Golf Vic Vol 60 No 2 2019

The rest of the new rules seem to be going along fine. It was inevitable a few players would be inadvertently caught up in the transition but once players and caddies worked out not standing behind a player after he or she had addressed the ball meant not standing behind the ball when a player was addressing the ball, the problem seems to have gone away. Likewise, the initial awkwardness of dropping at knee height seems to have dissipated and in four months I’m still looking for my first spike mark to tap down. We are lucky in Melbourne that the greens are usually in pretty sharp condition and the best clubs are seemingly always searching for better greens and better golf. Peninsula Kingswood has unveiled two completely rebuilt courses, Victoria has reopened after a six-month rebuild of its greens, most of which were almost a century old, and Yarra Yarra is in the midst of a Tom Doak transformation. I’ve heard some complain the course is ‘easier’ and maybe it is but it is surely infinitely better than the course of a few years ago, one its original designer Alex Russell would barely have recognised and surely not have approved. The National, too, has completely rebuilt what is to be known as the Gunnamatta Course and it seems sure to sit amongst the best dozen or so courses in the country. Twenty years ago no-one could have imagined The National, Peninsula Kingswood and Barnbougle would show off six of the very best courses in Australia and it’s testament to golfers continuing to search for better, more interesting and more inspiring golf. Great golf was the inspiration behind the sandbelt courses Russell, Alister MacKenzie and their contemporaries gave life to and the future in this state is always going to be about better golf. Those offering it will surely thrive long into the future and the decisions made by those at the aforementioned clubs are worthy of study and understanding. THAT COUNTS Twenty years ago no-one could have imagined The National, Peninsula Kingswood and Barnbougle would show off six of the very best courses in Australia. Main: Victoria’s practice putting green was part of the magnificent re-build of the greens. Inset: Bespoke flags and flagsticks in use at Victoria Golf Club, as seen on the 16th. Photos courtesy Victoria Golf Club Golf Victoria 15