do look great in a picture but possess little strategic merit. Witness the 18th hole, where there's no reward for driving anywhere near the fairway bunkers; the 10th, where the shortest line through the dogleg is unguarded, yet a drive hit well left away from the green finds sand; the 15th, where a lay-up bunker guards only a thick grove of trees.

Of course the narrow, choked corridors don't really allow for many angles to be created or emphasised. The par threes stand out, then - the set shots working thanks to interesting greens at the 4th, 14th and 16th. A new par three at the 7th, built in-house quite recently, is an absolute dog, as is the aforemeantioned 10th (which replaced two par threes).

At the par four 3rd the drive is interesting for the creek that begs to be flirted with off the tee, and while the bunkering at the green muddies the strategy, the green is easier to hit from near the creek, on the right.

The 5th also is a standout, capping off a strong three-hole run, with reward waiting for a bold drive over the fairway bunkers inside the dogleg and a bunker short of the green on the left appearing to sit closer to the green than is the case.

The 9th is a challenging uphill par four, but the narrow fairway and flanking bunkers ensure the only sensible play is straight up the middle.

On the back nine, the first highlight is a bunkerless par four at the 12th, not because the hole is particularly meritorious but because it was designed by Ross Watson and it doesn't have any bunkers! From the back tee the long iron shot between the rough-filled front swales to a bold green is too much of an ask, but played further forward it's more suitable for the seven or eight iron you'll have in hand.

Trees that block the green stop the short par four 13th from being anything more than a boring iron + wedge, and while the boundary is a factor on this hole the result is far from ideal.

While the 18th's bunker pattern is nonsensical, the green is interesting: a microcosm of Watson's designs, really. As at Royal Sydney and the back nine of Bonnie Doon, quite interesting internal green contours are rendered a minor highlight thanks to the overpowering bunkering and greenside shaping that often eliminates any option of a running approach or recovery shot.

The ultimate condemnation of golf in Sydney is that Concord is among the better courses on offer, or at least it traditionally has been. While it remains one of the city's finest clubs, boasts great conditioning and is a strong test of execution and accuracy, the recent in-house changes have further eroded it.

The Lakes

2011-05-08T19:06:00.003+10:00

Viewed from the right, the 2nd green has deep swales both short and long

If you feel the bold strike to reach the 11th in two is beyond you, you must deal with a well-placed lay-up bunker

Looking back up the 11th at sunset

The 13th is among the most controversial - and in my opinion best - holes at The Lakes, just 265 metres to the green from the back tee, with a small pond guarding the ideal lay-up zone

The bold rolls of the 14th green are visible from across the lake, where a strike of 220-250m (depending on the tee you play from) will leave you with the dilemma of choosing between glory and safety

Looking across the 11th green and back up the par five 17th

Course name: The Lakes

Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia

Four Word Course Review: Unique thrills and aesthetics

Sydney used to have one and only one world-class golf course - NSWGC, then along came Mike Clayton and his crew in 2007 and voila: The Lakes was something truly special and unique.

It's not just the exposed sand dunes that make the course different to anything else in Australia, the wide corridors coupled with angled greens that are much wider at the rear than the front creates plenty of changeable strategy, where the most desirable position off the tee is hugely dependent on the pin position.

There has been some criticism of the expanses of sand bordering both sides of the fairway, with suggestions it removes any notion of a "daring" side and a "safe" side. As I see it, there are many holes at The Lakes where the "safe side" is the middle of the fairway and the "daring side" changes with the hole location and there is enough width for that to work.

The greens (and greensites) are the boldest set I have seen on an inland course. The shaping in and around the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th and 14th is an enormous feature of the course, but one that has also attracted criticism from golfers who feel that after finding the green they are entitled to a straight-forward two-putt - even on a par five like the 14th where getting home in two is within reach of many.

The course opens with a tempting short par four flanked down the left by one of the many bodies of water that give the course its name, the fairway widening considerably about 180m from the tee, with the best line to the green given to those who embrace that heroic carry with their first swing of the day.

On an unenviable piece of land across a busy road from the main paddock and clubhouse, holes two through eight used to be a tree-infested embarrassment. Now the 2nd, 6th, 7th and 8th holes are among the best half of the course and the greens at the 4th and 5th add enormous merit to holes that are otherwise compromised by their limited acreage and proximity to the boundary fence.

The long par four second features a bunkerless green defended by dramatic grassed swales short right and long right of the green. A steep backboard helps a long iron approach work its way close to the right-hand hole locations, but woe betide the golfer who knocks his ball over the backboard - the next shot is a delicate flick to a green at head height and sloping away. It's a shot that should provide ample options for someone with a fertile imagination and short game skill, but with kikuyu fairways the ground game options are limited.

Nonetheless it's a strong, fun hole, as are the 3rd - a long par four to a well-bunkered, T-shaped green - and the short par four 4th. Because of the houses that line the boundary fence in the driving zone, the 4th has a sandy waste that forces a lay-up with an iron off the tee, setting up a fun short iron to a tiny green cut in half by a diagonal ridge.

The boundary is also an issue affecting the tee shot of the mid-length par four 5th, but again the approach shot is great fun, with the front half of the heart-shaped green sloping steeply from back to front and the back half much flatter. Putting from one section to the other is either great fun or far too difficult, depending on your feelings of two-putt entitlement!

The 6th invites a bold drive over a long bunker that runs up the left, another wild green punctuating the hole, and the short par three 7th plays uphill to a green that features a six-foot-high slope separating the front and back tiers. It's a prime case of a hole relying on interesting features rather than length to create challenge. Adding length was not an option for most of the holes on this side of the road due to the small parcel of land.

A genius bunker in the lay-up zone of the par five 8th adds interest to both the drive and second shot. It makes the right side, guarded by a small pond, the prime line off the tee and forces a decision after a solid drive as the flat green makes this a good birdie chance and the approach is far easier from over lay-up bunker than from short or to the right.

After crossing back under Southern Cross Drive and playing the par three 9th (both nines here finish with a one-shotter) and awkward par four 10th, threaded between a lake and the practice fairway, it is time for a thrilling run home, with water used expertly on five of the final eight holes.

Most dominated by water are the three par fives in the closing stretch. The 11th is the first of the bunch and is the least reachable of the three, a lay-up zone bunker and a thumb-print in the left of the green adding subtle interest.

Following a long par four with a skyline green that adds some brawn to the back nine, the 13th received more structural change during Clayton's redesign than any other hole. It was previously a feeble dogleg right around a grove of trees to a forgettable green, but now plays straight and downhill at just 265m from the back tee to the front of the green.

Like the 7th, the humble length is paired with dramatic features to create something memorable. The domed green is a cross between the 6th at Deal and the 13th at Peninsula (North) - not as bold as the former, but much wilder than the latter. If you don't fancy a tilt at the green, the best place to be is about 100m short on the right-hand side, next to a small pond that makes the perfect lay-up almost as tricky as hitting the green. To the left is a huge area of fairway that's not at all difficult to find but that presents an extremely unpleasant angle to the green.

There's a lot to like about the hole and the numerous options it gives you off the tee, but like the 2nd, the playability of the green is hampered by the kikuyu grass.

Continuing the thrilling ride, the par five 14th invites you to drive close to a fairway bunker to earn the option of a long iron across a lake to a green the size of the Sydney Cricket Ground and with a surface resembling the battlefields of Verdun. Hitting the green from next to that bunker shouldn't be a problem for anyone who can carry an iron shot 150 metres, but once you're on the green the two putt is likely to be tricky. As a general rule, your putt is likely to be easier if you are short and left of the pin. For those who lay-up, the third shot should be from within 100m, and from that distance placing the ball on the same part of the green as the pin should be straightforward.

It's a brilliant hole in large part because of the unconventional green and the thrill of that long iron shot.

The next two holes aren't standouts, but the Redan-style 15th is a fun hole and the 16th green's tiny fronting bunker creates some interest after a less than ideal drive where the water hazards on both sides of the fairway are blind from the tee.

The par five 17th presents the second forced lay-up drive of the round and as at the 4th it sets up a great second shot, this time a draw down a narrow spit of fairway to a large green. This time the lay-up is dictated by the island of fairway that sits in the lake between the headland on which the tee is built and the main piece of land that houses the last 150m of fairway and the green. From the lay-up area it's just 200m to the middle of the green, so it's a shot that a lot of golfers can feel they have a decent enough chance of pulling off that they'll go for it.

The par three finishing hole calls for a long iron to a steep green, with bunkers left and right. It's perhaps the toughest par three on the course and a hell of a proposition at the business end of the round.

The Lakes has some flat spots, some poor land, interference from the highway and nearby airport and the kikuyu isn't the ideal grass for the style of play that several greens call for - but it also has some of the most exciting shots in Australia, unique character and aesthetics, great greens and loads of variety.

Not only is NSWGC not the only world class course in town any more, it may not even be the best course in town depending on what you value in a golf course.

Barnbougle Lost Farm

2011-03-05T22:11:00.089+11:00

The tremendous width of the 1st fairway is an indication of what's top come

A draw has a good chance of reaching the green at the short par four 3rd

Extremely challenging for its modest length and as picturesque as they come, the par three 4th has it all

The ridge in the 5th fairway that you want desperately to keep your drive to the right of is visible in this picture - for even a moderately long hitter the choice line is as close to the apex of the dune as your bravery will allow

The hump through the green that dominates the strategy of the 6th is far bolder than it appears here, while a large tongue of green is hidden behind the bunker

Beware the steep drop to the right of the 8th green

The 14th may be downhill and reachable, but anything played out to the left off the tee will leave a remarkably difficult approach, even if its just a half wedge

This photo from the prime driving zone short of the 14th green gives some idea how unpleasant the angle in from the right is, particularly to a back pin

The drop shot par three 15th

Well defended by both bunkers and the dune, the 16th green demands an approach from the right - which means engaging the fairway bunkering off the tee

Even with a helping wind, the 17th presents one of the most unnerving shots on the course

Pars need to be earned at the demanding par four finishing hole, which has one of the narrowest fairways on the course

Course name: Barnbougle Lost Farm
Location: Bridport, Tasmania, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Perfect foil for 'Dunes'

Bill Coore's Barnbougle Lost Farm course may be just across a narrow estuary from Tom Doak and Mike Clayton's Barnbougle Dunes (so close you can hit from one course to the other across the water in a few spots), but it's an entirely different experience in almost every way.

Where Dunes is a figure of eight routing that moves mostly parallel to the coast, Farm's holes change direction regularly. Where the par threes and short fours of Dunes are the star attraction, Farm's par fives and long fours are among the highlights. Where Dunes' wild greens are as bold as you'll find anywhere, Farm's set are much more traditional.

Perhaps the most noticeable difference is the immense width on offer here, which is saying something as Dunes is far from narrow. From the opening tee shot you're aware of how wide the targets are, especially off the tee, with massive benefits for taking on the daring line.

That's especially true on the opening hole, a par five where a drive down the left unlocks a far easier path to the narrow green; at the long par four 5th, where a high dune must be challenged to avoid a steep ridge running diagonally down the fairway; at the three-shot 8th, where a enormous bunker cut into a ridge on the left makes the second shot far tougher for those who bail out on that side from the tee; on the low profile 12th, where erring right adds a surprising amount of length to the hole; the driveable 14th, which demands you challenge the drive bunker on a direct line with the green if you want anything resembling a simple approach to the dune-top green; and finally at the subtle 16th, it's green tucked behind a dune to add great danger to an approach from the right.

Joining those holes (and shots) is a steady stream of stand-out moments.

The short par three 4th occupies a gorgeous spit of land flanking both the ocean and the river and plays downhill to a green that runs off severely at the back, putting a premium on distance control. Wedged between the aforementioned 5th and an easily reachable par four to a well-defended saddle green at the 3rd, it helps to create the first great run of holes on the course.

That solid stretch continues at the mid-length par three 6th, its green dissected by a steep hump (think of a Biarritz green turned upside down and angled from 8 o'clock to 2 o'clock) that ensures few pars will be made by players hitting the wrong side of the green. With the pin cut close to either side of the hump, a chip or putt from the opposite side will almost certainly have to be played off the green and back down the surrounding slopes if it is to finish anywhere near the hole. This green and the 14th green are the closest Lost Farm's putting surfaces come to resembling those across the river.

The 7th is memorable for a rough-covered dune that splits the fairway in half, forcing the golfer to choose a preferred side depending on the day's pin position and wind direction.

After a lull around the turn, the course leaves the dunes for a period as the drive at the 11th is blind over a dune. The green is set in open farmland, it's steep slopes softened to the eye by its immense size. The next hole turns left around a dune, but it's the bunkering of the lay-up area that adds interest, especially for those who favour the safe right-hand side off the tee and find themselves needing two more solid strikes to get home.

The 13th offers little other than eye candy for lovers of towering dunes, but the downhill 14th is among the best handful of holes on either course, the diabolical green - tiny and heaving with movement - demanding that even if you cannot carry it, you play towards the drive bunker that lurks only 40m or so short of the green, transitioning into the tall rough that sits to its right. Those that play left will have a bad angle to a green both above them and sloping gently away. In many ways it's a similar prospect to the 3rd hole on the Dunes course.

Similarity to superior holes across the river is a shame for the drop shot par three 15th - as is the spectre of the restaurant and spa towering over it to the left.

The 16th - described above - makes strong use of some flat land, before the imposing uphill par three 17th provides one of the course's most knee-trembling moments. Short, right and left will all most likely mean a lost ball and the large green looks tiny from the tee. Given all the prior par threes play downhill, it's a refreshing and unique challenge.

The final hole's downhill drive is to perhaps the narrowest fairway on the course, though there is more room to the left than it appears.

Of course Lost Farm actually has 20 holes - I have not mentioned 13a and 18a until now because I don't feel they really add to the experience. 13a is a strong par three, but it breaks the flow of the back nine, while 18a is a fairly plain short par three that I'd wager will have become a chipping green within a couple of years.

The feeling for me after two plays of Lost Farm was that the challenge grows as you move through the round, both off the tee and into the greens, especially with the constant changes of direction.

The course goes nowhere near offering the sheer adventure of its sister course, but the lateral choices are a lot of fun in their own right and the more subtle greens pose similar challenges without always having the obvious alternatives for working the ball of landforms.

With almost all visitors to Barnbougle looking to play both courses, it's wonderful that they differ so greatly while providing such excellence across the board.

I find myself favouring the Dunes course after a small sample of both, but the Farm feels like the kind of sleeper that could grow on me after more plays in different winds. One thing is certain: Australian golfers really are fortunate to have both tracks at their disposal, and for such cheap rates.

Barnbougle Dunes

2011-03-04T21:49:00.002+11:00

A split-level fairway at the 3rd means you earn a double benefit by hugging the right: a flat shot down the length of the green rather than uphill and across it

A brave tee shot at the 4th will most likely yield an eagle putt if successful in carrying the immense drive bunker as the green gathers from almost anywhere directly over the sand

A view of the 4th green from its back right

The brilliant par three 5th, viewed from forward and left of the tee to show how the green is tucked behind the dune on the right

Successfully challenging the pyramid dune down the right unlocks the choice angle into the bunkerless green, its left side tucked behind the tall dune

No hole I have played packs more challenge into each metre than the 7th at Barnbougle Dunes. The small green slopes towards the chipping area at the right, making it a tough proposition to hit and hold from either the tee or the deep greenside bunker

One of the more subtle holes on the course, the 10th is still a fine hole, rewarding the golfer who favours the bunker-strewn left-hand side of the fairway

Safety awaits to the left, but who can resist having a crack at the 12th green from the tee?

This view from the tee cannot to justice to the size and scale of the internal undulations within the green - the pockets are twice as deep as they appear in this shot

This picture from behind the 13th green (courtesy Bryan Izatt) does a much better job of showing what you're faced with should you leave your tee shot anywhere other than the section of the green where the pin is cut

The progressive challenge and reward of the drive bunkers at the 14th are the strength of the hole

Especially if playing from the back tee, the 17th green is a real challenge to hit and hold in two shots

Course name: Barnbougle Dunes
Location: Bridport, Tasmania, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Relentlessly thrilling natural golf

I've played better golf courses than Barnbougle Dunes - not very many, mind you - but I doubt I have played one with more shots as incredible and fun - the type of shots you look forward to playing the minute you step onto the 1st tee.

Almost from the outset (the first two holes have great greens but are quite sedate otherwise) you're faced with shots you could play them all day with a broad smile on your face, trying different routes to the hole -and the challenge would be completely different and just as fun the following day with the pin moved to a different section of the green.

The 3rd is a bold risk/reward drive and pitch par four with a split-level fairway and the added punishment of an appalling angle to the tiny green if you stray to the lower left-hand side of the fairway.

It would be a highlight of most golf courses, but here it's just the first taste in an incredible five-hole stretch.

Next comes an even shorter par four - a hole where anyone who can carry the ball about 210m is likely to have a good shot at eagle on the boomerang-shaped punchbowl green and anyone who takes the shot on and falls short faces a recovery from a gigantic cave of a bunker, from which bogey becomes a good score.

Following a life-affirming walk along the top of a seaside dune to the 5th tee, you're faced with another punchbowl green, this one on a downhill mid-length par three and yet again imagination is key to working the ball close, with all manner of slopes and ridges to be used on and around the green.

Things are slightly more subtle at the bunkerless par four 6th, where a drive that takes on a pyramid dunes earns a prime angle to the plateau green, before the fascinating 110m par three 7th, a chipping area below the right-hand side of the modest green and the bunker to top all vicious bunkers to the left. It's one of the few holes you'll find where even good plays might regularly be aiming away from the green with a gap wedge in their hand. Par might be unlikely from the right, but from the bunker - with the green sloping against you - it's nigh on impossible.

The pace slows for the controversial split-fairway 8th hole, which leaves many players doubting there's a realistic way to find the green from any distance, before a terrifying tee shot at the 9th (especially from the unofficial back tee to the left of the 8th green!) that makes way for a fun approach where you're again invited to use the slope of the land to work the ball towards the hole.

Not only does every hole on the front side get your attention on the set shots - tee shots and approaches - the greens are as interesting and thrilling to recover to as you'll find anywhere, especially at the 1st, 4th, 5th and 7th. Pure fun.

Heading away from the clubhouse again for the second loop of the figure-of-eight routing, first up is a well-bunkered par four bending left and climbing to a dune-top green reminiscent of the corresponding hole at Brora, the green draped naturally sloping toward the tee.

The par five 11th and 14th holes both offer most of their interest on very different but equally well-bunkered drives. While the greens may not be among the course's best, they are both unlike any other among the set.

That pair of three-shot holes bookend a strong candidate for the best back-to-back holes in Australia.

The driveable 12th snakes right along the top of a towering dune and like the 4th is easily driven by virtue of the short length and greenfront slopes, but any miss, especially one to the right, is heavily penalised. Adding to the challenge is a green that feels the size of a dinner table, but seemingly with 13 different tiers! There's risk in attacking the green from the tee, for sure, but at the same time you don't want to lay too far back and have more than a flick for your second shot.

The 13th hole is a poster child for everything great about Barnbougle Dunes. It might be the wildest green in world golf, a sea of bowls separated by steep slopes that can either be the golfer's friend or foe. In my three plays to date theose slopes have worked my ball to within a foot of the hole and taken what I'd thought was a good shot and worked it 60ft away into guaranteed three-putt territory the following day. It's remarkably advenurous golf most certainly not designed to be played with a card and pencil (I loved writing down '2', it tore me apart to record a '5' after hitting the green from the tee!).

The great risk and reward of many shots on the course make match play the game to play: a well-executed risk can win you the hole, but an error when going for broke won't ruin your day.

Turning for home at the eastern end of the course, the 15th is a drive and pitch hole built around its centreline drive bunker and gorgeous dune-top green. It wasn't among my favourites when I was on site, but in hindsight is among the three or four holes I most look forward to playing again.

The 16th is likely the weakest of the par threes, somewhat like the 5th but a far less interesting hole, while from the back tee the 17th is among the brawniest two-shotters of the bunch, doglegging right around a massive beachside bunker before an approach to a green somwhat like the 15th in its raised nature with few good places to miss.

Like the front nine, the back ends with a slightly blind drive on a substantial par four, but where the 9th green is set on a high-point the 18th is in a slight bowl, angling from left to right. If it's a disappointing finish, that's only because what has gone before is so outstanding.

The sheer abundance of thrilling golf shots on offer at Barnbougle Dunes is hard to match anywhere, in large part due to the amazing land on offer and no doubt also not doubt significantly because the designers weren't shy about building holes as bold as the land they're built on.

When you add to the list of attributes the $130 all day greenfee, this has to be one of the best value courses on the face of the planet and one where the adventurous, fun-loving golfer can have as much fun as his imagination will allow.

Kingston Heath

2011-03-03T23:46:00.005+11:00

Some of the flattest land comes at the 2nd, yet micro-undulations are still present to create awkward stances

The par three 5th, one of only three one-shotters on the course (though the spare hole is also a par three), allows for a long or mid iron to be bounced onto the green

Nestled into the ridge, the 7th green enjoys one of the best greensites on the course, the bunker in the right foreground defending the best line in

Though visually appealing, the downhill, dogleg left 9th doesn't create much drama, with an attempt to drive the green only for the brave or reckless

The short par three 10th, surrounded by bunkers and with a wild green, is something of a sandbelt template, and a great example at that

Clever bunkering adds interest to the lay-up zone of all three par fives - pictured here is the 12th

While the 15th's right-hand-side bunkering looks fearsome, it's the small front left bunker that presents one of the most delicate and difficult recovery shots on the entire course

This fairway bunker at the 18th gives a good example of the intricate shapes that work to make the bunkers look smaller than they really are, breaking up the sea of sand

Course name: Kingston Heath
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Little course that could

Flat, shoehorned into about 120 acres, laid out by a rookie designer, tinkered with ad nauseum... you'd not think on the basis of those factors that Kingston Heath could be much of a course.

Instead, here's a fantastic combination of holes, superbly bunkered, that make brilliant use of the movement the site has, provided largely by two large ridges that bisect the 1st, 6th, 8th, 16th and 17th holes and provide fantastic greensites for the 7th and 15th holes.

The scale of the features - the greens and bunkers especially - is fantastic, too. In comparisons with Royal Melbourne (West) it's often said that Kingston Heath is equally a masterclass in scale, but where RM's massive features complement the grand corridors, the seemingly smaller features at Kingston Heath are perfect for the more humble property. I say seemingly, because on much of the course the bunkers are still big and bold, but the more intricate shapes break up the impact of the sand on the eye and create smaller areas of sand separated by the capes and edges, yet it's all contained in one enormous bunker.

Further to that, another strength of the bunkering is how it ties into the native heath, rivalling the best examples from Royal Melbourne in its ability to fuse the prepared surfaces to the heathland in as natural a way as possible.

Of course given Alister MacKenzie designed the course's bunkering (and built the famous par three 15th from scratch) after Dan Souter had laid out the holes, the fact it's so perfect for the site is probably not surprising.

The undulating land is limited, but it's used well to create uncomfortable drives at the 1st, 6th and 16th, an appealing long approach to the 7th, an all-world iron shot to the 15th, a downhill approach at the next hole and a blind strike over the ridge another hole later, completing a stretch of three holes where the same feature has been used to test four very different skills.

Where the land gets flatter, the bunkering comes into its own.

The short par four third is a well-balanced temptation because of its bunkers, the 5th sets up nicely for the mid to long iron shot required, the 10th's bunker-ringed green is a typically effective sandbelt solution to 150m or so of such land, the centreline and flanking bunkers at the 11th and 12th add interest to their tee shots, while a wild green on the closing hole - coupled with the hole's length - make for a difficult finish on the back of the three-hole stretch described above.

Of course with so little undulating land, fantastic greensites are scarce - the 7th and 15th are the only ones that race to mind - but the greens don't suffer too much for that with their smart bunker placement and internal movement making many of them standouts nonetheless. The bunkerless 17th is among the best greens, the simple front-to-back grade level green is ideal for the blind long or mid iron shot required to approach it.

Each of the par fives - the 7th, 12th and 14th, feature interesting bunkering in the lay-up zone, making for a great hole whether you need two shots or three to get to the green.

The absence of temptation to drive at the green on the reachable 9th drops the hole a level below the sandbelt's best short par fours and there are a couple of less interesting shots in the course's flattest central portion, but all things considered there's a good reason this course is so often dissected by way of comparison and contrast with Royal Melbourne (West): it is an entirely different beast, but no less compelling in the range of challenges it presents.

And as a final feather in its cap, Kingston Heath was comfortably in the best condition of the courses I played in Melbourne, with firm greens and tight turf in the fairways, as well as approaches firm enough to allow a deliberate run-up or bounce-on approach shot.

Those firm greens also demand precision when attacking many of the more difficult pin positions and reward a tee shot that finds the fairway, allowing sufficient spin to be imparted on the approach shot. For us mortals who can't generate 10,000rpm from the rough, it's wonderful that those sorts of things still matter!

Metropolitan

2011-03-03T21:41:00.001+11:00

The 1st hole immediately shows the appealing bunker shapes that are a highlight of Metropolitan

The green of the par five 6th is a great example of smart bunkering and some subtle undulation making the most of largely flat land

At the par three 11th, a great example of the Metro green surfaces extending right to the bunker lips

Centreline bunkers in the fairway and at the green at the 12th help to dictate the wise play depending on the pin position

This bunker 40 metres or so short of the 14th green makes for an interesting second shot for the golfer who has successfully taken on the drive bunkers

Love them or hate them, the trees in the 17th fairway are a big part of the hole

Course name: Metropolitan
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Compelling despite average land

Metropolitan has a rich history as a major (small 'm') tournament host and World Top 100 member. While I'm not sure I see the course's claim on a World Top 100 spot, it is an enjoyable course with undeniable quality, top notch maintenance and great use of flat land in places.

From the outset, the attractive bunkering is a highlight, the shapes quite low to the ground to match the flat land. The mid-length par four 1st and 3rd holes each reward a drive that flirts with bunkering on the left-hand-side of the fairway before approaches to greens that include some tricky movement.

After the short par five 5th, played to a well-defended green, the 6th is another mid-length four that is characterised by its bunkering.

The 6th continues the high standard of par fives, and another interesting green built on an unspecial site, before the third such hole at the 8th, where a new green has been built surrounded by a dry moat.

The long par four 9th, with an awkward tree-encroached drive ends a front nine that despite the land is full of fun and tempting drives, approaches and recoveries.

Also situated within the front nine is the enjoyable par three 19th/spare hole, slightly uphill to a slick green, the front tongue of the green offering a really testing pin position. While it largely plays as a short one-shotter, there is room behind for a tournament tee to be built that stretches the hole to about 160m.

The back nine doesn't quite match the front, but the shortish, heavily-bunkered par three 11th, with another green that overcomes its site through great internal movement and the 12th - a mid-length par four made by the smart centreline bunker and near boomerang green - are among the better holes.

The 13th was being re-built when I played the course, but the flat par five 13th is great fun for the bunkering on the drive that can be carried and the bunker placed in the lay-up zone. A great example of Metro making a lot out of far from ideal land.

Some unattractive mounding holds the otherwise enjoyable short oar four 16th back, while trees in the fairway of the 17th are a love it or hate it feature.

The 18th is a stern finisher, demanding a driver and long iron from most mortals, the land feeding the right-hand fairway bunker.

All in all, Metropolitan makes pretty impressive use of a site that's nowhere near as enviable as either course at Royal Melbourne or Peninsula (North), but it still dishes up quality holes of every par.

A wonderful feature is the green surface continuing right to the lip of the greenside bunkers, meaning balls that might settle in the fringe of other courses' greens will roll unobstructed into the bunkers here. It's a small difference, but one that does make a difference (and looks shmick!).

Some say the conditioning has gone downhill somewhat since the superintendent transferred to Royal Melbourne, but as it is it's quite incredible and adds to the enjoyment of the round.

Yarra Yarra

2011-03-02T20:05:00.038+11:00

What a clubhouse!

The 4th is a new hole, designed by Martin Hawtree, that maintains the high standard of the par threes, along with the 11th and 15th - and all very different from one another

The difficult 11th calls for a faded long iron to a green flanked by trouble

Approaching the 12th, its green pitched steeply from back to front

A wonderful short par three, the 15th

Course name: Yarra Yarra
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Par threes the standout

While many of the holes at Yarra Yarra are currently a bit overpowered by trees, it has a handful of great holes and a set of greens that I loved for their putting difficulty and approach challenge.

The likes of the 5th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 18th greens were difficult to read and really rewarded a ball placed below the hole. A number of them break much more than it looks like, which I credit to the long, steady slopes on much of the course making it hard to work out what's flat and what's an easy slope.

The 15th especially was a fantastic green for a short par three, coupled with some vicious bunkering. The steep tier rewards precise distance control and, with a front pin, gives the imaginative golfer options for working the ball towards the hole either from the tee or when recovering from the sand. As a similar beast to 13 at Royal Melbourne (East), 13 at Royal Melbourne (West), 10 at Kingston Heath and 11 at Metropolitan - ie. flat land, plentiful bunkering, bold green - I'd rate it the best of the bunch, which is no mean feat against that field of contenders!

But for all that praise it's probably not even the best par three on the course - with that title probably claimed by the 11th, flanked by deep, expansive bunkers and the green set up with something of a nod towards the reverse Redan concept. A great opportunity for the talented long iron player to show off his skills.

Another standout is the long par four 5th, the drive calling for a fade over a bunker that unless the hole is into a strong wind is likely to be flown with ease by most players.The approach is from a hook lie that will assist with the draw into the green than the land and the bunkering combine to call for. Recent technological advances have probably reduced its challenge somewhat, but it's still a smartly designed hole over quality land with great scale to the features (which is lacking two holes later at the 7th, the left-hand greenside bunker dwarfing the green).

The par five 9th has a lovely lay of the land green that falls from right to left, while the par four 2nd makes good use of some lesser land, with smart bunkering inside the fairway and a tricky green.

The 12th is a great example of the tree encroachment's effects. The daring line down the right, over the fairway bunker, is made less tempting by the thick trees on that side. But, as with the 3rd hole (which has recently been altered to move play away from the boundary), the tree coverage is necessary to keep balls away from neighbouring homes. Trees removed from the equation, the 12th is a brilliant hole.

Unfortunately balls in backyards = expensive repairs and legal exposure, so while the new 3rd might not be a great hole in everyone's eyes, it solves a major problem and expense for the club.

There's a lot of work underway at Yarra Yarra to recapture former glory and lift many of the holes to the league of the standout holes, with tree removal planned.

Let's hope it continues, because the land, the best holes and the incredible Spanish clubhouse will really shine when the ongoing tree removal and subtle redesign work on several holes has been completed. Tree removal will not only increase playability, more open vistas would give the property a greater feeling of spaciousness and also open up views of the course from the clubhouse (and views of the clubhouse from the course!).

Granted, clubhouses are a sidenote to the merits of the course, but at Yarra Yarra the clubhouse really is something special, both inside and out, and desrves special mention.

St Andrews Beach

2011-03-02T18:38:00.000+11:00

If the opening tee shot doesn't get the juices flowing, you may as well head back to the car

The first real temptation comes at the 2nd, with the gren well within range for many, especially downwind, but plenty of sand looming for the mis-hit shot, whether off the tee or on the approach

A punchbowl green awaits behind the severe bunkers right and closely-mown slope short left at the par three 6th, and with a bold slope at the back of the green off which to work the ball, there's no need to flirt with being short

Viewed from the right-hand side, the boldness of the 7th green is evident, and to a back pin it's great fun to land a ball on the front of the green and try to run it up the slope

A drive that challenges the fairway bunkers at the 9th sets up the prime line into a fearsome bunkerless green hidden behind a steep slope

I'd love for the 13th green to fill more of the bowl it's set in

Where the 2nd hole asked for a draw if you wanted to go for the green, the 14th rewards a fade, and the lay-up must be played well left if it is to stay on high ground. Anything that errs toward the centre will feed down to the low right-hand side of the fairway, leaving a blind pitch to the green over a deep bunker

If you can nestle your drive near the centreline bunker at the par five 17th you'll be in range of the green (visible over the LHS bunkers), which although blind from the driving zone is a tempting proposition with the land to its right feeding the ball toward the hole

There's a massive benefit for cutting the corner at the final hole, with a kickpad hidden over the rough-covered RHS bunker adding a good 30 metres or so to your tee shot

Course name: St Andrews Beach
Location: Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Design accentuates superb land

What's the best value golf course on the planet? I've come across a few of the candidates in my travels: £55 for a midweek day ticket at Silloth-on-Solway (but even the £45 you pay for 18 holes at the weekend is a bargain!), £40 to play Woking after 4pm in summer, £50 for a day ticket at Brora, even $130 to play Barnbougle Dunes all day long is great value.

Right in with all of those is the value of paying just $55 to play St Andrews Beach.

St Andrews Beach would likely be a lot more well-known - and probably a lot more expensive to play - if it hadn't been launched as an ultra-private club before going broke and closing for a period of time.

But of course it's only such great value because the course is so full of great holes, rolling terrain and exciting shots. While the greens are the least dramatic set I've seen from Tom Doak and his crew (who designed the course in partnership with Mike Clayton's firm), they're no less interesting for their subtlety.

The variety of St Andrews Beach immediately comes to mind when I think of how much I enjoyed it: varieties of length in the par threes and fours, variety in the land on otherwise similar holes (the driveable 2nd and 14th holes, for example), variety in greensites - some atop dunes, some benched into dunes and others hiding behind dunes.

While the bottom of the flagstick is unlikely to be visible from the approach area on at least 10 holes, that's largely a function of the rolling land. In very few cases is the shot significantly uphill. Some golfers will complain about such a high level of "blindness", but I don't share their misgivings.

What was driven home as I recounted my round was the number of different shots I was able to attempt into the greens: relatively short aerial approaches at 1, 2, 6, 8, 10, 11, 14 and 15, long irons and hybrids at 3, 4, 13 and 16 and the option of using the ground to work the ball toward the hole at 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17 and 18.

The terrain and vegetation feel extremely Australian to me and I like that the routing takes the golfer across the dunes on a number of holes, while also providing respite from the drama at regular intervals, where the holes run parallel with the ridges and valleys. In both cases, the holes fit the land and feel draped over rather then forced on the land. Very little earth was moved to build most of the holes - even by Doak's standards - and that's evident in how natural the course feels.

I'd like to see the 13th green, recessed in a near-punchbowl, expanded to fill more of its amphitheatre, which dwarfs it currently. For the scale and boldness of the hole - which starts with a blind, uphill drive - the green seems undersized.

As the weakest link, I'd choose, without need to pause for thought, the 16th. I wasn't surprised to hear it was a late addition to the course to fill a hole in the routing. While it provides something different to the other one-shot holes, that's really all I could say in favour of it. With the slope fronting the green and the firmness of the surfaces, the ball seems destined to finish long or left (which is purgatory) if the player makes any kind of bold play for the green. On a course where longer walks from green to tee haven't been avoided, I'd have preferred a far shorter hole to take its place.

I really do think St Andrews Beach is better than it gets credit for being, and given it currently places 10th in Golf Australia magazine's list of Australia's best courses, that's no mean feat.

Royal Melbourne (West)

2011-03-01T23:41:00.003+11:00

A running approach to the 3rd is made both intriguing and difficult by the diagonal swale that runs across the front of the green

From start to finish the flow from maintained turf to native grasses and heath is seamless, short right of the 4th green one of the best examples

The 5th hole demands precision, with bunkers on both flanks, a steep slope guarding the front and the pitch of the green punishing anything that settles above the hole

Looking from the far left of the fairway, the majesty of the 6th hole is obvious

Not bad for a breather! The par four 9th

If there is a style of hole that has been enhanced by recent distance gains, it's the short par four. The temptation of going for the green despite the punishment that surrounds it makes the 10th on the West one of the best holes of its length I have played

Alister MacKenzie reportedly left these rough-covered ridges on the course when he redesigned it as a lasting example of how bad golf design can be, but in an age when many people have an option of going for the green, they present an effective impediment to a thinned fairway wood, hybrid or long iron approach

The long par three 16th is a fantastic example of flat ground architecture, with low-profile bunkering and an understated green

The 17th green is another stunning example of a green and its hazards tied in with the native flora

Course name: Royal Melbourne (West)
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Grandeur at every turn

If Royal Melbourne (West) is one of the best 10 or 20 golf courses in the world - and on the strength of one lap around it and an experience of five or six of the other contenders I think it certainly is - its 6th hole might well contain all of the elements that make it so.

The downhill drive offers a progressive level of challenge - from an unimpeded path down the left to the 225-metre carry over sand and heath that results in the shortest distance and best angle to the green. The hole is wide, majestically so, and the features are huge, a complement for their setting: Cavernous bunkers and an enormous, slick green that slopes viciously from back to front, maintaining the flow of the hillside it's set into.

The least talented player can get his ball around, but the very best must be brave and bold to make birdie. The decision from the tee is not black and white, instead offering a shade of grey where the best line will vary with each round depending on tee position, wind and how the player's swing is holding up.

I can't think of another hole I have marvelled at more or wanted to sit behind the green of for a day, seeing how golfers of all ages and skill levels found their way from the tee to the bottom of the cup.

But as great as the 6th hole is, even the best hole I have played repeated 18 times wouldn't make the finest course. Lucky, then, that the hero of this tale has 17 wonderful wingmen.

What the course offers is a series of fresh challenges and demands that is never repetitive.

The 2nd and 3rd ask for a fade, a draw, a blind drive and a smart decision on how to navigate a diagonal valley fronting a green tilted from front to back. All in the space of four or five shots.

Soon after you're asked to hit a well flighted, precise long iron at the par three 5th - taking care to avoid the pitfalls of being either short (and feeding back down the steep slope that fronts the green) or long (and facing a lightening fact chip or putt back down the hill), before being faced with all the options of the 6th and an uphill short iron that handles the wind at the 7th.

Without respite, the course demands you're up to the shotmaking challenge if you hope to make your best score, but all the while there wasn't a shot that would have overawed my grandmother or left her feeling she and her 38-handicap were out of their depth.

The 8th and 9th are as much of a breather as you're going to get, but still there is challenge and variety: the former asking you to drive left and fade your approach and the latter rewarding a draw to the green from the right-hand side of the fairway.

And so, just nine holes in and your game has already been thoroughly tested. You've had more fun, more challenge and more variety in those nine holes than most courses can muster in 18. And all the way the scale has been majestic: massive greens, massive bunkers that blend into the heath, broad playing corridors.

All that effusive praise and we haven't even made it to the famous 10th! At my first glance the driveable par four had me lamenting that my body often can't conjure the shots of my imagination.

Behind a giant crater of a bunker carved into the hillside waved the flag, begging me to try my luck... But out to the right, so much short green grass that going anywhere near that bunker seemed foolish... Though from next to that bunker seemed such a simple flick and putt for birdie... But how hard could a full wedge from out on the right be?

In half a second I realised this was a hole the equal of the 6th.

Generally, criticisms of Royal Melbourne's West course - as well as the Composite course used for tournaments - centre on the fact that it is short by modern standards, without much room for the holes to be lengthened. More importantly, no room for the holes that would benefit from some additional length to be made longer.

That's the case at the 12th. The third of the par fives is also the third that is reachable in two shots for better players (and not just the pros) and the final "three-shotter", the 15th, will also yield a lot of eagle putts.

Ultimately, a golfer has to decide whether he agrees that the lack of a genuine par five is a real impediment to Royal Melbourne (West) being considered one of the world's very best courses or whether the fact all four holes in question are of such high quality both individually and as a set of par 4.5s that it doesn't matter.

In my opinion, and at this stage I have just one play to draw on, any course would be blessed to have these four holes, which vary tremendously in the land they traverse and the challenges they present. Would a brute of a three-shot hole add something? Sure, if it were of sufficient quality. But likewise there are great courses that lack a genuine driveable par four (Pine Valley, Royal Dornoch and Fishers Island among them).

The small, wild green of the heavily-bunkered par three 13th, hidden fairway width of the 14th and unique rough-covered ridges 100m short of the 15th green all add merit to holes on flat land, but it's in the closing three holes where the course returns to the quality of the stretch from the 3rd to the 10th.

A sea of bunkers guard the green, their low-profile shape and the understated green complementing the flat land just as the drama of the features on the front nine did so with the large undulations there.

To finish, the variety is again a highlight, both a draw and a fade required off the tee and greens that lend themselves to a running approach and an aerial attack.

It's hard to think of another course with so much variety. Perhaps that's the reason so much attention is given to the absence of a long par five - there really is little else to criticise.

I can only hope my future holds many days discovering the likes of the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 10th, 12th and 16th over and over again, and hopefully discovering more about what makes them so fascinating.

Royal Melbourne (East)

2011-03-01T14:53:00.002+11:00

The delicate approach to the short par four 1st

A draw off the right-hand greenside bunker will bound up the hill onto the 4th green

The busy nest of bunkers down the right of the 7th

The lay-up at the par five 10th is great fun, thanks to the bunker placement. The aesthetics of the bunkers also provide a good contrast to the recent additions on the 7th (above this photo)

Bunkers eating into the front and back of the 16th green create a "H" shape that makes placement crucial

Course name: Royal Melbourne (East)
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Four Word Course Review: World's best "second course"

I find it interesting that when I have come across two-course clubs in my travels - The Berkshire, Royal Dornoch, Burnham & Berrow - the distinction is often that the second course (Blue, Struie and Channel, respectively) tends to be more a more narrow, demanding driving course with smaller, more contoured greens.

The almost inevitible outcome of that is that those courses, while assuming the role of little brother, are the more difficult of the two courses on the property.

That formula seems present at Royal Melbourne almost to the letter, and just as in two of the three above examples, the East is unquestionably the lesser of the two courses (The Berkshire's Blue vs Red is a much more hard-fought debate).

Another interesting factor here is the lack of fairway bunkering - only the the 1st, 7th, 8th, 10th and 14th holes have sand as a driving hazard - which is at odds with the West, where the bunkering dominates the driving strategy on many of the holes.

Royal Melbourne (East) opens with a sublime stretch of four holes that have each been a staple of the club's famous Composite layout, though for this year's President's Cup the 4th drops out of the routing for the adjoining 16th.

Built on the same parcel of land by Alec Russell as the lion's share of the Alister MacKenzie-designed West course, the quality of these holes in relation to most of what's to come goes a long way to cementing my belief that at the root of great golf design more often than not is the land upon which the holes were built.

I'd select 1-4, 10-12 and 16 as the standouts of the course, and I doubt it is a coincidence that they occupy the best of the land - gently undulating and laced with native heath.

Among that sample are:

The best of the par threes - The 16th pips the attractive 4th in my view, largely on the strength of the front and back bunkers that bite into the green, creating a slight "H" shape that, coupled with the slope, makes placing your ball in the correct quadrant of the creen crucial. What's more, from a slightly elevated tee the view of the spectacular bunkering is one of the best on the course.

The best of the short par fours - the 1st offers a blind tee shot to a downhill fairway allowing many to drive within 60m of the green, from where a delicate pitch to a steep green flanked by bunkers and with OOB long is likely to be more difficult than you imagined, especially on the second shot of the round.

The best of the long par fours - the 2nd asks for an accurate cut to match the shape of the narrow fairway, before the land climbs to a green set high above the fairway and best approached from the hard-to-access inside of the dogleg, guarded by thick native vegetation.

The best of the par fives - after the slight let-down of the 6th through 9th holes, the 10th is masterful for its bold off-camber drive and the positioning of the cross bunkers in the lay-up zone that offer an infinitely easier third shot to the golfer who can position his ball over them and to the left, which is also likely to be the player who has successfully taken on the risk of driving down the right-hand side.

That's not to say that the holes not contained in the choice stretches listed above don't have their appeal.
The subtle front-to-back green on the short par four 5th demands precision and rewards the player who can spin the ball with a half wedge or wisely place his drive far enough back that a full shot can be played. It asks many of the same questions posed by the famous 3rd on the West course, complete with a semi-blind drive over a gentle crest.

The 13th is one of the best examples I've seen of what seems to be a common way to make use of uninteresting land on the Melbourne Sandbelt and London Heathland - a short iron par three to a small, undulating and fiercely-defended green (off the top of my head I can think of this hole, the 13th at Royal Melbourne (West), 10th at Kingston Heath, 4th and 15th at Yarra Yarra, 7th at Peninsula (North) 4th at The Berkshire (Blue), 13th at Swinley Forest, 16th at Woking, 16th at West Sussex, 10th at Worplesdon, 10th at New Zealand and 2nd at Hankley Common that all fit the description).

The 18th is a brutal finisher, especially into the wind where most will have to be content with finding the sand-ringed green in three shots.

What's most regrettable about Royal Melbourne (East) is the overkill of dogleg right holes and the out of character remodelling at the 6th, 7th and 15th holes, which renders the middle stretch of each nine an unwelcome breather from the great golf.

While the 6th and 7th holes are at least functional, they don't belong on this golf course.

The 6th green has unnatural lumps at he back where the previous green, just 150m away, shows the beauty and effectiveness of a sleek, simple slope in running the ball away and creating doubt in the golfer's mind.

The 7th features no less than five fairway bunkers on a course almost devoid of them and if that wasn't enough, they're cut into overly-busy shapes that are at odds with the beautiful bunkering elsewhere on the course.

Trying to sum Royal Melbourne (East) up, I'm reminded of the opening paragraph of Charles Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

This is unquestionably a wonderful golf course with a selection of all-world holes and a strong routing, which perhaps makes the regrettable features all the more unwelcome in the inevitable comparison with what they were created to complement.

Peninsula (North)

2011-02-28T21:38:00.001+11:00

The slightly uphill nature of the 2nd is well camouflaged from the tee.

The drive at the short par five 5th is one of the best "how brave am I feeling?" drives on a course full of them.

The centreline bunker on the short par four 6th allows all golfers to select a challenge suitable for their skill level.

The 7th green features bold bunkering that eats into the putting surface.

The par four 12th, with its hogsback fairway and well-bunkered green is one of the best holes on the course.

The driveable 13th is a great example of both the bunkering at Peninsula tying in with the native vegetation and a bunkerless green that depends itself stoutly.

With its daunting front bunker built on a grand scale and clever false front/side, there's plenty to like about the 16th.

Course name: Peninsula (North)
Location: Frankston, Victoria
Four Word Course Review: A course for life

Wide fairways, greens surrounded by short grass, bunkering that's both visually appealing and effectively placed and greens featuring a fun mix of internal contours, false fronts and runoffs... what's not to love about Peninsula (North)?

It's hard to imagine a golf course that could be more fun to play day-in, day-out than this - length is rarely the feature that issues the challenge, instead it's a constant process of placing the ball with consideration for the next shot and deciding whether taking on a hazard is within your capabilities.

Of course both those things are at the heart of great golf architecture, but they're not seen regularly enough and rarely featured more effectively than here.

The opening hole, a slightly uphill mid-length par four, provides a great introduction to how well Peninsula's bunkers are tied in to the natural vegetation, while the rise in elevation is well camouflaged on the approach shot to a slightly domed green.

After another well-hidden rise at the par three 2nd comes the first real test of bravery (or restraint!) at the short par five 3rd, a drive over a smartly-placed fairway bunker brings the green into range with the second shot, a crack at the green that leaks right almost certainly taking birdie away if the pin is within the well-contoured front section of the green.

The 4th green is a fantastic L-shaped effort, calling for precision from the mid to short iron approach, with run-offs both long and right.

Completing the wonderful opening stretch are another par 4.5 hole tempting you to drive over a sculpted fairway bunker for a shot at the green from the valley fairway and a short par four with a diagonal centreline bunker running a great distance up the fairway, which sets up any manner of approaches to the blind green atop the hill depending on the wind and the player's preferences.

Six holes in, you can't help but be impressed, not just by the number of sublime shots on offer, but by the myriad ways most of the holes could be played depending on wind, pin positions and how well you're striking it on the day.

Further to that - and I was to discover in subsequent days that this is a hallmark of the Sandbelt - I could imagine my 76-year-old 38-handicap grandmother being able to easily navigate her way around without feeling overwhelmed, while my single-figure handicap game was feeling well and truly tested.

Again, it's something taked about regularly but seen on the ground all too infrequently.

While the holes from the 7th to the 11th may not assert themselves as among the best handful on the course, they are a great example of how well low-profile and bold design are each well-utilised in the right place, often depending on the nature of the land.

Subtle bunkering at the flat ground 9th and 10th holes is combined well with greens that play tougher than they look, and the fairway bunkering on the 8th hole - on choice terrain - displaying more panache reminiscent of the holes on the opening stretch. The 7th green's bunkering is also a highlight for the way it eats into the putting surface.

The 12th - a driver, mid-iron two-shotter - was perhaps my favourite on the course. The tee shot to a hogsback fairway where the point at which the ball will roll away is well-disguised to create indecision. The green is flanked by deep bunkering, demanding that the vagueries of the inevitable sidehill lie are handled without error.

Next comes a short par four in the same league as the 6th - the two of them setting a high standard for the rest of the Sandbelt to match (and of course I was to learn that Melbourne is a hotbed of great 270-300m holes). The green is a toned-down version of my beloved 6th at Deal, the recovery shots demanding deft touch, but allowing any number of approaches, from the putter to the lob wedge.

The final two par threes (14th and 16th) each utilise false fronts and ample bunkering, but set up in different ways to ensure there is no feeling of repetition.

Following each of those mid-iron holes are lengthy par fives, adding some balance to the course following shorter holes of the same par on the front. The 15th is probably the better of the two, despite a flanking creek not playing a great role in the strategy of the hole.

The home hole is an attractive sharp dogleg left that climbs significantly on the drive, acres of room to the right for the player who - as he has had the choice to do all the way around - wishes to avoid the hazard.

On a mixture of ideal land and some flatter areas, Peninsula (North) does well to provide masses of variety, the different character of the land creating an ebb and flow that mixes drama with subtlety.

I could play Peninsula (North) for the rest of my life and be absolutely content. When it comes down to it, that's as high a compliment as any course coud wish for.

Hamilton Island

2011-02-11T21:44:00.048+11:00

The opening tee shot. While the fairway and greenside bunkers are both down the right, there's an interesting "pick your poison" situation where a drive over the sand finds flat ground, while a safe shot to the left will mean a hanging lie towards the greenside bunkers. The green sets the tone by having more movement than it appears

The 5th is a short par five with some well-placed cross bunkers in the lay-up zone and the green tucked in to the left, a bunker defending it from the layup area but leaving it open to the bold player who goes for it over the scrub

The enormous routing compromise that created the cart ride that sees you double back after playing the 15th is almost worth the value of this gorgeous par four played down a spit of land with 270 degree views of the coral-laced waters. As with the 1st, the bunkering makes more sense in practice than it appears to on a graphic, the green feeding from short left, a hill on the left 100m short making the right the favoured side from which to attack, while the fairway has ample width both short and long of the fairway bunker

The par three 16th drops downhill to a green that tilts steeply back towards the tee

For sheer design, the 17th might be my favourite hole on the course. The drive asks you to hug the LHS bunkers for a clear path to, and slight view of, the dell green, with a running approach a definite option. A drive down the right creates an uncomfortable second that must either carry a lot of scrub to an entirely blind target, or be cut in

Course name: Hamilton Island
Location: Dent Island, Queensland (next to Hamilton Island)
Four Word Course Review: Compromised routing maximises views

Hamilton Island and other Whitsunday islands have long been a popular holiday destination, but the region has always been short on golf, with only the basic nine-holer on Lindeman Island and Laguna Quays on the mainland, so the arrival of HIGC was eagerly awaited.

The course has been routed to take advantage of what are some sensational views - as good as anything I've seen anywhere on the planet - but the pursuit of views created some awkwardness with the routing, which is unwalkable, largely for the long distances between holes: driving back the length of the par four 15th after playing it to get to the 16th, a long uphill journey from the 10th to the 11th, driving past the 14th green on the way to the tee and a 5min drive through bush between the 17th and 18th holes.

That said, the moments that are created through some of those compromises are wonderful, though the length of the drive to the 18th robbed me of any desire to play the hole, I just felt done for some reason.

Perhaps surprisingly for a resort course that many are likely to only play once or twice, there are quite a few blind shots - most coupled with generous width, which is necessary due to the fact anything even a foot off the cut surface is likely to be lost.

Like Riverside Oaks (on Sydney's outskirts), the course handles some extreme elevation changes by climbing significant hills on the approaches, with greens set into the hill, the putting surface not visible from the driving zone.

There is some bunkering that feels like perhaps it was placed more to maximise aesthetics rather than create options, but there's some really nice shapes short of the greens to allow the creative player to bounce a ball in and avoid the sand. The fairways are also highly contoured - lots of big shapes rather than over-the-top micro undulations - I'd say in large part to manage the massive rainfall during the summer wet season.

The greens themselves have more action in them than they appear to in many instances - enough movement to make putting interesting, but sedate enough that they would remain playable in high winds.

All in all, this isn't classic golf, but it certainly isn't trying to be, so I am hesitant to criticise it for not being so. For holiday golf, it hits a lot of high notes and still presents a bunch of really interesting shots, and were you lucky enough to live in the area and play it a lot, I think there is a lot to be learned from repeat play, especially on the more reachable three-shotters.

For someone in the area for some R&R, it is worth playing ($150 inc. cart and ferry transfer).

The Australian

2011-01-27T22:45:00.007+11:00

The par three 2nd features maybe the wildest green on the course, and an exposed tee where the prevailing north easterly is behind you from the right

Viewed from behind the green, the 340-odd metre dogleg left 3rd would be a better hole were the trees on the inside of the corner removed and replaced by bunkers, allowing the better player to flirt with danger for a shorter approach that didn't have to carry the water

Unnatural shaping behind and left of the 6th green detracts from what is an enjoyable approach shot

A grass bunker at the front right of the 10th green is a nice substitute for the ubiquitous sand

The 12th hole is a good example of the "no room for error" theme of The Australian

The long one-shot 15th, which benefited from some short grass around the green

Course name: The Australian
Location: Sydney, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Maths test on grass

"So what's the line here?," I asked my playing partner as I surveyed the opening tee shot of the day. "Straight down the middle is good," he replied.

Five minutes later we're in the fairway and I'm shaping up my approach. "Bunkers both sides of the green?"

"Yep."

It was a discussion that we repeated over every tee shot and approach for a few holes before I got the message: Hit it straight and long off the tee, and if you miss a green, grab your sand wedge (if it isn't on the beach, it will be in two-inch rough).

The Australian is not a great golf course, but there is no question it is a great club, and does what it aims to without equal. Everything is prepared and maintained at the highest standard, the facilities are the equal of any other and the feeling of seclusion is remarkable, given six lanes of Southern Cross Drive flank the 9th and 14th holes and perhaps a hundred thousand people live within a Jack Nicklaus drive and five iron of the property boundaries.

It was Nicklaus in the 1970s who created the course as we know it today. The legendary Kerry Packer, a member at The Aussie, decided he would turn the Australian Open into one of professional golf's biggest events and that Nicklaus - in his prime and well on the way to 18 majors - was the man to redesign the dunesland course at which the tournament would be held (despite being a golf course design novice at the time).

The resulting course is one that you might expect the world's greatest golfer, at the height of his powers, devoid of much design experience, to create when charged with the job of building a tournament course.

Respite is rare, and even the shorter par fours (the 4th and 13th are the only two under 370m these days from the blue tees, which I am told is largely the positioning of the original back tees - about 6500m or 7150 yards) present significant challenge. The opening hole aside, the three-shotters will require three shots for most golfers and the par threes are all flanked both sides by hazards. The greens mostly feature subtle slopes, a must when the greens are set up to run attournament speeds.

One tremendous issue is the over the top containment mounding that flanks many holes, at odds with any shape nature might create as well as with the minimal undulation of the playing surfaces... in short just very much at odds with everything around it and as unsightly a ground feature as I've seen on a golf course.

There is a test at every turn, but that's not to say there aren't some great golf shots (and despite the jokes, not everything requires a fade!). The par three 2nd is eye-catching and also presents a wicked green and exposure to the wind, while the one-shot 5th has a smart angled green that tilts towards the water on its right - making a recovery from the left a nerve-wracking one. The 6th is a fun par four with a blind drive, but there's no risk to be flirted with on the left, which offers the prime line into the green.

On the back, the approach to the benched 12th green is fun, but it would be much more interesting were the bank on its right shaved down to provide an alternate method of approach for shorter hitters or in high wind. The par three 15th for mine was one of the better holes on the course, echoing the fantastic 13th at Worplesdon in London - though this hole far less beautiful - with the sand dominating the eye and the long green requiring precise distance control. At the next hole, an approach to the great green complex is far easier from the left, so why is the drive bunkered down the right?

Almost predictably, the final two greens are nestled against lakes, but at the final hole that feature is well paired with the "par 4.5" length that means better players can drive within range of the green, but may still be best served by laying up.

Variety being the spice of life, there's absolutely a place for a course like The Australian. If courses like The Valley Club, The Old Course or New South Wales are akin to a creative writing assignment, where parameters are few and creativity is a must, then this is a maths test, with set questions that have definite answers and where a mistake on the first part of a question can leave you with no chance to get the second or third parts correct.

That said, more short grass around the greens would allow better players to use their range of recovery skills and seperate themselves further from the pack, and where only one side of the fairway is bunkered, it really ought to be done with consideration to the most favourable approach to the green.

There's talk that The Australian is about to have some changes made to the course as many around it have either recently undergone or are set to undergo improvements. While some long for a return to the native dunesland aesthetic, there is ample potential even if the skeleton of the current course remains.

New South Wales

2011-01-13T10:25:00.003+11:00

The skyline 3rd green provides the first real thrill of the round, as well as the first breathtaking view of the Pacific

The all-world approach to the 5th - a combination of setting and architecture that are both first-class

The par three 6th: Aesthetically, it could be better. As a golf shot, it's wonderful. A cut needs to fly all the way there, but a narrow avenue short right, adjoining the fronting grass bunker, allows a draw to run onto the green

The 7th green, set naturally into a dune, has the wildest contours on the course, complete with a fantastic false front

The 9th green sits as softly and naturally on the land as any green in golf

The removal of a tree down the left of the 10th has made a world of difference, with the left side now worth challenging off the tee for the premium line to the green

A slight upslope just short of the 13th green makes the target even more difficult to find - a shot must be hit deliberately to run on or it will be stopped dead in its tracks

Finding the fairway at the terrifying 15th is far easier if you can hit a draw

Course name: New South Wales
Location: Sydney, Australia
Four Word Course Review: A beautiful, charming monster

New South Wales was a course that I fell in love with during my teens and early 20s - Sydney's only world class course (at the time - I hear Mike Clayton's new course at The Lakes is in the discussion) and one I was fortunate to play once or twice each year.

Then I went overseas and saw so many great courses that often in the back of my mind would be: "what if I get home and NSW doesn't live up to what I thought it was?".

Today I got the chance to look at it for the first time with some perspective on board and the result was the opposite: I have an even greater affection and respect for it than ever before.

It posesses more "weak" holes than many other courses I'd rate alongside it - the new 18th built in 2008 by Greg Norman's design firm is far poorer in my view than the hole it replaced and out of character with the rest of the course, the 2nd green complex is inappropriate for a hole of 185m on a windy site, the 12th is perhaps a bit too similar to the 5th/8th (5th with wind assisting, 8th with wind hurting) in shot requirement but weaker than both and the drives on 13 and 16 are not all that engaging...

BUT

By the same token it boasts more thrilling shots than many courses of its ilk. The 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th holes all present shots as engaging and exciting as any course I have played. Just as noteworthy are the 4th, 8th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 17th.

The tee shot on the 3rd has recently seen some clearing on the ridge 50m in front of the tee. Love it or hate it, you can't say this isn't memorable, and the approach shot is one of the best anywhere.

The course is also extremely elastic, with the shifting wind directions all accommodated thanks to the ample width present. That being so, many of the longer holes could perhaps use a bit more interest on the drive in the form of the waste bunkers that have begun to be utilised around the course.

It would be nice in a few instances (3, 13, 16) to have something a bit less fatal than the native vegetation flanking the fairways to challenge with your drive. And while I enjoy a course having restraint when it comes to fairway bunkering, there aren't the natural features in a couple of spots to render a bunker as unnecessary in those spots.

The waste areas on 4, 9, 10 and 12 add greatly to the course and as fairway hazards offer a greater chance to advance the ball or even go for the green than pot bunkers, which feature in the 1st, 10th and 18th holes - though there is a plan to remove the LHS fairway bunker on the 10th and replace that area with waste, which will tie into the waste on the LHS of the 9th. The waste areas are also a welcome addition aesthetically.

Great golf courses need memorable shots, variety (even within the one hole), challenge (that isn't always built on length) and fun. NSWGC has them all in spades.

The more great courses I saw overseas I began to doubt - relying on memory - that NSWGC deserved to be spoken about alongside the Royal St Georges, Walton Heaths and North Berwicks of the world, but having revisited it, I'm more certain than ever that it belongs.

Bayview

2010-12-22T17:29:00.000+11:00

The par three 8th is one of only a few highlights at Bayview

Course name: Bayview
Location: Sydney, Australia
Four Word Course Review: Typical Sydney golf course

Bayview is at the far north of Sydney's Northern Beaches, a humble course on a tight parcel of land.

In short, it's a pretty typical example of suburban Sydney golf - not enough land, too many trees, a few standout holes but not enough that you'd recommend it.

Having baulked at the quotes from professional architects to redesign the course, the Bayview board is now doing the work in house. Well may you flinch, because the new 18th is a head-shaker of the highest order. Brings to mind Alister MacKenzie's line about the money spent getting professional advice being much less than the money lost by proceeding without it.

On the upside, the short par three 8th is a highlight, with a massive green that slopes toward the tee at the front and away at the back, the two sections separated by a sharpish ridge.

Likewise, the par five 14th is a fun, short double dogleg to a low profile green guarded smartly by sand. Getting home in two will be possible for many, but the skill required to confidently hit the green from any distance is beyond the reach of most.

Monterey Peninsula (Dunes)

2010-10-29T14:30:00.000+11:00

The swale in the 4th green is shallower and wider than other Biarritz greens, allowing the pin to be cut in the trench

The Eden 7th, offering a glimpse of the sea through the canopy, which has been trimmed in recent years

The 9th green is smack bang in the middle of the dunesland section of the course

The 10th is about as picturesque as a golf hole can be, and played in a stiff cross-wind that green seems a lot smaller than it looks!

Looking back down the 11th, with the tee shot played from near the right of the picture

The pin on the amazing par three 14th is just visible over the right-hand-side bunker, with plenty of room out to the left

Cutting the corner on the dogleg left 15th brings the wraparound bunker into play

Course name: Monterey Peninsula (Dunes)
Location: Monterey, California
Four Word Course Review: Proof of Monterey's depth

After playing Hankley Common on London's heathlands earlier this year, I commented that the best golf regions perhaps identified themselves not by their strongest courses, but by those that got little to no attention.

The quality of the unheralded - in relation to its neighbours - Monterey Pensinsula Country Club Dunes course is all the proof you need that Monterey is up there with the best golf areas in the world (now there's a newsflash!).

The par threes and fives stand out most in my memory as being the leading lights, but the two-shotters that connect them are of such a consistent standard that the course never looks like losing your interest. Add to that the great year-round weather, breathtaking views and the sight, sound and smell of the ocean and you have the ideal golfing package.

Given the club's other course is named the Shore, you might think seaside golf was not on the menu while playing The Dunes, but the routing makes full use of the site's varied terrain and vegetation, including the thrilling seaside land on both sides of 17-Mile Drive.

The routing is essentially one long, narrow loop. The opening three holes run inland, the million-dollar homes that flank the fairways well hidden behind cypress and pine, before the first pointer to the course's Seth Raynor heritage - a Biarritz hole that plays slightly downhill. The green was in fact flattened during the ravages of time and replaced by Rees Jones during his renovation of the course.

Still cutting through cypress and pine, the course now turns for the sea, a nice combo of short and long par fours moving you over interesting terrain as you head back towards the still unsighted ocean.

Behind the 6th green is a Raynor trademark, the steep 15ft drop into a trench bunker, from the bottom of which I can't imagine many pars have been made!

The opening stretch provides steady golf, but few absolute thrills. That all changes when you walk onto the tee of the 7th, an Eden par three that provides a tantalising view of the seaside through the thinned canopy behind the green.

On the back of that great par three you then continue the excitement with a fun downhill par four to a green set beyond a stream, a wonderful short par five over land that transitions from forest to dunes - the fairway flanked by white sand - and then an exciting pat three played downhill with a panoramic view over the coastline and golf courses stretching left and right.

The course takes a couple of turns inland between the 11th and 16th holes, but for the most part sticks close to the shore, the high point being the 14th and 15th holes. The one-shot 14th sits across 17-Mile drive, the tee and green both a matter of feet from the ocean, with a rocky inlet separating them. I encountered it with a stiff wind in my face and needed a four wood to get pin high. As far as golfing thrills in million-dollar settings, that's about as good as I have experienced.

Then it's back across the road for the long par five 15th, a simple design that's made by the low key greensite. With the par fives that have come before being on the short side, this one is as muscular as you could hope for

After a couple more smart par fours at 16 and 17, it's time to head back away from the ocean for the par five finishing hole, which concludes at an eye-catching green perfect for a reachable par five.

The transitioning scenery and terrain passes smoothly on the Dunes course, with relentlessly fun golf to be had all the way around.

Of particular enjoyment among the shots I haven't mentioned yet are the diagonal drive over sandy waste at the par four 11th, the approach to the seaside 13th green and the tempting drive at the dogleg 16th.

The Valley Club of Montecito

2010-10-28T09:54:00.018+11:00

Greenskeepers tend to the 18th green as first light peaks over the water, with the practice range to the right. Could there be anywhere more serene on Earth to greet the sunrise while hitting a bucket of balls?

Approaching the short par four 6th is all about angles

Calling only for a mid or short-iron, the par three 8th was my favourite of the one-shot holes

The par three 11th is the last of three one-shotters that plays from the same small hill

The par four 12th is one of the less lauded holes on the course, but it was a favourite of mine with it's natural, low-key greensite

Beauty comes in threes: the 15th green, the clubhouse and the San Ysidro mountains

Course name: The Valley Club of Montecito
Location: Montecito (Santa Barbara), California
Four Word Course Review: The perfect members' club

The Valley Club's great putting surfaces are apparent the second you step out of your car - the drama of the 15th and 18th greens at the foot of the clubhouse drawing the eye almost as strongly as the long view down over the closing holes to the Pacific Ocean beyond.

The beauty is quintessential MacKenzie and the course seems to display perfectly the ideals of golf design he spoke about during his lifetime and packed into the likes of Augusta National, Cypress Point, Royal Melbourne and Alwoodley.

Not overly long, plenty wide, very little water... it would seem at first glance that The Valley Club (as with many of the courses named above) is a relaxing doddle that might yield a career score: then you get to the greens.

While the 15th and 18th here are your first look at what awaits with the flatstick in hand, they are not really representative of what you'll find on the course. Subtlety is largely the order of the day, with slight slopes at the 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th and 13th demanding precise green-reading skills if you want that lengthy putt to finish anywhere near the hole.

Many times on sections of green that looked flat, I watched balls roll... and roll... and roll... until that two-putt was a mere dream or, even more embarrassingly, the golfer was swapping his putter for a wedge to play the next shot!

That subtlety in the greens that were rebuilt in 2007 by Jim Urbina is the crucial aspect of scoring. Being on the right side of the hole is crucial and so, working backwards, you realise that wide expanse of short grass you were gazing at off the tee was hiding one or two enviable approach angles among others that were a slow track to a certain bogey.

This is a course that will roll over and let a player in form scratch its belly - I managed to get from the 8th tee to the 16th tee in three-under - but also one that penalises poor planning just as much as poor shotmaking (five bogeys from the 2nd to the 7th!). In short, it's thrilling golf where anything can happen from one hole to the next.

The short par four 6th is a case in point, with acres of short grass in which to hit an iron and earn a good angle in, but such modest length that a driver is almost too tempting, despite the fact the bad angles get progressively worse the closer you get to the green. The green itself, as much as the surrounding bunkering, dominates that strategy.

Likewise, at the short par five 2nd it's easy to become pre-occupied with getting a short birdie putt and miss the fact that any ball left above the hole (especially to a front or middle pin) could easily be putted right back down to the fairway.

But of course a round of golf is a journey, and no golf course has been a more joyful one for me than The Valley Club thanks to a routing that moves more or less out-and-back, but makes great use of a hill on the eastern parcel from which you play on three of the four par threes - the 4th, 8th and 11th: each posing a different shotmaking challenge as they head off from the central hub.

For mine the best of the one-shotters is the 8th, played a cross a valley to a benched green set at an angle and defended short by a handful of the gorgeous bunkers that help to set the mood of the course. It's only a mid-iron, but it, like many holes on the course, plays much harder than it looks.

The par fives won't scare you when you look at their lengths on the scorecard, but the greens at the 2nd and 15th, recovery shots at the 1st and sidehill drive that feeds into a creek at the 10th all demand precision and careful planning.

The high handicapper need never feel overwhelmed or out of his depth at The Valley Club, but the better player will find all the challenge he could ever need. As far as a template for the perfect members' club, MacKenzie's Montecito masterpiece may well be it!

Riviera

2010-10-25T09:26:00.002+11:00

The first green and its fronting bunker give you a good idea of the challenge to follow

The brilliant Redan 4th is one of those holes you could play repeatedly all day long without tiring of the fun or the challenge

The approach to the 5th, with the hook lie forcing you to interact with the RHS mound, is one of the most enjoyable on the course

The iconic 6th, with its green-centre bunker - the shaping of the green ensures there is nowhere on the green that doesn't offer the chance to lag the ball near the hole

Overlooking the tricky, two-tiered 9th green is the sprawling clubhouse

For years I have fantasised about playing the 10th hole, a par four of just 315 yards that is made by the angles created by the bunkering and green orientation... the reality was even more thrilling than I imagined

The 15th green appears to have been inspired by the Biarritz concept, creating a tough second shot

At a modest length and with the small green ringed by sand, the 16th comes at the perfect point of an important round or a do-or-die match

Approaching the 18th green is one of those moments you will remember forever

Course name: Riviera

Location: Pacific Palisades, California
Four Word Course Review: Bunkering and routing masterclass

It's amazing, looking at Riviera today, to consider that George Thomas had to be convinced to take on the job of designing the course. With little in the way of natural land movement to utilise, Thomas and construction/bunkering supremo Billy Bell had to construct most of the features that make the course so fascinating, while routing the holes to make the best use of the natural barranca that weaves through the site.

The result is a masterpiece of variety, challenge and brilliant design - testing every aspect of your game and calling for the ball to move both ways off the tee, for approaches to be placed smartly on the greens and for recovery play to be precise.

Of course it was a dream come true to hit a drive from the elevated 1st tee and then play the likes of the Redan 4th, the par three 6th with its green-centre bunker, twin fairway 8th, "Rubix Cube" 10th and the iconic finishing hole, but lately I have been thinking that the very best courses identify themselves not by their best holes, but by their weakest. Of course when it comes to the best of the best, "weakest" is relative!

At Riviera, I didn't feel there was a single hole that let down those around it. If forced to select the two weakest holes I might opt for the 3rd and 14th, but both are still well worthy of praise, especially on the flat ground they occupy.

The holes of each par complement each other well. The par fours are generally on the long side, but the shot demands are rarely repetitive - especially from the tee - while the par fives demand that all three shots (few mortals will reach any of them in two) are placed with the following shot in mind.

The four one-shotters call for very different approaaches and for me required a four wood, six iron, four iron and seven iron from the back tees. Ben Hogan called the Redan 4th "the greatest par three hole in America" and it's hard to argue with his choice of a hole that offers options galore to get past an enormous front bunker.

The 4th is characteristic of Riviera in two ways:

First, the bunkering is BOLD (the capital letters seem necessary), with the likes of the greenfront bunker at the 1st, fairway bunker at the 7th, cross bunker at the 10th, fairway and greenfront bunkers at the 15th and circling bunkers around the 16th green joining the front bunker on the 4th in dominating both the strategy and visuals of the holes.

Second, it takes a well-known template hole and adds a healthy dose of interpretation to create something unique (as well as the Redan 4th, is that not an Alps mound on the 5th? The 13th, before addition of trees inside the dogleg, was a Cape, the 14th doesn't look unlike a Macdonald/Raynor Eden hole and the 15th features a rotated and elongated Biarritz green).

Aside from the masterful bunkering (and although the aesthetics have changed under Tom Fazio's recent stewardship, the placement, I am informed, stays very much true to Thomas and Bell's original creation) the barranca is the major hazard to be avoided. It is employed many ways, crossing the 1st and 11th holes - both par fives - to threaten the second shot, hugging the front of the green at the par four 12th, flanking the 7th and 13th and splitting the 8th hole's two fairways to force a significant choice on the tee. I found the grass in the barranca long enough to swallow a ball, making it a true hazard in the absence of water.

The 10th was the first hole I saw as the sun rose before my round, and as I walked to the 3rd tee there it was right before me (it was hard not to immmediately turn left at that stage), so when the time came to play the hole, I was beside myself with excitement. Thankfully, I managed a straight drive over the left side of the cross bunker and a sand wedge to within eight feet of the front pin before I two putted for a satisfying par that made sure my memories of one of the best three holes I have ever seen will be sweet.

Playing the hole, it was sensational to see its angles, bunkers and slopes with my own eyes and imagine how I might attack different pins. Riviera's members are indeed fortunate to have the chance to know that hole intimately.

The other major eye-opener was the 6th green, its central bunker surrounded by sections of green that are connected by steep slopes allowing a ball to be putted or chipped around the unconventional hazard to any other part of the green. My weak approach left a chip from the front right fringe to a back left pin and there were three or four ways of playing the shot to get around (or over) the bunker, which was directly between me and the hole.

Add to all of that great golf the beautiful hilltop clubhouse overlooking the course, the impeccable conditioning, Los Angeles' glorious weather and you have the complete package.

For this Australian, it was also special to play the course over which Steve Elkington won the 1995 PGA Championship and Adam Scott and Robert Allenby have won the LA Open in the current decade. Not to mention it being the course that brought Ben Hogan his first US Open in 1948 and was the site of Tiger Woods' first Tour event aged 16.

Having spent my teens and twenties dreaming of playing Riviera, I can now spend my coming years remembering how the course and club exceeded my every hope and expectation and taught me just what is possible on a flat site with the right men steering the ship.

Fishers Island

2010-10-16T09:05:00.002+11:00

Looking back to the tee from behind the awe-inspiring par four 4th, the ridge in the green ensuring the fun isn't over when you reach the putting surface

The Biarritz 5th is almost certainly the most difficult par three I have ever played, as well as being one of the most attractive

The 8th is a par five with a Road Hole green, which rewards a drive that flirts with the coastline

Walking over the crest of the 9th fairway and seeing this vista caused me to laugh and shake my head in disbelief: "How did I get here?!" That moment summed up the dream I felt I was in for much of my day on Fishers Island

The 11th hole plays to a green that is deceptively steep from back to front. This hole is a perfect example of the sensory overload that Fishers Island presents, making it hard to concentrate on playing your best golf

The approach to the 12th was one of the most fun shots on a course full of them. With the pin cut to the right it was a challenge to use the left-hand kickpad to access the hole, but not so much that the ball built up enough speed that it ran off the right-hand side of the green

The 18th will vary between being a two- and three-shotter depending on the wind and ground conditions. From 220 yards out the decision to go for the green is a difficult one to make, especially to a left-hand pin tucked behind the bunker and surrounded by steep slopes

Course name: Fishers Island
Location: Fishers Island, New York
Four Word Course Review: Coastline isn't mere eye-candy

Perhaps more than any other golf course, Fishers Island is about the experience: the ferry ride to the island, the breathtaking views from every hole, the mansions dotted around the course and - most importantly - an unbelievably memorable, challenging and interesting golf course.

The course starts with a relatively straightforward downhill par four that introduces you at the green to the vicious, deep bunkers you'll do well to avoid all day. The opening hole is also devoid of fairway bunkers, another feature of the course with just the one cross bunker at the 9th to be encountered off the tee. Instead, driving the ball into the best positions is about using the slopes of the land and driving as close as you dare to the coastline that flanks many of the holes and the ponds on the 7th and 14th.

The bold greenside bunkering sets up advantageous angles into the greens, with an increasingly stern test if you stray out of position at the buisness end of the holes.

But imagination is rewarded as well, with many greens featuring slopes that will help access pins from unenviable parts of the course. Of particular note, the 2nd, 9th, 12th, 15th and 18th greens have strong internal slopes and backboards off which to move the ball.

The dream stretch that gets the most attention is from the 3rd to the 5th, where the course first hugs the coastline, which is well utilised in the design. The first in the trio is Plateau, a 335-yard journey up a steady slope to a skyline green. Next up is the Alps/Punchbowl par four that offers a tantalising glimpse of the flag from the tee as it kinks to the right with the curve of the coast. The view from 80 yards short of the green is as good as it gets in golf.

The last of the three is Biarritz. Bunkered ferociously, it's perhaps the toughest par three I have encountered. We played it from the black tee at about 225 yards as well as the original back tee (now the blue tee) at 207 yards and from either it was a monster hole offering nowhere to miss other than short and straight, and even then the putt or chip through the swale at the front of the green (short of the swale is maintained as fairway, not green as with some other Biarritz holes) is a challenge in itself.

It's a remarkable stretch of golf, where great design comes together with perfect golfing terrain and views to die for, but for mine some even better golf was still to come.

The 6th through 8th holes keep the quality high, though not matching the drama of the previous three, before a second stretch of all-world golf from the 9th to 12th.

The blind drive at the 9th makes way for a thrilling approach to the seaside Double Plateau green, before the Knoll 10th presents maybe the toughest par on the course (a big effort following the Biarritz!), the fortress green sits up high and falls away on all sides, and if that's not enough a valley running towards the tee down the middle of the green means even once you're on in regulation a par is no sure thing.

The Eden 11th may not bear a lot of resemblance to the 11th at The Old Course, but it is equally as majestic as its namesake and quite possibly even more difficult. To my mind, the general properties and strategies of the template holes Macdonald, Raynor and Banks copied are what matters - they are inspired by the originals, not straight-up blueprint copies. The original Redan may not play over the edge of a lake, for instance, but that doesn't make Fishers Island's Redan a lesser hole for doing so.

The last hole in the series is Winthrop - a 389-yard par four through a rolling saddle fairway to a reverse-Redan green featuring as bold a kickpad as I have ever seen at its front left.

Perhaps the golf then falls down a notch from 13 to 17, though I really enjoyed 15 (Long) and 16 (Short) - both boasting interesting greens, but the 452-yard home hole - named Home - is a worthy end to such a magical course.

The drive presents a heroic diagonal carry over water, with a strong strike down the right both shortening the approach and offering the best angle in to a green bunkered front left and with a lower portion behind the sand that can be accessed using the contours of the putting surface. Played as a three-shotter, it's all about positioning your second depending on the pin placement.

Playing slightly uphill, it's a hole where the score you hope to make will change with the direction of the wind and the firmness of the ground, though even after heavy rain I found the course playing firm and rolling out well. Perhaps a hint as to why lies in the absence of fairway watering and the extremely sandy soil that came out on my pitchmark repairer and revealed itself when I took divots.

While I am definitely one who cares first and foremost how good the golf holes are, you cannot deny that Fishers Island Club's setting adds greatly to the golf course. That wouldn't matter if the holes were poor, but even with a couple of lesser holes on the back nine this is one of the greatest golf courses it has been my privelege to have played.

Despite chilly temperatures and high winds, it's hard to think of a more idyllic day's golf than 36 holes at Fishers Island as the only fourball on the course.

Pine Valley

2010-10-12T00:00:00.003+11:00

A series of waves that makes for some tough putts on the 2nd

The fearsome 5th plays at about 220 yards for members and alongside the similar 13th at The Addington is perhaps the best long par three I have ever played

Hell's Half-Acre dominates the 7th hole, playing on your mind until you have crossed it with your second shot

Approaching the 8th hole's diabolical twin greens

It's hard to overlook the par three 10th when selecting a favourite hole, but in reality about 10 or 12 holes were my favourite!

Playing the 13th was a dream come true, having first seen the hole in a book of the world's best courses at my grandparents' house when I was a child

Looking up the 15th fairway and across to the 16th green

The 18th hole: almost at the end of an indescribable experience

Course name: Pine Valley
Location: Clementon, New Jersey, USA
Four Word Course Review: 18 magnificent golf holes

From the moment I was invited to play Pine Valley, I started to dream about it: driving down the secluded road, seeing the front gate, walking onto the 1st tee, trying not to fan one right on the 5th, flying Hell's Half-Acre, dodging the Devil's Asshole, drawing one into the 13th, tensing up on the 15th... that is a lot of dreaming!

So it's saying a lot that the reality is even better, significantly better, than I had imagined it would be. The magic of a day at Pine Valley can't be described, but I'll still try!

Spotting the amusement park on Berlin Road, a massive smile arrived on my face. As I spied the first green through the trees beside East Atlantic Avenue, I nearly drove off the road. Crossing the railway line and seeing the club logo at the gate, my heart hit 200bpm. It didn't seem to slow down all day and that smile never did go away.

First stop was some breakfast in the clubhouse, which reminded me of my grandparents' home: remarkably comfortable but not the least bit pretentious, great food, a warm welcome. Everything a great club should be.

Next stop, the range. Double-ended, distances measured to all eight to 10 flags from every bay, short game area nearby. I am not a practice range guy, a lot of the time I don't even bother with a practice putt, but if all ranges were this good I'd put in half an hour before every round.

But of course it's really all about the course, which is where Pine Valley really put itself ahead of everything else I have played. There isn't a single hole that comes close to being weak. And further, the holes gel together perfectly to create a cohesive course.

The corridors are very wide and the carries over sandy waste area are really quite short, meaning the visual intimidation is far greater than the reality of the shots you face. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of playing Pine Valley was the sensory overload. There is just so much to look at regardless of where you are on the course that it is hard to maintain concentration. I have never seen, for want of a better term, so much architecture on the ground - so many features that can come into play and that draw your eye and your mind to them.

The first four-hole loop may not feature any of the most famous holes on the course, but it introduces you to what is great about Pine Valley. The drives don't demand too much of you, but it's essential to put the ball in very specific places to allow the flag to be attacked, staying midful of the least damaging places to miss (usually short). The greens are bold and unique. Not one green at Pine Valley is forgettable, nor could any green be mistaken for another. The steep terrain is utilised perfectly.

It's hard to believe as you walk off the 4th green that the course is about to step up a notch, but it immediately does, with the long par three 5th justifiably one of the most famous holes in golf, playing uphill to a benched green with nothing good on offer if you miss the steep green to the right (nothing good happens if you miss most of the fairways or greens anywhere, to be fair!).

With only two par fives on the course, I love that both are genuine three-shotters. The 7th has only been reached and held in two shots once in almost 100 years thanks to its length and the fearsome Hell's Half-Acre that looms about 300 yards from the tee. The 15th, meanwhile, required a driver and two hybrid shots for me to get pin high - 570 yards climbing uphill and tightening towards the green. Again, the two holes are completely unlike one another, something George Crump achieved across the board even on holes of similar length or on similar land.

The 8th is just a tick over 300 yards, but may be one of the toughest pars on the course due to its blind drive that will likely leave a downhill lie approaching a tiny, two tiered green surrounded by sand (the hole has two greens, adjacent to each other and both very similar in size and design). I have heard of top amateaurs making both 2 and 11 on the hole, and if scoring spread is any indication of quality, it doesn't get better than that!

The 9th is a more muscular par four also featuring two greens that takes you to one of the course's most famous holes, the short 10th with its legendary Devil's Asshole bunker short of the green - deeper than it is wide! Any miss is punished by the many bunkers that ring the green, but I have never seen anything as fearsome on a golf course as "the DA".

The back nine keeps the pace going with the often overlooked but brilliant par four 11th playing through a valley to an amphitheatre green, before another par four at the 12th that although short packs a punch due to its tricky green.

The 13th might sum up Pine Valley perfectly. There are safe options on every shot, but the green, following a good drive, sits tantalisingly in a sea of sand, demanding a long hook and refusing to be ignored. To play to the right, pitch on and two-putt secures an easy five, but the lure of a birdie or par is just so great that I am sure very few players take that route when in range of the green.

Some choose the drop shot 14th hole as the weakest at Pine Valley, but I for one really liked it. The final par three, it completes a set of one shot holes that have remarkable variety in length, terrain and shotmaking challenge.

Following the ball breaking 15th is another unsung hero of Pine Valley, the 16th. Like the 6th, a sandy waste creates a diagonal driving hazard, with the approach shorter and the angle better the further right you aim, lengthening the carry. If you steer one left, your approach is directly towards the flanking lake, which you have just driven over at the 15th.

With two holes to go, Pine Valley throws up a fourth short par four, ostensibly a huge birdie chance close to home. But as with all of the holes here that are short for their par, the challenge is far greater than the length suggests, with the approach played blind to a green set atop a hill and guarded on all sides by bunkers. The surface itself is steep and fast, making that birdie less likely again.

And so, well before you'd like, you're standing on the 18th tee, looking at one of the best vistas on a course filled with them and wishing it wasn't almost over.

The drive is downhill to a wide fairway, setting up a second back uphill ever so slightly to a collecting green fronted by a hillside of sand and a creek. For the width of the drive and friendliness of the green gathering balls that hit its edges, this is one tough hole, calling for a steely nerve as you stand in the fairway most likely holding a mid or long iron.

And just like that you've shaken hands and it's over. Inside to tally up the (surely dispiriting) numbers and enjoy a bowl of the club's signature turtle soup (which tasted surprisingly good!).

If I have never felt so excited driving into a golf course, I had never been so disappointed to be leaving one as I drove back across the home hole and out the gate. Nothing in golf is perfect, but Pine Valley is without doubt as close to perfection as I have ever or, I suspect, am ever likely to see and until I return I will dream of it constantly.

Le Touquet (La Mer)

2010-09-28T08:20:00.000+10:00

The par three 2nd sets a high standard for the one shotters that follow, and they meet the challenge

The approach to the par four 11th must carry these bold bunkers to reach the green, which is hidden behind the fronting dune

The 16th is a prime example of the quality sites Colt chose for his greens at Le Touquet

Looking back down the dramatic par five 17th, which rises steeply near the green

Course name: Le Touquet (La Mer)
Location: Le Touquet Paris-Plage, Normandy, France
Four Word Course Review: Greensites the major attraction

Just 45 miles from Rye, where he started his design career, Harry Colt designed La Mer (The Sea) course on the other side of the English Channel at Le Touquet in 1931 to complement Horace Hutchinson's 1907 course, La Foret (The Forest) in the French resort town.

It's remarkable that the course sits so close to the likes of Rye, Littlestone, Deal and Sandwich, with thick saltscrub vegetation lining the playing corridors completely unlike the English seaside courses, though the terrain is very similar. Just a few miles north, a pine forest abuts the seaside, again completely at odds with the vegetation across the Channel.

As with everything else I have seen by Colt, the par threes are an obvious thing to note first up. Four very good one shotters, and all different from one another. The long 2nd threads between two dunes, the 7th plays slightly uphill to an angled dune, bunkered at the front, the 10th is a mid iron from one dune to another over a valley much like the 5th at Rye and the final short hole, the 15th, is a more subtle hole like Colt's 8th up the coast at Royal Zoute, but calling here for precise play late in the round.

The par fives are relentlessly competant without blowing you away - interesting doglegs and well-defended greens for the most part, with the possible exception the 17th, which stands above the others in the memory by climbing spectacularly over the last 150 yards to a blind green.

Of the par fours, the most notable are the 11th, playing from an elevated tee to a green obscured behind a well-bunkered cross dune, 12th with its bunkerless green slipping off a dune and short 14th, flanked left by a creek before bending to the same side with the green fronted by cross bunkers.

Not surprisingly, many of these better holes named above occupy the most undulating land closest to the seaside, while the likes of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th are furthest inland where the terrain flattens.

Sections of the course were lost during World War 2, with an imposing machine gun placement next to the 13th offering a reminder of that time, though the club says Colt's original layout was reinstated during the 1990s.

At times the course becomes too narrow for the style of golf and the impenitrable vegetation, but largely this is very good coastal golf, particularly the final 10 holes.

Hardelot (Les Pins)

2010-09-28T07:32:00.001+10:00

A long drive will leave a blind second shot from inside 200 metres at the par five 2nd hole

The fearsome drive at the otherwise sedate par four 8th

A diagonal ridge fronts the green of the par three 12th, flowing in fron the front right to the back left

The par five 16th is reachable, but good luck finding a way to access and hold the green with a long club on your second shot

Approaching the home green, with ample undulation beginning about 70 metres out

Course name: Hardelot (Les Pins)
Location: Hardelot-Plage, Normandy, France
Four Word Course Review: Glorious pine golfing cathedral

Les Pins is a 1930s Tom Simpson course at Hardelot, just south of Boulogne near Calais on France's Channel coast.

The great bunker placement and well-chosen greensites that Simpson is known for are present, but several holes are choked by trees, particularly the par three 5th and 17th holes. There's lesser land in the middle of the back nine, but the small amounts of interest in the ground are well used to build excitement - along with some great bunkering and tricky greens.

It's infinitely playable, moreso than London's heathland gems due to the absence of heather, and the undulating sand terrain and towering pines make it a great place to play golf.

It rained Biblically the day before I played, yet at 8am the next moning it was not only dry but very firm under foot. Exceptionally impressive as I had been worried the course might be sluggish, or even worse - closed.

The course opens with a pair of par fives, the 2nd reachable in two, but in driving long enough to have a go, the golfer renders the green blind behind a cavernous bunker, while his more judicious playing partner might hit a shorter tee shot that ensures the entire hole remains visible.

The two front nine par threes, both under 120 metres, are a highlight of the outward half, as are the bunkering at the par five 6th and the nerve-racking semi-blind drive at the short par four 8th, played over two sandy dunes that drop in from either side.

Making the turn, the driveable par four 11th poses a lot of challenge for its modest 280m, while the 12th continues the run of great one-shotters. After a slight lull - puctuated by another quality par three at the 14th, the final two holes raise the quality back to the highs of the early stretches.

All told the course plays to a par of 73, with six par fives and five par threes, leaving just seven par fours, and there's wonderful variety in each group of holes.

90mins or so from Paris, 45mins from Calais, the great resort town of Le Touquet (with its Colt and Hutchinson courses) just 15mins away, €75 midweek summer green fees... there really is no reason for UK golfers to stay on the boring side of the Channel all the time!

Sainte-Agathe

2010-09-23T06:57:00.029+10:00

Sainte-Agathe generally offers basic golf at a low price, but the 2nd hole provides some genuine interest

The par four 7th features a blind drive before this sweeping right-hand turn and a wild green that follows the natural fall of the land

The perplexing artwork that stands outside the clubhouse

Course name: Sainte-Agathe
Location: Neris Les Bains, Auvergne, France
Four Word Course Review: Very basic, tremendously hilly

Golf de Sainte-Agathe is about as unremarkable as golf courses get, but it will always provide me with special memories because it's where I spent my final morning as a single man, playing a quick round with a group of mates before my wedding.

It's located just outside the beautiful Auvergne town of Neris Les Bains, beginning on flat ground before moving on the back nine to the sleep slopes this area of France, known as "des Volcans", is renowned for.

The par four 2nd, with a diagonal creek guarding the green, the clever false front on the elevated 6th green and the sweeping 7th hole provided highlights, but the course is otherwise very basic and towards the end the legs get a serious workout going up, down and across the steep hills.

Strangely, outside the clubhouse stood on a easel a metal 3D cast that seemed at first glance to depict a mob bashing a mother holding an infant child as she cowered on the ground. Upon closer inspection, a couple of my mates thought perhaps it was the storming of the Bastille? In any case, a unique sight to prepare you for a leisurely round of golf.

Chart Hills

2010-08-22T05:19:00.007+10:00

The bunker overkill can first be seen on the 2nd, that sea of sand only really likely to catch a shank

The driveable 6th combines plenty of short grass with rolling land, sand and water to create a 290-yard puzzle that can be solved many different ways

The 8th is the only bunkerless hole on the course, with a false front striking fear into you on the approach

The land movement and a well-placed fronting bunker set up a Redan-inspired approach to the 10th

The 15th green sits semi-blind over the crest of a hill

Course name: Chart Hills
Location: Biddenden, Kent, England
Four Word Course Review: More sand than Baywatch

Florida comes to the Home Counties. This is about as un-English as you're going to get, but it's fun, there are options aplenty and ample variety.

It has somewhere in the region of 130 bunkers (the largest of which is nicknamed The Anaconda - it snakes more than 260 yards up the right of the 5th fairway, before crossing over). But for the most part they are the skeleton of some great strategy.

The sand is overpowering on a few holes - the short par four 9th and par five 16th particularly, where you can hardly see a spare square inch to hit your ball that isn't a bunker. In both instances there is enough room out there, but the landing areas are hidden from view.

The par fives particularly were a case of having to plan every shot as you plotted your route to the green.

Despite the extensive use of sand, the movement of the land is a real feature of a number of holes, creating dead ground at the 1st that foreshortens the second shot in your eye and makes it seem reachable in two, or at the driveable 6th, where the fairway bunker creates a horizon behind which the green is hidden.

Elsewhere, left of the 1st green, short of the 8th green, behind the 10th green, short and left of the 12th green are great closely mown runoffs that provide a great alternative to sand as punishment for a poorly planned or executed shot.

But there were touches of "English golf", without question.The greens are generally quite sedate and slope naturally with the surrounding land. I think that helped greatly to feel that the holes were by-and-large draped over the land - though I am sure ample earthmoving was done, it seems to have been done smartly, with long landforms that run across several holes rather than short, choppy mounds that are obviously fake. As well as that, there were very few long green to tee walks, allowing the course to flow well around the property.

Fair play to the foreign visitors who come all this way to play heathland and links golf - I can appreciate why so few schedule a game at Chart Hills. But it is a very, very good course in its own right.

Last time around Golf World had it around #80 in GB&I (down from mid-70s the time before). That seems about right to me.

Burnham & Berrow (Championship)

2010-08-15T06:19:00.003+10:00

The first hole gives a good introduction to the landscape you will play through on most holes

The 3rd green is set in a slight punchbowl over a series of undulations and swales

The first of the one-shotters comes at the 5th, the green surrounded by well-camouflaged bunkers

From the 6th to the 11th you play mostly through more open, flat linksland - with the par four 7th a great example of smart lay-of-the-land architecture, a central ridge dictating the strategy

Burnham Church stands just yards from the 12th green, one of the hardest to hit on the course

The greensites don't come much better than this at the 15th, which offers plenty of ways to get home, either by air or land

The short par four 16th is slightly beyond driveable for most mortals, but that just makes the second shot - likely to be played from 30-70 yards out - all the more tricky... and fun!

Course name: Burnham & Berrow (Championship)
Location: Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset
Four Word Course Review: Thrilling routing maximises dunes

I can't remember exactly when it was that my then-girlfriend (now fiancee and within the next month my wife) and I decided that rather than just go on another holiday to Europe we would move there for a few years.
What I can recall is, the very same day we decided we were moving to London, stopping by the newsagent in my home town on Sydney's outskirts to buy a British golf magazine so I could see what awaited me.

Having selected the current edition of Golf International, I got back in my car and started to flick through. Within a few pages I came upon a double page spread - a monthly feature where Ronan Rafferty highlighted an unheralded British links. That month: Burnham & Berrow on the Atlantic coast in Somerset.

"There it is," I thought. "This is going to be amazing, all these incredible courses I have never even heard of and I'll be living within a few hours of them!"

I vowed at that moment that somehow, during my stay in the UK, I would play Burnham & Berrow.

After having several intended visits scrapped during my time here, more than two years later - closer to three, I'd say - I finally did, having made the trip down from my south London home.

The Gods clearly knew this day was special: it poured from the time I left my house at 5.30am until I met a friend at Fleet train station at 7 o'clock. It rained that soupy, annoying rain England specialises in for the two and a half hours it took us to drive from there to Burnham.

Arriving, I walked past the club notice board on my way inside the clubhouse and there it was: my article! That same spread that had excited me more than two years ago pinned between entry forms for open days and draws for club knockouts. My host told me it was a photo of the first green taken from the second tee. I resolved to get a matching photo with me in it!

It rained a constant, taunting stream as we ate breakfast in the clubhouse (food can be eaten in the bar, clubhouse rules dictate, unless the meal requires cutlery or, somewhat arbitrarily, contains chips - in which case it must be consumed in the dining room...), until, having already lingered for an extra half-hour in the hope it might clear, we made for the door to face our saturated fate.

But then, just like that, it stopped.

We played nine holes on the Channel course (nine greens, 18 tees) in completely dry weather and as we moved through the last four holes back towards the clubhouse I experienced some of the great landscape and quirk that would make the main course a highlight of my extremely fortunate portfolio of UK golfing memories.

We went inside for a pint (the local brew is called Butcombe. Careful ordering a pint of that after you've already had a few!) before tackling the main course and it returned. No sooner had glasses clinked to celebrate an enjoyable warm-up, the floor-to-ceiling windows that give those inside a perfect view of the 1st tee and 18th green told the sorry tale... the rain was back.

The pints were drained and we decided there was no delaying the inevitable. Out we headed and again the rain stopped.

From the first hole Burnham is something special, twisting and turning through the dunes with greens set at choice locations, many using the natural slopes to either feed the ball onto the green or swat it away.

While short on blindness, as is the favour post-World War Two, Burnham still manages to be quirky at ever turn, with the land making the surfeit of bunkers you see at many links wholely unnecessary.

A case in point are the two par fives on the front, which each provide brilliant interest and challenge with angled drives and greensites that sit frustratingly within reach, but of such design that hitting and holding them with a long club is just far enough beyond most golfers that you're still inclined to try, despite the expectation of almost certain failure.

Turning for home brings several holes of flatter land that give you just enough time to realise what amazing terrain you have been traversing for the past hour or two, and then you're back into it: the sensory overload of Burnham Church standing sentry by the dramatic 12th green, the narrow path of the par five 13th through the dunes, the transfixing bunkerless green on the one-shot 14th, where we spent 20 minutes putting from all corners of the putting surface, shaking our heads at the turns our balls took heading up, down and across the slopes.

The final stretch was maybe the best on the course, providing us firm ground, ample undulation and enough wind to make links shotmaking necessary.

As if to ice the cake, I chipped from a rough-covered ridge 50 yards short of the 18th green to within a foot to secure my par. My friend matched me by holing a 40-footer. The day was just as special for him: he has been visiting Burnham regularly (but not regularly enough, I'm sure) since he was 11. Our host made it three pars for the group by tapping in a three-footer that we would have conceded were we better guests!

I arrived home close to 19 hours after I had departed, exhausted but elated. Birdie or bogey, the smile hadn't left my face all day. I had realised a dream that evolved almost 20,000km away.

Burnham & Berrow (Channel)

2010-08-15T02:41:00.013+10:00

Playing up a dune valley to a tiered green, the two-shot 6th may be the toughest to par on the course

The short 8th has a tiny green with wild undulations both within it and surrounding it

Course name: Burnham & Berrow (Channel)
Location: Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset
Four Word Course Review: Tale of two halves

The Channel course is not a "second course" in the same way The Berkshire (Blue) or the New courses at either Sunningdale and Walton Heath are, this is village golf aimed at less serious players and beginners.

That said, there is some great golf on offer, played over land that is, at its best, the equal of anything on the main course.

After a pedestrian start with rushes hugging the left side of the first three holes comes a solid par five with a similar low-profile green to those found on the two par fives on the front nine of the main course.

Driveable par fours at the 5th and 9th are both packed with strategic options, while the 6th and 7th are difficult longer two-shotters running up an undulating valley between the dunes to deceiving greens.

The 8th is the shortest hole on the property, requiring a wedge for most, but the green is tiny and wildly contoured.

Each hole has two sets of tees to allow 18 holes to be played with some variety, but for mine this is best used as a loosener before you do battle with the main course.

There are strong similarities between the two courses: both out-and-back routings, both mix wild dunes with flatter ground, both are light on for bunkers and both boast some brilliant green complexes. So the skills you pick up honing your game here will come in handy on the Championship course.

Worplesdon

2010-08-09T06:11:00.056+10:00

The distance to the pin on the third is hard to judge with no landmarks close to the back of the green

Looking back to the tee at the long uphil par three 4th

The golfer pictured isn't a short man - the difference between the height of the two tiers at the par four 8th is just that great

The water carry par three 10th - with so many great holes at Worplesdon it's amazing the club parades this on its website and in its yardage book as the course's "signature hole"

The approach to the par five 12th is best played from the left to a well-guarded green that slopes more from back to front than it first appears

The par three 13th offers nowhere pleasant to miss, with plenty of space around the green allowing the bunkers to dominate the vista

The two menacing bunkers at the 16th hide the fact there is a lot of space on and around the green

Time for lunch: the cornerstone of a 36-hole day at any self-respecting English golf club!

Course name: Worplesdon
Location: Woking, Surrey
Four Word Course Review: Fantastic fives and threes

Gunfire. Is there a more horrible noise known to man? Perhaps only the rock band Evanescence and my boss bellowing my name in a way that tells me I am about to regret the day I was born can compare for sheer irritation and aggravation.

Constant gunfire in the field that adjoins Worplesdon Golf Club had me checking as I played the back nine that I hadn't been transported back in time to enjoy a round at Somme Valley GC in the summer of 1916.

It's an example of the way outside influences can affect a round of golf, but when the golf is as good as it is at Worplesdon, it would take a lot more than a field full of trigger-happy shooters to ruin your day. Unless one of them missed a clay pigeon and picked you off as you walked off the neighbouring 14th tee...

Worplesdon has a challenging and memorable set of par fives and par threes (four three-shotters and five one-shotters) that are threaded together by nine par fours that offer compelling golf in their own right.

Perhaps the best holes of each par come in a three-hole stretch on the back nine where the strategic, brilliantly-bunkered par five 12th is followed by a long iron par three to a green surrounded by sand and a long uphill two-shotter boasting even more smart bunkering on both the drive and approach.

It's no accident that hazard placement is a highlight of arguably the three best holes, it consistantly lifts the standard of the holes from very good to great, working in tandem with rollicking land that rarely runs flat for long.

Bold greens star at the 7th, 8th and 17th - all two-tiered efforts where the back is much, much higher than the front, making it almost impossible to lag close if putting from one tier to the other.

The 8th might be the best example of the three, with a steep drop-off at the back making distance control essential if you want to avoid a fate much worse than a putt up to the top tier, and what's more your approach is downhill and likely to be played with a mid iron or short iron, making a running approach that much more difficult to execute.

Also worthy of note are the rollercoaster par five 11th, with its wonderful angled green and bookend bunkers, the long-uphill par three 16th, defended short by two deep heather-faced traps (from which I am sure very few pars are made) and the confounding 5th, which calls for a diagonal drive over heather that has to squeeze between the purple sea and a bunker if you want to shorten the approach to the front-to-back tiered green that is made more difficult to hit thanks to two swales that front the putting surface.

Blind shots are not shied away from, with the tee shots at the 2nd, 8th, 15th and 18th and second shots at the 6th and 11th played blind over the dramatic heather-laced landscape. There isn't a single example that feels forced or contrived.

Contrived... now that is a term I would reserve for the mid-length par three over a lake that seems as regular at heathland golf courses as it is incongruous with the surrounds. Woking (16th), Worplesdon (10th) and West Sussex (15th) each have such a hole and I am yet to see the concept add to the course.

If such a hole has to be built, I'd rather see the green hard up against the water to give the hazard more purpose. But that is a small quibble when measured up against the great holes either side of it that make this course such fun to play.

One last thing to note is the quite unique bunker faces, compared to the rest of the heathland. They're quite striking, yet simple and seem to suit the course.

Just another brilliant heathland gem, then! I hope the people of Surrey and Berkshire appreciate the embarrassment of riches that surrounds them.

The Berkshire (Blue)

2010-06-26T07:15:00.000+10:00

The 9th is one of the best short par fours on a property full of good ones

The rugged 13th has some of the best bunkering on the course

The home hole sums up the stern test of The Blue

Course name: The Berkshire (Blue)
Location: Ascot, Berkshire, England
Four Word Course Review: Inconsistency sets it back

The Blue course is the "lesser" course at The Berkshire in much the same way that Mark was the lesser Waugh twin or George Harrison was The Beatles' lesser songwriter: The greatness is undoubtedly there, but when all is said and done they don't quite measure up to the magnitude or consistency of some pretty magnificent competition.

In truth, the two or three best holes at The Berkshire might be on The Blue. But so too are the two or three most plain holes. The cohesion just isn't there, with flat spots at 3, 8 and 10.

Despite the last of those three starting the run home, the back nine of The Blue is probably the best nine on the property, with the 11th a brilliant flat ground par five and 12-14 making brilliant use of a large ridge, the first of the three with a stunning two-tier green that's higher at the front, before a sidehill par three reminiscent of a couple at Royal Wimbledon and a short par four with a blind drive. Two of The Berkshire's oft seen "downhill teeshot, uphill approach" par fours stand out at the end of the round, the 16th and 18th.

Getting you to that golden run are some very good holes on the front nine, including a difficult par three opener over a sea of heather, the downhill 344-yard 2nd with a tricky front-to-back green, classic heathland one-shot 4th and brilliant 310-yard 9th - yet another great short par four, of which The Berkshire has many across its 36 holes.

What's great about The Blue is the way it differs from The Red, playing tighter on the drive and featuring some more dramatic shots and greens. It is also a tougher test, featuring many stern par fours on the way home to test your ballstriking. Both courses have their own character and when it comes to 36-hole clubs, that's essential to avoid one course being a poor man's version of the other.

The Berkshire also deserves a shout out for its lunch and showers - both among the best I have experienced in my travels!

The Berkshire (Red)

2010-06-26T04:15:00.004+10:00

After playing to the eye-catching par three 2nd, you arrive at its green to see this vista of the 3rd rolling out ahead of you

The approach to the 8th hole, with some brilliant heathland bunkering standing guard at the green

The 10th is probably the most intimidating hole on the course, the green 188 yards away over heather

Yet another beautiful view, this one from the 11th tee

A strong drive that crosses the gravel path at the 13th can use this rolling land to steal an extra 20-30 yards and earn a mid iron approach to the green

The amazing 221-yard 16th hole has a tough green and two fantastic bunkers protecting par

Course name: The Berkshire (Red)
Location: Ascot, Berkshire, England
Four Word Course Review: Never a dull moment

The more highly-regarded of The Berkshire's two courses, The Red is generally known for its uncommon combination of six holes of each par.

With the likes of Wentworth, Sunningdale and Swinley Forest within a mile or so, that combination of holes is what gives The Red a point of difference, but beyond their par they are worthy of attention for just how good they are.

Many of the par fives are reachable in two shots for most golfers. From the back tees they measure 517, 480, 488, 486, 477 and 532 yards and four of them play downhill, but they occupy some great land.

Most fascinating among them for me were the 3rd, which has a tee shot that just screams "let's play golf", and the 13th, cascading downhill over wild land at the far reaches of the driving zone.

The par threes are more varied, playing uphill and downhill and ranging from under 150 yards to more than 220. They also present two of the most appetising shots on the course at the 10th and 16th - the first a terrifying shot of almost 200 yards over a heather-filled valley and the latter a 221-yard journey to a fearsomely sloped (but amazingly beautiful) green slightly reminiscent of the 17th across the fence at Swinley.

The two-shotters are all played between the 4th and 14th (it's 5, 3, 5 to start and 5, 3, 5, 3 to finish) and perhaps wisely given a few of the par fives will play as long two-shot holes and the 8th and 14th measure 428 and 434 yards, there is some respite in length, but not challenge at the 6th, 11th and 12th, which are all driveable holes that can still extract their pound of flesh through a risky drive (the 6th and 12th) or a well-protected green (11th and 12th).

The Red is quite a wide course, with generous driving zones but distict angles from which the greens must be approached. But miss those fairways and the heather and rough are some of the most militant I have seen on the heathland.

The uphill approach shots might get slightly repetitive, particularly toward the end of the round, but several of those shots are among the ones that linger in the memory: the par three 2nd, the approach to the 8th, the short second shot to the 328-yard 12th and the sidehill second or third shot at the 15th.

Above the individual highlights, the lasting memory I have of The Red is the continuity of the holes, despite some significent variety. While many of the hole shapes are similar, the shots required from hole to hole differ greatly. It seems to me that ties the holes in together while avoiding much feeling of repetition.

It's a perfect piece of land for golf and, as he did at Walton Heath, Herbert Fowler used the best features of the ground in combination with some well-placed bunkers to make this a fascinating course to play.

Crowborough Beacon

2010-06-16T05:22:00.027+10:00

Great use of the natural contours at the 2nd, where a gouge in the land is used to protect the green from a running approach on the downhill approach shot

The brawny and brave can go straight at the 6th green, almost 200 yards away, but it's far wiser to use the slope of the land to run your ball onto the green

The par five 10th is one of a few off-camber doglegs, a sole bunker short left of the green providing sufficient strategy

The final hole has perhaps the strongest healthland link on the entire course

The club's most famous former member served a year as captain in 1910

Course name: Crowborough Beacon
Location: Crowborough, East Sussex, England
Four Word Course Review: The perfect village club

It's astounding just how many golf courses there are in England - many hiding in country towns and next door to the big names - that you've never heard of but upon which you would gladly play out your days.

Crowborough Beacon is one such course. It makes great use of a steep site, reminding you of Walton Heath at its best, though some holes are built on land that's just too steep for golf. That said, the good moments far outweigh the bad and are the holes that stick in the memory.

Holes such as the par three 6th across a gorge, narrow par five 10th, long par four 12th interrupted by heather-filled broken ground in the driving zone, off-camber dogleg left 16th and gently uphill final hole are worth the journey to the South Downs alone.

Crowborough Beacon Golf Club may not be famous, but the same cannot be said for a certain local resident and longtime member who captained the club in 1910: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the book and film character Sherlock Holmes.

A corner of the clubhouse celebrates the star attraction, and I thank this year's captain - filling the role 100 years after Doyle - who generously showed us around the club after our round, continuing the great welcome given by the professional when we arrived.

One regular feature of a club like Crowborough Beacon is quirk. Here, it's the roads. Not only are they a feature on three or four holes, with six crossings in total, but they are integral parts of the course, so if somehow your ball comes to rest in the middle, you better hope for a break in the traffic!

And any golfer knows that if he chooses to play a course from the back markers he is taking on extra risk, but walking back to the medal tee on the first hole you're shocked by just how close the road is to the tee box. Passing traffic is no more than 10 or 12 feet behind you as you make your first swing of the day. All the more reason to play forward, I think!

Fun golf, a warm welcome, gorgeous views and the kind of clubhouse balcony you can all too easily spend six hours on with mates. Yep, I could easily spend my remaining golfing days atop Crowborough Beacon.

Casa Serena

2010-06-09T04:39:00.083+10:00

The second to the 4th is one of the most eye-catching shots I have seen in my travels

The 9th has some great Redan qualities, with a long, hard-to-read green

Taking a risk and taking on the fairway bunkers at the 12th earns you this look at the green

The historic well short of the 17th green was discovered during construction and became a feature of the hole, which features a strong slope that will reject anything underclubbed

Course name: Casa Serena
Location: Roztez, Czech Republic
Four Word Course Review: The ultimate private escape

Casa Serena is an entirely private playground for the owner and executives of one of the world's biggest electronics companies, but I managed to spend a couple of days playing the course, with a few nights spent in the incredible Chateau Roztez next door.

The course was built from scratch on rolling Czech countryside by EGD's Robin Hiseman, opening in late 2008 to host a European Senior Tour event, won by Bernhard Langer.

It's a wonderfully strategic layout calling for more than a few heroic decisions, none more so than choosing to take dead aim over the fairway bunker on the long, downhill par four 4th, trying to find the kick pad that will send your ball to within wedge range.

Similarly, the reachable 5th, cascading 8th, tightrope 11th, gorgeous 12th and deceptive 15th all pose strong risk/reward choices on the tee. That's a lot of adjectives for one sentence, but Casa Serena is that kind of place: memorable holes with great aesthetics that reward smart placement in an amazingly relaxing location.

The par threes all hold some venom for the golfer who overestimates his strangth, with false fronts at the 13th and 17th, a deep bunker on the uphill 2nd and a tough lag putt if you find yourself a long way from the flag on the Redan-ish 9th.

But for all those strengths, let's not leave out the par fives: choices galore on the seond shot at the 6th with the ideal layup changing with the pin position, fantastic long undulations at the 14th and a monstrous cross bunker to be encountered on the second shot at the home hole. They are all thinkers' holes that can be reached in two shots, but not by brute force alone.

The earth has been moved in many places to create land that is good for golf, but the way single landforms have been formed to extend across several holes makes what's there look amazingly natural - no chocolate drops placed equidistant down the side of each fairway here!

Utopia awaits if they ever decide to shave down the runoffs around many of the greens, which would create a short game paradise like few I have ever seen.

With even a passable golf course built in this idyllic countryside in the shadow of Chateau Roztez, this would have been a wonderful place for R&R, but with such a wonderful, challenging and engaging - not to mention FUN - course it's one to dream of.

Brora

2010-05-19T06:33:00.001+10:00

The 9th may be a fairly straightforward hole, but the setting is as fantastic as they come and the slight right-to-left tilt of the land feeding the bunker on the left of the green adds some interest

The locals walk to the 11th green. The farmboy in me came to the fore playing in such natural surroundings that reminded me of golf on my grandfather's no-frills nine hole course built over land on his sheep farm, where I learned the game

Proof that length isn't the only way to make a hole tough comes at the 13th - just more than 100 yards tee to green but filled with interest, especially as the breeze grows stiffer

The approach to the skyline green on the 16th, with a good example in the foreground of how short the sheep keep the rough

Options galore present themselves at the par four 17th, played to the red flag in the centre of the shot (the yellow flag in the top right belongs to the sharp dogleg-right opening hole)

Course name: Brora
Location: Brora, Sutherland, Scotland
Four Word Course Review: The definition of natural

I have never played a course as natural at Brora. It's too hard to pick favourite holes when they are so unique, and when the highlights are so great and plentiful.

The first four holes were fun without knocking me over, but then came the great long iron second shot to the 5th, guarded short right by a brilliant dune and long by a steep slope, the first of the one-shotters at the sixth, a tough blind drive on the course's sole par five (the 8th) and one of the most beautiful settings in the world for a golf hole at the par three 9th - draped alongside the sea with a steep hill of heather and gorse off in the distance. It's the furthest point on the course from the clubhouse: Brora is a true out-and-back golf course.

Turning for home, the golf steps up a notch, ensuring the inland stretch loses nothing against the seaside front nine.

The 10th green is set in a great site at the foot of a steep dune, the 11th plays over dramatic broken ground that is also a feature of the 4th and 14th and the 12th is the final piece on a trifecta of great par fours: reachable, but with brilliantly-placed bunkers that add a ton of strategy.

The 13th is a tiny par three played to a green adjacent to the 6th, but playing in the opposite direction, crossing a snaking burn twice. Combined with the 9th and 18th holes playing away from each other at opposite ends of the property, it makes for four one-shotters playing in opposite directions and perfectly spaced at both the ends and middle of the course. Just part of Braid's design genius.

The 14th is a slightly perplexing short par four, but then comes an awesome four-hole final stretch tumbling over (the 15th), up (the 16th), along (the 17th) and through (the 18th) dunes that seem to have been crafted for golf.

Along the way is a combination of memorable features, such as a contender for the steepest approach to the world's highest seaside skyline green at the 16th and a split fairway at the 17th where both routes to the hole appear to have equal merit.

All this looks to have been designed with an absolute minimum of artificial shaping and by employing the absolute minimum of bunkers.

Another feather in its cap is the sheep that patrol the rough (one-strand electric fences ring the greens to keep them off), keeping it low enough that four of us playing 36 holes and hitting some pretty bad shots in the process didn't lose a single ball between us.

You couldn't build a golf course like Brora. Despite the lack of length it remains a super fun and challenging course thanks to its terrain and smart design. Add in the high-teens temperatures and blue skies we enjoyed, with a sporting breeze out of the north, and it made for a day of golf equal to anything else I have enjoyed.

Golspie

2010-05-18T02:53:00.005+10:00

At the par three 6th, the landforms surrounding the green almost perfectly match those in the far distance

The heathland 9th is a thrilling two-shotter that wouldn't look out of place 500 miles south in Surrey

The brilliant par three 16th is one of the best holes in the Highlands

Course name: Golspie
Location: Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland
Four Word Course Review: Remarkably cohesive considering variety

It amazes me that of all the people who've told me that I must make sure I get to the Scottish Highlands to play Dornoch and Brora, no one ever mentioned Golspie.

Bookended by the two more famous courses, Golspie is north of Dornoch and south of Brora, with the town boasting the only traffic light in all of Sutherland.

Turning down a quiet back street, you soon see the very humble clubhouse. The course begins in a similarly understated vein, with a short par five to a nondescript green over meadowland, but from there it rapidly shifts through the gears.

The par three 2nd has a brilliant wavy green that sets a high standard that the other one-shotters maintain. If there is one lasting impression of Golspie, it's just how consistently impressive and varied the short holes are. They're arguably on par with the set down the A9 at Dornoch.

From there the course turns 180 degrees and moves onto the genuine linksland, with the next three holes - a mid-length par four, par five and driveable par four - heading south along the sea shore, each featuring broken ground that impacts on either the drive or approach.

The second par three comes at the 6th, the green set at the foot of a mammoth dune that houses the wonderful 16th green, before the dramatic green of the 280-yard 7th ends the stretch of linksland holes.

The 8th and 9th transition smoothly from open heathland to a pine forest, the latter hole worthy of comparison with the very best of the London heathland.

The par three 10th has a green to rival the 2nd, it's just a shame about the man-made pond that fronts it, the only truly regrettable thing about the course - and it's an absolute wonder why the club uses it on its promotional material. Were that the one thing I was shown before deciding whether to include Golspie on my itinerary I wouldn't even consider stopping there.

The 11th is a gorgeous natural par four through the thinning forest, taking you back to the open heath of the short par four 12th and 13th, each with quality greensites and some movement in the fairways.

If there was ever a story that sums up the passion for golf in this area, it comes here.

A friend playing this stretch - I forget which hole exactly - hooked a drive onto the road that flanks the course just as a police car appeared around the corner. Predictably, it hit the car straight on, the rozzers screeching to a swift stop and jumping from the car.

As the guilty golfer and his playing partners walked up towards the scene of the crime, they saw the two officers scurrying around in the bushes and assumed they must have been keen to collect the ball as evidence of the cause of the damage to their car.

Getting close enough that he was preparing to begin his grovelling apology, the golfer and his mates saw the enthusiastic Constable turn and shout: "I found it. It's sitting alright and you've got a shot to the green!"

The course moves back onto the meadow grass for the par five 14th and par four 15th, both boasting interesting greens, before the final transition to links for the final three holes.

The aforementioned 16th is one of the finest links par threes I am ever likely to see. The green sits high, two tiers of terror a good mid to long iron from the tee. The view is also first rate: playing south east you have the blue of the ocean and golden sands stretching out before you.

The 17th is the final par three, the green 200 yards away over bold dunes that render it blind. It reminded me a great deal of the 16th at Trevose in Cornwall. An even bolder dune dominates the last hole, with the second shot to the long par four forced to fly a towering rise.

Aside from the great one-shotters and general variety of holes, what's great about Golspie is how smoothly and naturally it transitions from meadow to links, through open heath into a forest, back out to meadow via open heath and then into the linksland again.

I couldn't imagine before playing Golspie how the four distinct environments could possibly be woven into a cohesive whole, but there is no doubt Golspie achieves that.

If you are planning a Highlands fling, be sure to include a round at Golspie. If you've been there before and snubbed the little course that could, give yourself an uppercut: you missed one of the great hidden gems of British golf.

Royal Dornoch (Struie)

2010-05-17T05:08:00.001+10:00

The 3rd green, which was among the new work done by Robin Hiseman, has great internal movement

The 15th green is a good example of the features being placed well to take advantage of the minimal undulation on the ground that houses 3, 4 and 15-17

Course name: Royal Dornoch (Struie)
Location: Dornoch, Sutherland, Scotland
Four Word Course Review: Interesting greens, great views

One of the benefits of spending some time in the one place on a golf trip is the chance to play the lesser courses that still offer plenty of good golf.

Dornoch's second course, the Struie, is a patchwork quilt of golf holes, with some having always been part of the course, others absorbed from the main course after WW2 and five new holes (9-13) having been built by Robin Hiseman earlier this decade.

While a clearly inferior younger brother to the main course - Stephen Baldwin to the Championship layout's Alec - there are some really good moments.

The opening hole, one that was initially on the main course, pit sets your expectations a tad high for what follows, with only the 3rd, 4th and 5th greens (all after fairly pedestrian tee shots) and par three 8th offering exciting golf to match it on the rest of the front nine.

The stretch of 11-13 is fun, a long par four followed by a 240-yard two-shotter over a natural wetland and then a well-bunkered par five with a wonderful green.

The 16th is the last of the highlight holes, doglegging right to set up the approach to a wildly sloping green.

To be fair, many of the holes I've not mentioned are far from poor, the standard set elsewhere on the property is just that high.

What's most enjoyable about the Struie is how it contrasts with the main course. Where the famous Dornoch greens up on the higher linksland are massive, with gentler undulations and domed edges that parry the ball away, many on the Struie have more wild interior contours and smaller overall size.

The views are also a real joy, looking back towards the town from the far reaches of the course, which run along Dornoch firth. There's a great touch on the 12th with the spire of the town's cathedral rising up from the middle of the green as you stand on the tee.

There's also a nice contrast of setting on the 6th and 7th as the course moves into a pine wooded area.

Most of the world's 30,000-odd golf courses can't hold a candle to Dornoch's championship course, so it's no insult to say the Struie falls into that camp, but it has enough highlights for it to be worth a play if you're spending a couple of days in town.

Royal Dornoch (Championship)

2010-05-17T04:21:00.001+10:00

A group of visiting golfers I know of asked in the bar before their first Dornoch round: "What's the hardest shot on the course?" An aged member, sitting by the window with a malt in hand, didn't hesitate. "The second shot to the 2nd hole," he said. The group headed off to play and when they got to the 2nd and saw it was a par three they thought the old bloke must have got mixed up. None of them hit the green. By the time they were walking to the next tee they understood!

The 5th is a brilliant, challenging hole whether you can drive the ball 150 yards or 300

The 6th is as wonderful as it is picturesque

Overlooking linkstopia from the 7th tee

The small dune and bunker that frame the opening to the 12th green make the hole great fun and emphasise the importance of earning a good angle on the drive

The 15th doesn't get many plaudits, but it was among my favourite holes

The 17th is one of those holes you could happily play all day long, then come back the next day and find new challenge in as a result of the pin being moved and the wind switching

Course name: Royal Dornoch (Championship)
Location: Dornoch, Sutherland, Scotland
Four Word Course Review: A religeous golf experience

Dornoch is a cathedral of golf if ever I saw one.

I arrived in town the evening before my first round on the famous links, as the sun dropped low and cast long shadows through the town. I thought that was gorgeous enough, but then I made the walk up Golf Rd, past the bowling club and there it was.

The light was a rich gold by that late hour, and the shadows thrown across the 1st and 18th fairways were incredible, while the flowing gorse was a blaze of bright yellow. Overlooking it all was the humble clubhouse.

The feeling of Dornoch is unlike anywhere else I have been in the world of golf and I'm not sure I can adequately describe it, other than to say the feeling that washed over me from my first glimpse of the course to my last look back over my shoulder as I left three days later was very much like being inside London's St Paul's Cathedral or St Peter's Basilica in Rome, where you experience such a sensory overload, coupled with the weight of history and realisation of just how far many have come to worship at that location.

The course itself is filled with some of the most memorable shots I've faced.

The 2nd is a brilliant par three to a push-up green from which a par is almost impossible should you find sand or miss left or right, where steep banks make it hard to decide what type of shot to hit, let alone execute it. The fear of the ball stopping on the hill and then making its way back to your feet can easily cause a nervous jab that sends the ball into the same predicament on the opposite side of the green.

The gentle angle and slight blindness of the putting surface on the 5th secured it in my mind as one of the best short par fours I've seen, a hole similar to the 6th at Deal and 12th on The Old Course in that on the tee it seems a good chance to make birdie but 10 minutes later you're walking to the next hole feeling pretty good about having made par.

The 8th and 17th are similar holes in their topography: playing along a plateau that drops steeply at a 45 degree angle around 180 yards from the tee with the green set in a small punchbowl, but the small differences in strategy set them apart and convinced me there was room for both on the same course without repetition being an issue.

The angled green at the 12th, set between a front left mound and front right bunker showed me how subtle angles and features can make a hole play so much more difficultly than it seems it should. Yet another hole - and this might be my strongest lasting memory of Dornoch as a whole - that shapes up on the tee as a birdie chance before imposing its smarts on you and making you earn a par.

Foxy - the 14th hole - is another exercise in angles, calling for a long, drawn drive to even earn a shot at hitting the massive green in two, before insisting you reverse your shot shape for the approach. That is poses such challenges without a single bunker is a testament to the wonderful land.

Following Foxy is one of Dornoch's unsung heroes. The 15th is a reachable par four with a rough-covered dune in the middle of the fairway about 200 yards from the tee. Once past the dune, either by flying it, squeezing down the left or using the wide fairway to the right that can't be seen from the tee, the approach to a slightly domed green is much more difficult than an 80-yard shot should be.

Those seven holes had probably the strongest effect on me, but that's not to discount the other 11, which all offer something unique and bring new and different challenges to the table.

So massive are the greens that there seems to be an infinite number of pin positions that change the holes completely, especially when changes in wind strength and direction are added to the mix. Those enormous greens coupled with ideal golf land made me think that more than any other, Royal Dornoch is a course that could have all its bunkers removed and lose very little of its charm and challenge.

Getting to Dornoch is not the easiest thing in the world. It is a long way from pretty much anywhere. But few pilgrimmages are more worthwhile.

Crail (Balcomie)

2010-05-16T07:59:00.000+10:00

The beauty of the course is evident from the moment you step onto the first tee. The picture above shows the opening hole (left) and 14th (right) in the foreground, with the par five 2nd skirting the eroding shoreline in the distance

How much of the beach - which is out of bounds rather than a hazard - do you dare cut off with your tee shot at the 4th?

The 10th is arguably the best hole on the course, with smart decisions and well executed golf shots - the approach shot from a sidehill lie - required to earn a three or four

With the gorse flowering in May, there are few better views in golf than from the tee of the 17th, and with the wind into you, probably few tougher pars

Course name: Crail (Balcomie)
Location: Crail, Fife, Scotland
Four Word Course Review: Unconventional, delightful holiday golf

The rich and lengthy history of Great Britain never ceases to amaze me. Case in point: The Crail Golfing Society is older than the country I grew up in! When Captain Arthur Phillip led the first fleet ashore in Sydney in January 1788, the golfers at Crail had already been playing as an organised society for two years.

The Balcomie links at Crail didn't follow until 1859, with the rudimentary course refashioned in 1895 (still five years before the settlers in Australia's colonies got around to Federating and becoming a proper country...) when Old Tom Morris laid out nine holes. He returned in 1899 to extend the course to 18 holes.

111 years later, what stands on the shore of the North Sea is a great example of what holiday golf should be.

Crail's Craighead links, designed by American Gil Hanse in 1998, provides the club with a "championship" course and the Balcomie remains a delightful, if not monumentally taxing (though 2-5 and 16-18 have some serious teeth), way to spend a few hours playing golf by the seaside, with the water visible from every hole on the course.

There are many remarkably memorable shots out there, including heroic drives across the beach at the 2nd, 4th and 5th (although there was an element of sameness about the latter two), while the semi-blind par three 3rd along a clifftop would hold its own on any course.

I also enjoyed the ridges that cross in front of the green at the short par four 1st and 7th, adding some spice to otherwise straightforward short approach shots, and the options and strategy of the 9th, dominated by the most fearsome bunker on the course guarding the green - and all that's just in the first nine holes.

It's a quirky layout, encapsulated by the unconventional back nine of 4, 5, 5, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3. Despite so many back-to-back holes of the same par, there's no sameness.

The 10th starts the back nine in great style with a gentle downhill drive to a fairway that will kick everything left. The goal is to have your drive come to rest between the centreline bunker and the left rough, providing the best angle for the steeply uphill approach off a hook lie to a plateau green.

The two three-shotters play in opposite directions up and then down the same hill, the 11th to a skyline green and the 12th crossed by a burn that dominates the second shot whether you're going for the green or laying up. The 12th green has a fantastically bold ridge running up its centre that makes the approach perhaps the most important on the course to hit on the correct line.

After the steeply-uphill 13th and postcard 14th, which plays down to the shadows of a historic lifeboat station over a vicious front bunker, the course disappears around the corner for a thrilling finish, overlooked by the club's brand new clubhouse - its floor-to-ceiling windows making the dining room a great place to watch the field try to hold their cards together.

The 15th is reachable in one lusty blow, but the ocean laps at the left side of the green and sand is everywhere on the right. You then face a likely long iron, unless the wind favours you strongly, uphill over gorse at the 16th - one of many holes in these Isles named Spion Kop.

The closing two holes each vie for the title of toughest on the Balcomie links. A punishing par four and yet another par three over gorse to a steep green that offers very few easy two-putts.

The great quality of the Balcomie to me was just how thick and fast the thrills kept coming. It may not - in a technical breakdown - compete with the very best in Fife but that's fine because it's not a course that's trying to go toe to toe with the likes of The Old Course or Kingsbarns.

What the Balcomie does, it does very well. There are many championship courses that belt notchers are keen to play in Scotland, but any itinerary concerned with fun and variety should include this golf course. I defy anyone to regret experiencing it.

The Renaissance

2010-05-15T03:33:00.004+10:00

The "L"-shaped 3rd green features a bunker set in its elbow that collects misplaced balls from the putting surface

Doglegging right, the 7th invites you to try a tee shot threaded between the right side bunkers and the centreline hazard to shorten your second to a tricky ridge-top green

The 9th is an attractive par three played towards the Firth of Forth, with the severity of the green hidden from view: a rear tier drops away sharply, making it hard to get close to a back pin

A massive mound short right of the 10th green dominates the strategy of the hole, creating - in tandem with the back downslope - one of the best greens on the course

The 11th green slides naturally off a dune, creating slopes around the putting surface that send the imagination into overdrive with a chipping club in hand. The lone tree standing sentry at the back is just one of the examples of Doak aligning landmarks and features with the greens

The green complex is a highlight of the brilliant 16th, with its confounding slopes, devilish bunkering and panoramic views out over the previous holes

My favourite par three was the 17th, which plays between 160-odd and 200+ yards depending on your choice of tee and has its surface sunk below the level of the ridge in front of the green. As with the 11th there are options aplenty around the green for recovery shots, with a strong slope visible at the back of the green helping to feed the ball on

Course name: The Renaissance
Location: Dirleton, East Lothian, Scotland
Four Word Course Review: I'm on a Doak!

For the past decade Tom Doak has been the king of golf course design, turning out a succession of the world's best new courses - Pacific Dunes, Old Macdonald and Ballyneal in the USA, St Andrews Beach and Barnbougle Dunes in Australia and Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand among them.

Until now, I'd not experienced first-hand what the masses have raved about. After playing The Renaissance Club, his first UK design, I am a convert. Although Renaissance is not spoken about as being among Doak's best three or four, that's no insult, in fact it's probably the golf design equivalent of being a middle-tier Victoria's Secret model!

Knowing Doak is a fan of using width, short grass and wild greens to challenge the golfer, I was expecting to like what I saw, but even that prior knowledge hadn't prepared me for just how wide those fairways would be, how much fun could be had on and around the greens and how many different angles could come into play.

After an inland loop of eight holes that returns to the clubhouse, the final 10 are set in an "M" shape, close to the Firth of Forth and tumbling over far more dramatic land than the opening stretch is blessed with.

That said, the front half holds its own with some great visual deception, appealing greensites and strategic options, as well as some subtle undulation over otherwise flat land.

At the permieter of many greens are slopes that will deflect anything not on the right line, with bunkers and sloped chipping areas waiting to collect the ball as it's swatted away from the hole: among the best examples is the putting surface feeding straight into a bunker set at the elbow of the "L"-shaped 3rd green.

With a chipping club or putter in hand, the greens are so playfully difficult that anything less than great shot planning and execution will be punished. I say "playfully" difficult because even when you are having your heart broken by them, they are so much fun to play.

Generally I found the slopes separated pretty sedate sections of green. If you hit an approach into the same sector of the green as the pin, the putts had surprisingly little break in them. Speaking from my own experience and listening to our forecaddie discuss lines with my playing partners, rarely did such a putt have more than a couple of balls' worth of break, a foot or so perhaps on a 20-30 footer. The massive break came when you'd played your approach or recovery shot to the wrong area of the green.

The width of some holes has to be experienced to be believed. Rarely have I seen such bad places to hit your ball within the fairway cut. It takes some careful concentration from the tee to select where to place your shot, because there is often no obvious visual difference (ie. sand or long grass) between position A1 and purgatory.

Bold landforms are a feature of several holes - a fairway kickpad to buy you some extra length off the tee on the 6th, a ridge atop which the tricky 7th green is set, an awe-inspiring green at the 10th that I'll describe in more detail later and the 12th greensite, which offers vast views over the back nine, the firth and Edinburgh in the distance.

On the 8th you play over an ancient stone wall for the first time, a relic of the land's previous use, as is the case down the road at North Berwick. The hole is full of great features: the wall, rumpled ground and a steep false front ensuring the approach, although likely to be played with a pitching wedge or less, will punish anything not well planned or executed.

The stone walls are also utilised at the 11th, where one flanks the green to the right, and the 18th, where it plays a part in the second shot whether you're laying up near it or trying to clear it. Two new holes (more of that further down) will also interact with a wall.

Bunkerless beyond the driving zone, the 10th has an all-world greensite, guarded short right by a massive mound that both blocks your view from the right of the fairway and kicks forward anything landing short of the green. Behind the green is a downslope of similar ferocity that will account for a shot struck too strongly. Unless you can manage to park your second shot hard left, the mound will dominate your choice of shot for the approach.

It's in the middle (and possibly the best) of a run of six consecutive brilliant greens (7-12), each very different to the others.

In this part of the round is where three new holes are to be built on a firth-side strip that was recently acquired in a land swap with Muirfield's governing Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (which wanted woodland behind Renaissance's 10th tee to extend its 9th hole for The Open Championship).

Two par threes will play parallel in opposite directions to adjacent greens located either side of a stone wall, while a par four will run east along the water's edge.

From there a hole playing from the current 12th fairway to the 13th green will be built, replacing the par four 12th and par three 13th currently in play.

Further to that, there are plans to build a new par three in woodland behind the 15th, allowing the 16th to become a short par five rather than a mid-length two-shotter. The current line of thinking is that the first three holes will be taken out of play to accommodate the new holes, but I am told that is not yet definite.

So despite the course's youth, a lot of change is on the immediate horizon.

As it stands, the 16th was perhaps my favourite hole on the course: the drive played over a left-to-right sloping hill that becomes blind the further you hit it. A centreline bunker and right-hand bunker need to be split for the best angle in to a green that drops to the left and is guarded on that side by sand.

The land short of the green also leans towards the firth, giving you the impression that the green will also kick the ball that way, but it's an optical illusion. Also, the greenside bunkers are perhaps the deepest on the course.

Generally, the bunkering felt to me that it got deeper and more brutal as the round wore on, something Tom Doak has revealed was governed not by a desire to increase the challenge gruadually, but by a higher water table on the inland holes that come earlier in the round.

If The Renaissance Club left me feeling something was lacking, it was perhaps those one or two unique, memorable shots that you replay in your mind after the round. Perhaps the new holes, with their enviable land, will fill that void and allow the course to hit a crescendo it deserves.

But that's a small factor next to the wonderful interest, fun and variety that is my lasting impression of The Renaissance Club.

Alwoodley

2010-05-14T06:19:00.001+10:00

From behind the 2nd green, the golfer can look back over the 700 yards of tight heathland turf, heather and gorse that comprises the opening two holes, heading in a straight climb up and away from the clubhouse

New bunkering at the par three 7th shows the style the club hopes will maintain its early 1900s aesthetic

A golfer looking to reach the par five 10th in two shots needs to follow his slinging hook off the tee with a brave long iron, hybrid or wood over the water and sand that guard the steep green

The par three 11th plays uphill to an attractive green benched in a hillside - a post-1907 hole that was made possible after the purchase of land on which the 10th green also sits

This snaking expanse of sand guards the green at the difficult 16th, which is part of a card-wrecking home stretch consisting of a 200-yard par three and four two-shotters averaging 432 yards each!

Course name: Alwoodley
Location: Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Four Word Course Review: MacKenzie's statement of intent

I was sitting before my round in a quiet room of Alwoodley's very handsome clubhouse with my host and playing partners, drinking tea and talking about the history of the club, dating to 1907 when Alister MacKenzie began his long and distinguished design career by laying out the club's 18 holes through rolling Yorkshire heathland.

"This is amazing," I thought to myself. "Just think of all the amazing folk - MacKenzie and Harry Colt just for starters - who must have sat in this same room, drinking tea and making the decisions that led to this club and course becoming so great."

Almost as if reading my mind, one of my partners piped up: "They really did a great job building the new clubhouse in the nineties, didn't they? Sitting here, you'd never guess it's so new."

So that swiftly ended that fantasy...

MacKenzie may have gone on to design courses more acclaimed than Alwoodley, but as his debut design effort it's fascinating for the features that show his vision and perhaps inspired famous holes to follow, such as the tee shot at the par five 10th that asks for a brave slinging draw skirting trouble if you hope to reach the green in two, just as on the 13th at Augusta National. The second shot then dares you to hit a long approach over a fronting hazard (water right, sand left) to a slick, steep green.

In fact the current greensite was not part of MacKenzie's original design because the club didn't own the land, but a drawing exists in which he plotted how the hole could be designed if the land were available. When the purchase was made in the 1930s his vision was realised (though by then his association with the club had ended). In fact, his original plan of the course, hanging in the clubhouse, shows just how little it has changed in 103 years.

The other 17 greens all sit where MacKenzie placed them and it's a testament to his foresight regarding golf equipment technology that his ethos of walking forward from green to tee is still in place on most holes, despite the extra length added to the course by building new tees. Seeing that such a move would be necessary, a buffer was left to allow tees to be moved back without the golfer having to trek backwards.

Less seen at Alwoodley are the dramatic greens MacKenzie built at the likes of Pasatiempo and Augusta National, but the 15th green is a pointer to what was to come at those and other courses. The green as a whole heaves left with a severe false front, but a narrow portion of the right-hand side rejects balls on that side and the rear of the putting surfaces tilts away from the fairway.

The subtlety and great use of the land stood out to me most: the two-tiered 3rd green of which the lower left side is hidden until the golfer gets within 100 yards of the green, the slight tucking of the 4th green behind a gorse-clad hill and over undulations that could wreak havoc on the running approach most golfers will have to employ to reach the green in two, the lateral spread of tees that changes angles and strategies and the open mouths to all greens bar the 11th that soften the challenge for lesser golfers.

The bunkering was a mixed bag of more rustic heather-trimmed traps and newer bunkers - many of which the club is in the process of restoring to an early 1900s look. Two that stood out to me as functional and eye-catching were S-shaped bunkers of different sizes that guard the front left of the 13th and 16th greens.

The sidehill par four 5th was also bunkered in a both functional and attractive fashion. Likewise the par three 7th, which was rebunkered last winter, and the brilliant par five 8th, which narrows 160 yards from the green thanks to a vicious bunker surrounded by heather that originally stretched all the way across the parallel 8th and 9th holes.

Alwoodley Golf Club has definitely moved with the times to ensure its course remains the test of decision making and shotmaking its creator designed it to be, but not at the expense of the wonderful and rich history it possesses.

It was a highlight for me to have visited a course with such a unique place in the game, and the experience has me more keen than ever to see more of MacKenzie's best work.

Royal Mid-Surrey

2010-05-07T08:18:00.001+10:00

A massive and rugged moat bunker fronts the green of the par three 5th (Outer) and wraps around both sides of the putting surface

What looks like a sliver of sand from the tee turns out to be a cavern of a bunker on the par four 6th (Outer)

The apline mounds and surrounding hollows are big and bold, with very few good lies to be had

Course name: Royal Mid-Surrey
Location: Richmond, London
Four Word Course Review: The birthplace of alpinisation

Royal Mid-Surrey, which has two courses designed by JH Taylor, doesn't often get a mention in discussion of the London golf landscape.

With the gems of the nearby heathland on the city's south western doorstep that's probably fair, but that certainly isn't to say the course is not important and interesting in its own right.

The Outer is the main course, originally designed as the championship course, while the Inner was designed for those seeking a bit less challenge from their round. I played a composite called the Taylor Course - which combines the front nine of the Outer and a predominantly Inner Course back nine.

Among the notable things about Royal Mid-Surrey is that it was the first course where Alpinisation was used to add interest and challenge to a very flat piece of land.

The humps and hollows are said to have been softened somewhat through the years, but they remain dramatic in many places and add good interest to many holes, guarding the ideal driving zones and causing headaches around the greens, where they can block the way and also cannon balls away from the green if an approach lands on the wrong side of the apex.

It looks as far from natural as I've seen on a golf course, but it works. I think the secret is in the boldness of the features. There's nothing half-hearted about their size or shape, which gives them the personality they need to assert themselves strategically and aesthetically.

Likewise, there is a lot of big, bold bunkering that is able to dominate several holes because the flat land is not screaming for attention itself. Great examples come at the 5th and 6th on the Outer course.

Another great example comes at a short par three played as the 16th of the Taylor Course. It measures less than 120 yards, but the green is only about 12 yards wide at the front and narrower towards the back where flanking bunkers pinch it to about seven yards. A bunker short looks to be abutting the greenfront when viewed from the tee, before being revealed to be about 20 yards short. On a piece of dead-flat land with absolutely nothing to recommend it, it's a brilliant piece of design.

Other bunkering strategies are similar to those employed by Tom Simpson to add interest to New Zealand GC's flat site: bunkers short of greens that distort your distance perception, bunkers that appear from a distance to be much smaller than they are and bunkers raised above the surrounding land to create blind areas.

It also boasts some very sandy soil and was bone dry and firm underfoot despite recent heavy rainfall, defying its unkind nickname of "Royal Mud Slurry", alluding to the suggestion it is always damp.

The club adjoins the River Thames and Kew Gardens less than half an hour by tube from the centre of London, with a massive clubhouse that bucks the trend of modern clubhouses by actually being a very appealing-looking building that, with its ample glass, appears to give a subtle nod to the wonderful greenhouses over the fence in the famous botanical gardens.

The terrain almost certainly ensured Taylor's two courses wouldn't be world class, but the inventiveness of his grass hazards combined with the bold bunkering makes Mid-Surrey a course worth playing for anyone interested in seeing how to get plenty of good golf out of a property not blessed with ample (perhaps even any) undulation.

Hankley Common

2010-05-05T04:13:00.003+10:00

The best hole at Hankley - probably one of the best holes in Surrey: the par three 7th

The par five 8th is all there before you, flanked by heather, from your perch on the elevated tee

How much heather do you dare to bite off with your tee shot on the 10th?

The par five 13th traverses gently undulating land that allows for a tricky green set over a small valley

While most of the course enjoys vast open views, the 14th is cut through a thicket of pine

Hugging the trouble on the left side of the fairway pays dividends at the 17th

Course name: Hankley Common
Location: Farnham, Surrey
Four Word Course Review: More than mere beauty

From one course off the beaten tourist path to another.
A year or so back I asked some well-travelled golfers if they could recommend a few non-Top 100 courses worth seeing. Many suggested Hankley Common, and were shocked to hear it was on the Golf World list (#74 in GB&I). Incidentally, Silloth also got mentioned.

I can see how they could have thought Hankley was outside that group. It seems that with few exceptions, perhaps with good reason, Top 100 courses are very widely known. The obvious conclusion is that they are well-known because they are on the Top 100 lists and therefore attract a lot of visitor and tourist play.

But lately I wonder if perhaps the opposite is true: they aren't all well-known because they are in the Top 100, some are simply in the Top 100 because they are well-known, while better courses either miss out or end up lower on the list through anonymity.

Rated higher? A matter of opinion. What I will say is that Hankley Common deserves to be much more well-known and regularly visited.

Built on 800 acres but utilising less than 150 of them for golf, it's easily the most secluded place I have played, with rolling fields of heather as far as the eye can see, the occasional ribbon of green fairway cutting through.

The routing is the star of the show at Hankley, with the holes laid out in a series of triangles and U-Shapes (1-4, 6-8, 10-12, 13-15) to ensure the wind is constantly hitting you from a different angle. Joining those loops are linking holes that take you between the best sections of the property.

The terrain is largely similar to Walton Heath (Old) - not wildly undulating but with sufficient movement, while remaining an easy walk - and the open vistas are reminiscent of the same course. There's something fantastic about seeing the next hole open up as you walk towards the green of the one you're playing.

Benefiting from the greatest change in elevation are two of the three par fives, the 6th and 8th. The former climbs a steady hill to a green set in a steep hillside that hides its surface from view, while the 8th tee offers sweeping views across the course and a grand drive downhill over a field of heather.

Linking them is the brilliant par three 7th, a 183-yard journey set across a valley (naturally covered with gorgeous heather) to a skyline green that is brilliant for more reasons than the aesthetics and recovery options. The green itself consists of four equally-sized segments. The lowest of the four is front-right and they rise steadily in a clockwise direction finishing weith the highest tier at the back-right. Truly an all-world hole where just hitting the green feels like an achievement but is in reality only half the assignment.

Thanks to the lack of trees blocking your views, a number of dogleg holes allow you to see the flag fluttering far out of reach with nothing but heather in the way. Despite knowing it's too far to reach, it has the effect of drawing your eye and inevitably your clubface. The outside of the dogleg offers the best angle in, but only the most resolute golfer will be able to force himself to aim there.

It's an effective design trick that Braid (who converted Hankley to 18 holes in 1922) also utilised on the 10th at Cinque Ports.

Speaking of comparisons, the 1st at Hankley bears a striking resemblance to the opening hole at West Sussex in the way it uses some pretty ordinary land to get you away from the clubhouse.

The variety is what shines through most after playing at Hankley Common. The par threes and fours vary wildly in length, some holes are out in the open and others cut through thickets of pine, the approach shots are played uphill and down and the constant changes of direction ensure the wind never stays with you, against you or across you for too long.

In my mind the Surrey heathbelt is amazing not for how good its best courses are, but for the sheer depth it possesses. The quality of the courses that most golfers have never heard of is astounding.

Silloth-on-Solway

2010-04-25T03:03:00.012+10:00

The 315-yard dogleg right 2nd can be driven by challenging the heather-covered dune from atop which this picture was taken, with a much easier approach for those who flirt with danger. The dune short of the left hand side of the green makes matters difficult for those who drive safely to the outside of the dogleg.

The approach to the 3rd gives some idea of the scale of the undulation

The 7th is one of two blind par four greens, set in a slight punchbowl

The Postage Stamp 9th - a tough assignment even with a short iron or wedge in hand

The 202-yard 12th, surrounded by flowering gorse bushes and blessed with some great subtle undulation and a tough green

After a comparitively wide drive, the second and third shots to the 13th feel like you're walking a tightrope

Course name: Silloth-on-Solway
Location: Silloth, Cumbria, England
Four Word Course Review: An 18-hole high note

Anyone who spends a decent amount of time playing golf around the British Isles will soon realise the depth of fun courses is amazing, but regardless there are still some massive surprises to be had.

It may seem odd to say this given Golf World ranks it 48th in Great Britain & Ireland, but I think Silloth-on-Solway might be the most underappreciated course I am aware of in this corner of the world.

Despite that quite healthy ranking it gets next to no talk, likely because there isn't a world famous course or two nearby to draw travelling golfers to the area, as is the case in Fife, East Lothian, Southport, London, Western/Northern Ireland and Kent.

Silloth is in far north-west England, far from civilisation and a significant detour off the motorway.

I'd be surprised if there are 25 golf courses better than Silloth in GB&I. There certainly aren't 25 that offer better value.

The European Club is 30-odd places ahead of it in Golf World's poll and would get two, perhaps three rounds of a 10-Round Split between the two courses in my book. West Sussex sits about 20 spots higher and despite being a thrilling course is not, for the merits of the golf, deserving of being in front of Silloth. Royal Cinque Ports is ranked nine places higher and despite having holes that exceed anything at Silloth is also home to some moments of weakness that Silloth doesn't suffer. In my mind the two courses are neck-and-neck.

Not surprisingly, each of those three courses is on a much more regularly trodden tourist trail than the B5301 into Silloth. The first two are also much more picturesque.

Silloth is blessed with wonderfully undulating links terrain, where even the "flat" holes have serious movement. The greensites are brilliant for their variety: Dell greens hiding out of view, skyline and plateau greens demanding a precise approach, steady slopes and dune-top domes.

The combination of rollicking fairways and thrilling greens cannot be beat (and neither can the price: £45 all day midweek, £55 on weekends and members pay just £350 a year - such are the benefits of isolation!). Perhaps most crucially, the course offers width, which when combined with interesting fairways and fun greens makes for three things every links should have.

The par fives are a particular high point: from the brilliant bunkering of the 5th to the tightrope walk that is the 13th, the risk of a blind tilt at hitting the 14th in two shots and the approach to the 17th.

But in saying that, how can you not mention the varied one-shotters: a drop shot to a green hiding past the saddle between two dunes with natural slopes to help you work the ball close, a Postage Stamp surrounded by doom, a stadium of gorse encircling 200-yards of subtle undulation and finally a mid-iron to a green protected by a steep false front that feeds the flanking bunkers.

Then there are the par four holes measuring from 308 yards to 433 yards that can't be overlooked: the Dell green mid-length 1st and 7th, the dramatic 4th with steep side slopes at the grade-level green, reachable 2nd with great natural defences and dogleg right 11th inviting you to flirt with the OOB fence arguably the best of them.

That's the difficulty of singling out a handful of Silloth's holes for praise: it's probably the most consistent golf course I've played, dishing up 18 holes with a variety of options on every shot, and a wonderful flow from hole to hole.

Make the effort to see Silloth and I'll guarantee you aren't disappointed. Most golfers won't bother, and they'll be doing themselves a major disservice.

Mill Hill

2010-04-22T04:02:00.006+10:00

The 5th green is the start of the really good golf, the putting surface hidden from view as you approach over a diagonal valley that grabs anything short and funnels it away to the left

Hugging the creek and flying the bunker pays dividends at the 7th, which is much easier to approach from the right, with anything driven safely left having to contend with the large left-hand greenside trap. The bunker visible short-right of the green is a good 30 yards short of the putting surface

Perhaps the best shot on the course is the second to the 13th, with the bold pulpit green rejecting anything short and sending it either into a bunker or back 20 yards or more down the steep fairway

Course name: Mill Hill
Location: Mill Hill, London
Four Word Course Review: Bloodline evident despite shortcomings

Changing our shoes and discussing how lucky we were to score a sunny 19C day in mid-April, a Mill Hill Golf Club member sauntered up in the locker room to ask if we were visitors.

The Australian and American accents may have given it away. We said we were. First time.

"You're going to love it out there," he said. "Great course. You know what I love most about it? Every hole is separated from the others by lots of trees, so you can't see anyone playing another hole because of the trees. There are so many trees it's... perfection."

Mill Hill - one of six John Abercromby designs in southern England (The Addington, Worplesdon, Knole Park, Coombe Hill, Mill Hill and Bovey Castle) - has the potential to be a better course than it is, but to achieve that you'd have to break that bloke's heart and rip out a few of his beloved trees.

The 3rd could be a tempting hole of 280 yards were it not for the thick grove that blocks your view of the green - set tantalisingly behind a diagonal creek - from the tee, though I accept that with the M1 Motorway over the OOB fence it does its job in deterring you from having a crack, pulling it left and hitting a car.

Elsewhere there is an occasional over-treed tightness that dimishes play, but never as seriously as it does on the 3rd.

The terrain is extreme, just as at The Addington, and here Aber has not been shy about routing holes straight over the hills and valleys, though without the bridges that save you on a few holes at The Addington, this is a far more taxing walk.

Many holes play from a high tee over low ground to a high green (something you see on the likes of 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15 at The Addington). Also in common with Aber's most famous course is just how much you want to avoid overshooting greens at all costs. There are very few examples on either course where missing long is anything but the worst option.

Obvious driving hazards like bunkers and ravines are rare at Mill Hill, but in many instances the better line is protected by uneven land, some man-made humps and hollows or a flanking creek/OOB. The bogey or worse golfer will appreciate what seems a let-off for a misplaced drive, but the better golfer will still aim for the tougher side knowing the benefit of the preferred angle.

Similarly subtle at first glance, there are many greens set just over upslopes that will stop a ball landing fractionally short, while allowing a deliberate running approach to scurry through. But where the property's natural streams cross fairways (2, 3, 9, 10, 17) the green is set well back, allowing a slight miss to be recovered from.

Stealing the show are the:

5th; a par five bending right uphill on land sloping to the left with a deceptive plateau green fronted by a diagonal gully,
7th; a downhill two-shotter bending right around a narrow creek to a grade level green sloping away,
8th; a mid-iron par three to a green leaning left that offers a front tongue for a running approach if you fancy flirting with the LHS bunker,
13th; uphill par four to a pulpit green with a wicked front slope that will repel anything underclubbed, and
14th; a 300-yard journey to a challenging green that is acessible thanks to land that feeds from the left.

The DNA of a great designer like Abercromby is definitely present, largely in the above holes. Ultimately, Mill Hill raises its head above your typical suburban course while not reaching enough high notes to demand that a visitor to London include it on his itinerary.

I can see why the member who warmly welcomed us loves the place so much. The course is genuinely fun to play. It is also sneaky tough, with lots of greens playing much harder than they look, and the clubhouse is first-rate - full of history and class.

Huntercombe

2010-03-06T10:23:00.006+11:00

The 2nd fairway is divided by a diagonal ridge that sets the day's tee-shot strategy in tandem with the pin position and begins a steady stream of unconventional hazards

A massive green on the 4th is split into two distinctive tiers separated by a slope you don't want to end up on the wrong side of if you fancy converting that GIR into a par

The 8th green is another massive putting surface, with a relatively flat bottom tier rising steeply to a back tier that is as undulating as it is narrow

The centreline driving hazard at the 13th combines long grass and uneven stances with a sprinkling of gorse, typical of the natural hazards found all the way around

Course name: Huntercombe
Location: Nuffield, Oxfordshire, England
Four Word Course Review: Masterpiece of dramatic subtlety

If there is one word that sums up Willie Park Jr's Huntercombe, it's "subtle".

That might seem at odds with the drama of a few of the greens or the amazing depth of some grass bunkers, but even in those bold features there's plenty that might not be apparent at first glance.

Take for example the 8th green, with a massive slope separating the top tier from the bottom. Obviously that presents a major obstacle if you're putting from one level to the other, but thanks to a centre-green tongue that extends further into the bottom tier than the slope either side of it, even a putt across the sedate platform is made maddening, with no real way to get the ball within five feet if the pin is cut near the bottom of the slope.

After many, many attempts to find a way to lag the putt close when crossing the slope, my host and I concluded the best strategy was to deliberately hit the first putt below the hole, immediately abandoning any hope - however slight - of making the putt. It's a rare golfer who would work that out before hitting his putt, and rarer still he who would accept that he should deliberately give the hole away on the first putt to maximise his chance of avoiding a three-putt.

The predominant use of grass bunkers (there are only 13 sand bunkers on the entire course, spread across just nine holes) also means subtle views from the tees and fairways that force you to focus closely in an effort to determine where you can and can't hit the ball - as opposed to the "road map of bunkers" (not my creation, that term, but it's a good one) that most courses give you to plot your path to the green.

The other brilliant strength of low-maintenance grass bunkers is that they present tougher recovery than a sand bunker for the good player, while higher handicappers generally find them easier to advance from than a sand trap.

The greens as a set are some of the best I have seen anywhere, with a great mix of steady slopes, flattish tiers separated by almost vertical slopes and dramatic internal movement.

Within the first four holes the brilliance and variety of the greens is presented to you: the 1st green has a wonderful centre ridge that means placing your first swing of the day (it's a par three) on the right line or a three-putt becomes more than a possibility, before the 2nd calls for a downhill approach to a green that slopes away from you. The 3rd then mixes a significant right-to-left tilt with brilliant internal movement and the 4th features two massive tiers following the slope of the land - high on the left, low on the right.

Finally, Huntercombe is worth visiting also for its centreline hazards, which are a feature of the 2nd, 5th, 6th, 10th, 12th and 16th. Crucially, not only does the placement vary between driving zone and greenfront, but the nature of the hazard also changes: diagonal fairway ridge, tree in the fairway, greenfront bunkers and finally the deep grass bunker in the 16th fairway. As a result there is never a feeling of repetition.

It's centreline hazards that elevate the two par fives to their exceptional standard, with both holes among the best three-shotters I have played in England, where such holes have tended to be - with few exceptions - among the weaker holes of any course.

Of the one-shot holes, there isn't the brilliance of Swinley Forest, The Addington or Rye, but Huntercombe doesn't possess the terrain to create the drama of their par threes. Instead it's great variety that makes it a good set, especially the tough 7th and 10th holes, which both demand a pin-point long iron.

Huntercombe doesn't have the eye-candy of its rivals further south in the Surrey and Berkshire heathbelt, but when the aesthetics are stripped away and it's just you and the golf course, it more than holds its own against more fancied layouts thanks to Park's willingness to be brave and bold with the greens and hazards, while still putting enough devil in the detail that attentive repeat play reveals new ways to save shots.

Praia d'el Rey

2010-02-27T09:36:00.001+11:00

The short par four 4th features a monster blow-out bunker that tempts you to flirt with it off the tee

The 6th green sums up the character of the inland holes

It doesn't get more picturesque than the par three 14th

The sweeping beachside terrain of the par four 15th is among the best on the course

Course name: Praia d'el Rey
Location: Peniche, Obidos, Portugal
Four Word Course Review: Top-notch resort golf

Praia d'el Rey is a beachside course - with some claim to being a links of sorts - within a residential development about an hour north of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital - and very close to the magical medievel walled town of Obidos.

It has some weaknesses, and many people will immediately point to the housing, but I think its positives far outweight the negatives, and of the housing, I'd say it only becomes overbearing on a few holes (2, 10, 12 - which incidentally are all very strong holes, which helps to overcome the jarring of all that concrete).

The greens are a fantastic set, heaps of internal movement and some great sites, with a few strong constant slopes to add variety.

I really liked the fact the man-made movement didn't fight with the natural slope and shape of the land. The shapes might not have been 100% natural, but they fit the land really well. I also noticed that quite a few are also extremely narrow, generally on the shorter holes.

From the tee, almost all of the two- and three-shotters made you think about lateral placement (with a few "go for it over a major landform" moments), but the impediment to a poorly-placed shot changes: a longer approach, an awkward angle across severe green slopes, a pine tree that forces you to hit a cut from a hook lie, blindness - you don't find yourself thinking "I've hit this shot already".

If there was a point of sameness it would be that eight of the greens are raised above the approach area, but there is enough variety in the other features to overcome that.

Some of the geometric bunkering seemed at odds with the natural, rolling, wild site. I allowed myself to fantasise and "see" some wild Doak-style traps on a few holes and I believe it would be preferable to so many perfect circles of sand.

The routing was another high-point, in my opinion, two side-by-side clockwise laps that expose to to the wind from every angle, albeit with a couple of stretches where your bearing doesn't change (4-7 and 13-15). It also took you in and out of the pine forest and the open dunes several times, also giving you that glimpse of the ocean you came to see on both nines.

But in doing that, and in taking advantage of that stretch along the beach in the middle of the back nine, designer Cabell Robinson ended up with the 15th green a very long way from the house - and the result is three stern holes to finish: My last three approaches were 5i, 4i and 4i and all followed well-struck drives.

It also seemed to me that as you moved inland, the architectural merit also peaked, as if to overcome the lack of thrill as you left the seaside.

The par threes and fives tended to be good to very good, but lacked that X factor that the greats have, while the par fours offered as much variety as you could hope for.

Of the holes you'll remember most fondly, it may be the two short par fours that burn brightest.

The 4th may be the best hole on the course. Driveable at 304m from the tips and 274m/286m from the more mortal men's tees, it's dominated by the massive natural blow-out bunker that flanks the left. The further you hit your drive, the more you need to hug it to get the plum angle in to the green, which is both steeply angled and narrow, with a few really ugly spots if you miss by as little as a few metres. In concert with the modest length, that's probably fair.

The flat, beachside 13th is 300m from the tips, but 285m/256m from the tees most golfers will play. It has a wicked, narrow, front-to-back sloping green that sees to it that driving the green is no guarantee of a birdie. Every golfer loves an eagle/birdie chance, and I think it was clever of Robinson to put this hole on perhaps the most memorable patch of dirt on the property. Into the wind, you'll have to consider if you can carry the RHS fairway traps, but otherwise this is your chance to create a story to tell your mates after the round.

Pria d'el Rey has some flaws, for sure, but I defy any golfer to walk away without having thoroughly enjoyed the four hours. It's well worth the trip, and with advance bookings with green fee websites getting you a start in summer for 65-70 euros (rack rate is about 120 in summer), the value is unusually good for European resort golf, especially resort golf worth playing.

On top of that, nearby Obidos and Sintra are two of the most enjoyable places I have visited in the world, and Lisbon is a fun city worthy of two or three days of your time as well.

Oitavos Dunes (which I was prevented from playing by a hurricane that arrived from Madeira!), Troia, Penha Longa and Golden Eagle are the other top established courses in the region and Bom Sucesso, which has recently opened, and Royal Obidos next door to it (under construction) will add even more to the region's credentials as a destination where golf, culture and weather unite - and at a lower price than other Euro destinations.

Swinley Forest

2010-02-18T01:28:00.006+11:00

The Redan 4th, played from a tee visible in the left centre of the picture, climbs the hill, before the par five 5th - the only three-shotter on the course - heads back down, doglegging to the right

The par three 13th is a slight drop shot, with the par four 14th then heading away towards the left

The 450-yard 15th climbs a steep rise as it approaches the false fronted green, with no shortage of hazards to consider when planning your route to the green, whether in two shots or three

The 17th calls for a thrilling mid iron shot to a pulpit green where short is the only place to miss

Course name: Swinley Forest
Location: Ascot, Berkshire, England
Four Word Course Review: Golf in purest form

They say if you walk off the 18th green and want to head straight back to the 1st tee, you've just played a very good course. So what does it say that I walked from the 36th hole of the day thinking that if I headed back to the 1st tee I might get manage another two or three holes before darkness fell?

Swinley Forest is simply a special place in golf. If religions have cathedrals, mosques and synagogues to celebrate their traditions and faith, golf has courses and clubs like Swinley Forest. If the Old Course at St Andrews is the St Peter's Basilica of golf, then Swinley Forest is Sainte-Chapelle: smaller, less well-known, but no less spiritual.

Harry Colt's course might not look daunting at 6019 yards (5504m) with a par of 68, but a brilliant set of par threes (probably the best I have ever played), a mixture of par fours measuring between 285 and 455 yards (the shortest and longest played back-to-back at the 11th and 12th) and some wonderful greens combine to thrill and test the golfer in equal measure.

Among the course's many strengths is the fact that the similar holes are spaced perfectly: long par fours at the 6th, 9th, 12th and 15th; par fours with a downhill tee shot and uphill approach at the 1st, 9th and 18th; holes along flat ground at the 3rd, 6th, 11th, 14th and 16th; par threes at the 4th, 8th, 10th, 13th and 17th.

Ample heather provides a penalty for missed fairways, and while many holes are isolated in their own corridor through the towering pines, the trees rarely interfere with play. Yet despite the fact the course is carved through a forest, there are many wide open vistas to be enjoyed from high the high points on the site.

The bunkering is also a masterstroke, from those short of the 7th and 10th greens that cause distance gauging issues to the fairway bunker at the 1st that obscures your view of the green and on to the severity of those on many of the par threes.

As well as the fantastic and at times downright cruel sand bunkers, Colt's beloved grass bunkers are also well used here - as at Canterbury and Royal Wimbledon - ranging from narrow, snaking channels to large "bathtubs". The course also draws on some unconventional hazards in the form of narrow heather-clad ridges set perpendicular to the line of play at the 7th, 9th and 15th.

While a glance at the scorecard shows some similar distances on certain holes (the 2nd, 14th and 18th all measure within two yards of each other and the 6th, 9th and 16th have less than 20 yards separating them), Colt's routing of the course up, down and across the rolling slopes ensures each has its own character and challenge.

The 12th and 15th holes - at 455 and 450 yards (uphill) - are two of the best half-par holes you will ever play, with two of the trickiest sloping greens on the course.

The variety of the par fours is a real strength of Swinley Forest, but it's the one-shotters that steal much of the glory: the Redan 4th with its left side defended by caverns of sand, the 8th - played to a green set beside a fearsome 15-foot slope that somehow tempts you to flirt with it, the 205-yard 10th over a valley of heather to a hogback green boasting some vicious pin positions, the drop-shot 13th defended in front by sand to catch the golfer who underclubs and - perhaps best of them all - the wonderful 170-yard 17th, with its pulpit green and deep bunkers.

They combine to call for a range of shotmaking skills, with greens that can be approached wisely by a golfer happy to play short or wide of the green in the right place and try for an up-and-down par.

I commented as we were ushered from the clubhouse at closing time: "I'm like a kid at his friend's birthday party, who doesn't want to go home, even though it's over!" You can have your modern 7000-yard par 72 "championship" courses: Swinley Forest is golf as it was meant to be played.

Dreamland (Pharaoh)

2010-02-09T09:20:00.002+11:00

The first green sits surrounded by a mass (or perhaps a mess) of steel and concrete

The tee markers were sufficiently tacky!

The 8th hole calls for a mid iron to a false fronted green that will accept only a pinpoint shot

Course name: Dreamland (Pharaoh)

Location: Cairo, Egypt

Four Word Course Review: Second best pyramid views

I had arrived in Egypt planning to play at Mena Oberoi, a nine-holer in Giza that would be entirely unremarkable were it not, at its closest point, 219m from The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as The Pyramid of Cheops).

I had not, however, made any plans because I knew I would be on a pretty tight schedule and would have to wait until the morning of my last full day in the country to be sure I would have the time to play.

In hindsight, I probably should have done a bit more groundwork.

The day comes and the time can be spared. A quick call to the hotel that runs the course reveals that it is being renovated (I had heard Robert Trent Jones Jr was touted to be re-designing it, but didn't know work was underway) and I won't be playing golf there.

Gutted, I jump on the internet, certain I have seen another course advertising pyramid views. I may not have planned my assault well, but I had built-up the notion of playing golf under the pyramids so much in my head that the idea, now that I had the time, of missing out was killing me.

My search reveals Dreamland's Pharaoh course has pyramid views and I phone to book a tee time in the afternoon, then set off for the Egyptian Museum. I get a call 10 minutes later from the bloke who arranged my trip to say the course is more than two hours from my hotel in Giza and it won't work because I can't take his driver (human, not titanium and graphite) for that long.

By this stage I am getting a bit frantic because the only Arabic phrases I know are "thank you", "let's go" and "I love you", and none of them seem likely to solve my dilemma. The driver thankfully knows enough English to understand what I need to find out, so he rings the course for me. They say they are only 25 minutes from the pyramids.

After I'm done, still far from convinced that a) the course is anywhere near Giza and b) the driver will be able to find it, we head for where we think the course might be. Finally something goes right and the Hilton sign and rollercoaster I was told to look for are visible for miles around.

In all the rush and stress of the day I hadn't eaten since a tiny breakfast at 6am, so by 3pm I am standing on the first tee starving, holding the ugliest set of rental clubs you have ever seen and rejoicing that Egyptian dress rules aren't as strict as back home at Cinque Ports!

But I was there, and that was all that mattered. By the second green I had caught some pyramid views and anything else would be gravy (though, in keeping with the comedy of errors and poor planning that got me to that point, a sand storm rendered the pyramids, though only six kilometres away, quite hard to see and nigh on impossible to photograph for much of the afternoon!).

As it turned out, the course was quite enjoyable with its even split of par threes, fours and fives, the highlights being the 7th and 8th.

The former is a 400-yard par four with a centreline bunker 150 yards from the green, to the left of which the fairway falls sharply away. To drive to the favourable right side you have to carry a water hazard, though bailing left leaves a mid or short iron from a near 1:1 sidehill lie. It was a really fun hole with a simple green that suited the challenge of the two shots it takes to get there.

The 8th is a par three over a quarry-style water hazard to a green perched on the edge of a small cliff featuring a steep false front that feels balls to the front-right of the green. For those who know it, the area that will welcome a ball and allow it to sit is about 2.5 times the size of the back tier on the 3rd green at Woking. Not huge, but with a seven iron or thereabouts in hand, not an impossible task.

Other than that, just a solid course with nothing overly scintillating but nothing too offensive - within the course at least. It's safe to say the global recession has not spared Egypt: half-finished mansions litter the perimeter of the course, with precious few workmen around to suggest they will be finished any time soon. It made for a particularly interesting backdrop to the first green, for sure!

So now I have played golf in Egypt, within sight of the pyramids, but probably took a year off my life in the process. Was it worth the drama, effort and cost? Of course it was. Golf always is!

Royal Sydney

2010-01-31T09:18:00.015+11:00

The glorious 5th green falls away on all sides, with plenty of bunkers waiting to be fed

The 18th plays back to the foot of the brilliant clubhouse and is a fitting end to an enjoyable round

Course name: Royal Sydney
Location: Rose Bay, Sydney
Four Word Course Review: Front nine outshines back

Royal Sydney is definitely one of those places that is more about the club than merely the course, but the Australian Open venue, redesigned by Ross Watson in 2003, is definitely no slouch.

The flat back nine terrain stands in the way of the layout reaching absolute greatness, but there are plenty of great holes and memorable features nonetheless.

A reachable par four greets you as the opening challenge, and despite a tempting opening to the green over the sea of sand in the fairway, it's one - like the opening holes at NSW, Woking and North Berwick - that might be more likely to have you reaching for the driver were it later in the round.

At the par five second is a fantastic centreline bunker set into the front of the green that dictates the lay-up strategy in conjunction with the day's pin position, while the 4th and 5th greens sit high above the surrounding terrain, accepting only a perfectly-positioned approach and shrugging anything else into deep bunkers or down tightly-mown slopes away from the putting surface.

The par five 7th tumbles naturally over land perfect for golf, before the second reachable par four of the day at the 8th, where a confounding gouge out of the land in front of the green ensures both brain and braun are required to reach the green in one. The 9th green ends the outward side on a high note, nestled into a sandy hillside.

The disappointment as you walk downhill off the 10th tee is that the best of the terrain is behind you, and most of the best holes are, too. Where the front nine follows the boundary fence on three sides, the back plays up and down the centre of the property.

Trees begin to dictate the strategy on the way in, to the detriment of several holes, particularly the 12th, where a drive leaked right would leave a tantalising but very difficult approach over sand to an angled green were the driving zone not overcome with trees.

Three holes later, the 15th is not much more than an over-indulgence of length and sand played over level ground.

The gold standard of the three-shotters that is set on the front continues with the 13th and 16th, which both feature fantastic greens and a smart use of some of the better back nine land - particularly with the placement of the centreline lay-up bunker in the face of a diagonal ridge at the 16th and the two-tier plateau green at the 13th.

The home hole returns the golfer to the foot of the stylish clubhouse, the greensite at the base of the hill a combination of ample sand, a tough green and plenty of mounding for spectators: the perfect place for a national championship to be decided.

If there is a general disappointment at Royal Sydney other than the back nine terrain it's the repetition of the par threes. The first three are mid iron drop shots to greens well-defended by sand, before the 17th dishes up something different in the shape of one of the toughest green complexes on the course, requiring a long iron to reach, no less.

Inside after the round, there are few clubhouses that are more fun to explore with a drink in hand. Photos galore adorn the walls, documenting the club's history, both as a tournament venue and a haven away from the bustle of the city for its members, who also enjoy tennis, lawn bowls, croquet and squash, as well as a nine-hole golf course that offers a less demanding test than the main course.

To judge Royal Sydney merely on the merits of the course would be to miss the point: the combination of course, club and fantastic staff make it well worth experiencing.

Penrith

2010-01-29T10:00:00.000+11:00

The 7th's greenfront bunkers make the angled surface seem smaller than it is, and swallow up plenty of balls when the pin is cut on the more distant left hand side

You don't want to leak your drive to the right at the home hole

Course name: Penrith
Location: Penrith, Sydney
Four Word Course Review: Bunkering enhances flat site

Penrith, about an hour from Sydney's CBD in the far west of the city, is built on an exceptionally flat riverplain site, but savvy bunkering brings a wealth of strategy into most of the holes.

Combining with the shotmaking demands of the bunkering is the fact that at 6380m (7012 yards), this is a long course, but one that doesn't feel like a death march, aside from on the odd 40C+ summer day when there isn't a breath of wind.

The par threes provide good variety: an 8-10m drop shot at the 140m 3rd, greenfront bunkers that obscure the putting surface at the 130m 7th, a 200m tour de force to a green set by water at the 11th and a 165m journey across a ridge at the 13th.

One thing that sets Penrith apart from most others courses in the modern era is that all four par fives are genuine three-shot holes. Diagonal greens are combined well with bunkers or streams in the lay-up zone that stop you thoughtlessly flailing away with a fairway wood for your second shot.

The 17th is the only one of the par fives that is borderline reachable, but its green deflects the ball on all sides to make up for the slightly more modest length. It is also the meat in the sandwich of a brilliant finish.

The par four 16th doglegs left around a pond, leaving a long to mid iron into a long, narrow green guarded right by sand, while the 18th is all about staying left of the cavernous greenfront bunker that makes an approach from the right one of the toughest short irons you'll ever face.

The bunker blocks your view of the steep green, making it hard to control your distance and keep your ball below the hole on the treacherous surface, with the dowslope of the mound into which the bunker is set kicking anything landing short through to at least the middle of the green.

The 16th and 18th may well be the pick of the par fours, but the dogleg left 4th and reachable 14th - guarded by a sea of sand - are also standouts.

Another feather in Penrith's cap is the pure couch fairways, where most other non-elite courses in Sydney are kikuyu. Regardless of the colour during winter, they are always kept in fantastic condition.

Penrith's greens are on the tame side, but with the combination of sand and length that's probably a good move. Nonetheless, subtle breaks reward those who can read the greens well.

Sydney doesn't have the golfing riches of Melbourne, London or New York, but for the club golfer, it does have a solid selection of thought-provoking layouts that will keep you engaged, and Penrith fits well into that group of courses, and at an affordable price (in part thanks to its distance from the city and less than desirable address).

Woolooware

2010-01-28T07:35:00.002+11:00

The par four 11th, with its kidney shaped green, has a front right bunker that makes for a difficult approach from that side

Course name: Woolooware
Location: Woolooware, Sydney
Four Word Course Review: A decent public option

Woolooware is a public "council course" in the south of Sydney that while being nothing special in the grand scheme of things, is a fun course, demanding much more considered shot placement than most other courses of its type.

The small property means the holes are packed in more tightly than would be ideal, so it's trees rather than bunkering or natual landforms that dictate the best places to position the ball off the tee.

The front nine opens with some long, straightforward two-shotters, before the shorter 5th, 6th and 7th call for drives to certain positions for a good line in (or on the last two, even a chance to get on the green).

The recipe continues on the back nine, and while it's not the greenside features that dictate strategy for the most part, the putting surfaces themselves are some of the best you will see on a public facility, with a mixture of constant slopes and rolling undulation.

No one will ever drive too far out of their way to play golf at Woolooware, but it's an enjoyable place to play nonetheless, and the thick and juicy $10 steaks on a Wednesday night are great value!