GREAT OCEAN RD
Quality golf isn’t too hard to find in and around Melbourne. But if you want to combine a spectacular drive with three rounds of outstanding golf, you should head for Victoria’s Great Ocean Rd and Shipwreck Coast.
Packing a car in the darkness, nearly two hours before ‘sparrow’s fart’, screams passion. In this instance, it was just before four in the morning and I was trying to work out the jigsaw puzzle of fitting three golf bags into the boot space best suited to two.
That sorted, we hit the road heading south west out of Melbourne towards Geelong and onto the Great Ocean Rd. To say we were taking the ‘scenic route’ to our first golf course of choice is an understatement. From Melbourne’s western suburbs it was a four-hour drive to Peterborough – at the western end of the Great Ocean Rd. Yes, there was a shorter route, via Colac, but none more spectacular with the majestic Twelve Apostles being the absolute highlight.
Having stopped at every vantage point along the way, we eventually pulled up outside the Peterborough Golf Club just after lunch. I had never heard of Peterborough, let alone the golf course, until we started planning this road trip. But what a surprise this nine-holer was.
I could never have imagined this diminutive par-32 shares the same stretch of rugged coastline as the world famous Apostles, just 25 minutes’ drive down the road. There is nothing flash about the golf course, but it didn’t need to have all the bells and whistles to be memorable.
We decided to play a three-club only game across the clitop links layout. Wedged between the small township and the sea, this is a true links course. The holes have been laid out on completely natural terrain and take advantage of any landform available. The short par-4 5th is played from an elevated tee to a fairway flanked by out-of-bounds on the cli ’s edge to the left. While there are coastal views on every hole, the views don’t get any better than when you stand on the tee at the 5th and then again at the 6th hole.
The 6th is a terrific par-3 of 142 metres where the tee shot must be played across a cli to the almost perfectly circular green. There is plenty of room to miss this green, which is fortunate given the strong winds that usually prevail here.
We had a brilliant afternoon soaking in the views and having a laugh on the course. So much so, the scores didn’t really matter after a few holes.
Warrnambool, an easy 45-minute drive west of Peterborough, was our accommodation base for the weekend and The Cally Hotel was a welcome sight after a full day on the road, with a bit of golf
thrown in. Our room was cosy, the beer was cold and the bistro’s mixed grill (including house made beef sausage) went down a treat.
We were greeted with grey skies and a sti wind for day two. After breakfast we checked out Flagsta Hill village, which gives you an insight into what life was like in Warrnambool and along the Shipwreck Coast for the first European settlers. But as the clock ticked closer to midday, Warrnambool Golf Club beckoned.
From the moment you turn into the driveway of the club, there is no mistaking who the favourite golfing son of Warrnambool is. Marc Leishman Drive leads you to the clubhouse and when you venture inside there is plenty of memorabilia, generously donated by ‘Leish’, in the foyer. A glass cabinet with a signed golf bag and a few scorecards, including his Warrnambool course record card, are just some of the interesting items on display.
Leishman is a much-loved golfing hero of the club. And why wouldn’t he be. He learned and honed his game there and was well-supported by the members in the fledging years of his golfing career. When he returns home from playing in the United States all year, he always makes time to tee it up in the club competition with a few members and share a few stories around the bar.
To look at the strengths of Leishman’s game – long hitting, precise iron play with a variety of shots in all conditions – you need look no further than the holes covering the varied terrain surrounding the clubhouse to see how the foundations of his enviable swing were formed.
Most of the layout covers landscape formed by sand dunes, while the routing is predominantly lined by coastal ti-tree. The highlights of the course are on the front nine where the terrain is more dramatic and the trio of interesting short par-4s – starting at the 4th hole – wind between massive dunes. These holes have become known in recent times as the ‘Shipwreck Bend’.
The 4th and 5th holes have undergone a few changes recently with some of the ti-tree cleared away from dunes cutting into the edges of the fairway. The result, especially on the dogleg right 4th, is a scarred sandy wasteland on the hill right of the driving zone. Previously, the green was unsighted from the tee here but the clearing of scrub from the large dune a ords a view of the elevated green from the tee and can entice players to now hit their drives on a much tighter line down the right half of the fairway.
Likewise, the 5th hole is a gem with its elevated tee o ering a glimpse of the ocean o in the distance. The fairway, which occupies the flatter terrain between huge dunes, winds slightly left then right as it climbs toward the green. Thick scrub has been cleared from the left rough, leaving another sandy wasteland that gives the appearance of a hole that is much wider than it actually is.
By the time we reached the 6th hole the wind was starting to howl from the south west and was right up our tails for this 345-metre par-4. Col ‘The Count’ (he’s an accountant) is a handy eight marker and he had no hesitation teeing up a driver for the slightly uphill journey to the green. He got
every piece of his tee shot, which flew like a tracer bullet with the slightest of fades over the inside of the left-to-right dogleg and was green bound. Unfortunately for The Count it was the last time we would see his ball as we presumed it had taken a kick into the rough or scrub somewhere in the vicinity of the green and disappeared. In the increasing winds throughout the afternoon, it became the first of a handful of balls The Count would never see again.
One hole I won’t forget is the 117-metre slightly uphill 13th hole. The green slopes significantly from back to front and there are two bunkers short right of the putting surface. On a calm day, this hole would require nothing more than a 9-iron to get your ball into the middle of the green. During our round I hit a low-flighted 6-iron into the wind and watched as my ball punched through the air and landed on the front. The poor Count found one of the bunkers and gave himself a sand shower trying to hit his ball out.
As you might have guessed The Count didn’t have a great scoring day at Warrnambool but we all had a great time in the challenging conditions on a course designed to be fun and in great condition.
Having grabbed the greatest slice of the skins pie I shouted dinner back at The Cally, where it was parmas all round.
There was barely a breath of wind just after dawn on day three, which was welcomed by The Count as we packed the car for the 20-minute drive west to the Port Fairy Golf Links.
Once considered Australia’s greatest hidden golfing gem, Port Fairy always received accolades for its holes that oer views of the ocean, and during the past decade a lot of work has been done to improve the holes away from the views by adding bunkers and removing unnecessary scrub.
That said, the stars of the show remain within view of the sea on the back nine. They cover the best land and oer the most memorable shots – like, for example, the downhill approach to the bunkerless green on the par-4 14th with the Southern Ocean as its backdrop.
The Count was having a day out and when he flushed his drive down the 14th hole he was one under for the round and collecting money from us like we were ATMs. A smooth 6-iron into 10-feet and one putt later and The Count was two under and having the round of his life. At this rate, the drive back to Melbourne was looking like it might be unbearable.
The 178-metre 15th hole is a fantastic par-3. It is a spectacular hole that runs along the back of a beach and gets you closer to the sea than any other time during the round. As a result, you are exposed, on most days, to the gusty sea breezes that place a premium on getting your club and shot selection right. Like the 14th, there are no bunkers around the edge of the putting surface, but there are plenty of small hummocks and hollows to repel your ball away from the target.
The 365-metre par-4 16th is links golf at its best and is a real taste of what you might experience on the great links of Britain and Ireland. The sweeping dogleg left presents a blind tee shot to a fairway, riddled with bumps and swales, which is separated from the beach by a single line of sand dunes. The approach to the slightly elevated green is rarely played from a flat lie, adding to the fun this hole oers. We thought The Count’s round might unravel here when he hit a half shank o a hanging lie and his ball flew straight right. It didn’t quite make the out-ofbounds mark and he got up and down for a par.
The accountant was pretty chued with himself when, on the final hole, he rolled in a six footer for par and a two under 70 – his second ever sub-par round and the first time in our group’s travels that a player had won all the money, including the nearest the pin bets, in a round. And, yes, the drive back to Melbourne with The Count behind the wheel was unbearable.