PENNANT HILLS GOLF CLUB
BEECROFT • NEW SOUTH WALES MEMBERS AT THIS CONVENIENTLY LOCATED SYDNEY CLUB ENJOY BENEFITS THAT EXTEND FAR BEYOND JUST ACCESS TO A HIGH-QUALITY GOLF COURSE.
Members at this conveniently located Sydney club enjoy benefits that extend far beyond just access
to a quality course.
In many ways Pennant Hills is a rarity among modern golf clubs. The course is not super-charged with excessive length but instead defends itself in more subtle ways. It is a quiet sanctuary amid ornate gardens in a veritable arboretum despite having two of Sydney’s primary roads directly outside its boundaries. And it is a club that firmly believes membership should have its privileges.
The club that legendary career amateur Tony Gresham still to this day calls home and that also nurtured the game of Peter Fowler during his formative years is these days constantly re-evaluating its offerings both within the 18-hole course and as a viable lifestyle proposition. As a result the active, devoted membership enjoys a variety of reasons to congregate and does so with an unmistakeable camaraderie that’s palpable throughout the clubhouse. Snobby Bushwood Country Club this most certainly is not.
Take, for example, the recent addition of Speed Golf to the events schedule. On the last Sunday of each month, nine-hole competitions are held that combine net stroke scores with the time taken to complete the round. Seven clubs is a maximum (savvy players carry fewer) and the record pace for playing nine is an efficient 29 minutes (and 38 strokes). And if that sounds only semi-respectable, wait until you see the hills that form an integral part of
the Pennant Hills layout, some of which make Augusta National seem at by comparison.
The past decade has seen the club secure its water supply through an onsite treatment plant that draws local waste water and treats it to provide irrigation water. It’s a move that both guarantees the club’s future needs and displays a high degree of environmental responsibility. More recently, a bunker refurbishment program began with the 1st hole’s greenside bunkers now rebuilt and the rest of the traps to receive the same upgrade in the coming years. Next up is a new roof for the clubhouse ahead of an internal refurbishment as the club looks towards its centenary in 2023.
To score well around “Penno” it is essential to be proficient at two things: playing shots from lies that slope in every direction and judging uphill and downhill shots to perfection. No hole is at, and you don’t need to be Christopher Columbus to prove it. Occasionally the course will serve up a shot where the target is at a similar elevation to the ball but there’s likely to be a decline, incline or both between the two. The greens are small, well-guarded and sneaky fast, and often the hilly terrain shields part of the putting surface from view when standing in the fairway.
The course begins with a rolling par-5 through two stands of towering gums before opening up to reveal a beast of a par-4 at the 2nd that climbs so steeply uphill it requires a Sherpa rather than a caddie. Pars here feel like birdies. Three par-5s in the rst ve holes create some early scoring opportunities before a run of holes from the 6th with the potential to bite. No.6 is an uphill par-3 of 186 metres where a high, left-to-right shot is advisable. The 7th is a 393-metre par-4 that also moves uphill and gently left to create the most difficult hole at Pennant Hills. The par-4 8th plummets downhill before a picturesque little par-3 that is as delicate as it is beautiful. Short as it may be, the tee shot on the 9th is one stroke in the round you want to judge correctly.
The second nine begins with two long, uphill par-4s before a run of holes where your ability to accurately decipher distances is at a premium. The 421-metre 12th is a short par-5 with a small, heavily bunkered green perched atop a hill. The 13th green is the smallest among all Group One courses in Sydney and comes at the end of a 352-metre dogleg-right par-4. The downhill 14th hole is a tougher par-3 than its 152 metres suggests and precedes two awkward short par-4s that, like the rest of the layout, reward precision over power. No.17 is a deceptive challenge with a fairway that feeds balls to the non-ideal right side before a 170-metre par-3 to close that plays from a low tee to a bunker-lined, tabletop green sitting in full view of the clubhouse.
Up hill and down dale, played quickly or at a more leisurely pace, Pennant Hills is as alluring as it is awkward to conquer.