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View Full Version : The Sands at Torquay (review)



BrisVegas
1st December 2004, 01:50 PM
http://www.thesandstorquay.com/course.html

I was lucky enough to play The Sands yesterday, whilst on a short holiday in Victoria. It's at Torquay, south-west of Melbourne at the start of the Great Ocean Road. About 90 minutes from Melbourne, or 45 mins from Avalon (ie. Jetstar).

This is a new course, designed by Stuart Appleby, which is dominated by dramatic sand bunkers. It is tucked in behind the sand dunes of the Torquay Foreshore Reserve. The course is fairly flat, with only a couple of holes playing over and around a large sand dune. There is a new housing development being built around it and there are virtually no trees. The clubhouse is 5 star, with a very modern and stylish restaurant.

I've only played a few courses on the Mornington Peninsular, but I would rate The Sands as equal to other top-shelf resort courses like The Dunes. It's a similar style to Moonah Links Open, but probably only 90% as difficult. If you're planning a trip to the area and couldn't justify crossing from Mornington to Bellarine, now there is another worthwhile course. You could easily play 13th Beach and the Sands in one day.

I played it from the tips, which was a tough ask in hindsight. It was drizzling rain when I started, which increased to fairly heavy rain at times. There was no point during the round, where it actually stopped raining. In Victoria I guess you have to plan for either rain or wind, and possibly both in one round. I was lucky I guess that it never got too windy.

The back nine is routed closer to the ocean and is probably the stronger half. The 11th hole is 435 metres and plays with a strong cross-breeze and a little uphill. I hit driver, then 3 wood to just reach the greenside traps. The 13th hole plays uphill to a tilted green and is partly blind. I took 2 extra clubs, just to make sure I didn't come up short. Turned out to be a good option. The 16th hole is a monster. From the tips, it takes a solid drive just to carry the water hazard in front of the tee and reach the fairway. I played my second shot from inside the hazard line as I hit a slightly gay fade off the tee! Then the 17th is a 210 metre par 3, into the wind. It played easily 10-20 metres longer than that due to the prevailing headwind. If it was really blowing, this would be a layup hole. As it was, I came up short with 3 wood.

The front nine played amongst the new houses, so was not as natural as the back. There were some very cool houses under construction or already built, so worth checking out for that reason alone. My wife took more photos of the houses than the golf course... There were a couple of shortish, but well bunkered par 4's to start, followed by another monster par 5. I was lucky to only visit the sand bunkers a few times. They are similar in depth and style to those at Brookwater, which made them quite intimidating. I tapped in a 2-foot birdie on the 7th, then held on with pars on 8 & 9 to shoot 79 for the round. I was very happy with that score.

This is a very interesting and challenging course. It's only going to improve with time, as the greens get slicker and harder. Well worth the visit, if you happen to be in the area.

Fishman Dan
1st December 2004, 01:57 PM
Good stuff Vegas, and good shooting. There's also a fairly detailed writeup in the latest Golf Australia mag.

BrisVegas
1st December 2004, 02:51 PM
A few of the houses looked close....dangerously close....can you confirm ?
Will hopefully get there for a dig at some stage. Maybe on my 21 day golfing Odyssey next year. :wink:

Only partly developed at the moment, but there were some houses pretty close to tees and greeens. Didn't see any alongside fairways that I thought were in danger yet.... Personally, I'm not a fan of housing right on top of golf courses. I guess, its the best way for developers to fund the project, but it makes for a claustrophobic golf course. They've got a very strong set of design guidelines and the houses all looked very stylish and modern. The modern beach shack look etc.. Plenty of square lines and skillions to keep under the 7.5 metre height restriction.

Drove past the regular Torquay Golf Club and it looked pretty flash too. It's also right on the water, with plenty of dunes and elevation change etc. Might be worth a dig too.

BrisVegas
8th December 2004, 08:50 AM
A few pics...

http://img125.exs.cx/img125/1291/swing11ct.th.jpg (http://img125.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img125&image=swing11ct.jpg)
flushed.

http://img118.exs.cx/img118/9247/swing20po.th.jpg (http://img118.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img118&image=swing20po.jpg)
crushed.

http://img105.exs.cx/img105/9890/green16er.th.jpg (http://img105.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img105&image=green16er.jpg)
easy par.

http://img33.exs.cx/img33/6684/9th8rg.th.jpg (http://img33.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img33&image=9th8rg.jpg)
The 9th - a cracker of a hole.

http://img100.exs.cx/img100/1434/house13fv.th.jpg (http://img100.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img100&image=house13fv.jpg) http://img76.exs.cx/img76/9009/house26jy.th.jpg (http://img76.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img76&image=house26jy.jpg)http://img105.exs.cx/img105/1536/house32ip.th.jpg (http://img105.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img105&image=house32ip.jpg)
Cool Torquay golf course houses.

http://img79.exs.cx/img79/9352/tram17sm.th.jpg (http://img79.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img79&image=tram17sm.jpg)
What's with all these stupid trams. Get outta my way!!!