macleod
3rd January 2005, 09:37 PM
Whilst down in beechworth victoria i got the chance to pop out to 2 of the local courses for a bash.
I'd played at Wodonga 2 years ago, which had the softest most receptive greens (a la early days the glades) during the heigth of the drought....tres fun.
This time my 17 yeard old bro-in-law and I popped along to the local beechworth golf club, inaugerated 1899 apparently, and a full sand scrape course. having never played one before it was a great experience, especially on the etiquette of post putting scraping.
The course is laid out over some suberb natural terrain, this being kelly and granite country, and some of the holes were quite long for what i thought was just the local have a bash course.
not the greatest nick, but by god if you ploughed a it of cash into the course and upgraded to grass greens you'd make a killing. There's so much spare land around it play with....g69 could have a field day!
interestingly enough, recently the club was assessing the option of using a bunch of money they had to either upgrade to grass greens, or expand the current clubhouse (drinking hole). They opted to make the drinking hole a better place to hang out :)
Second, i reconnoitered the layout of Myrtleford Golf Club and Bright. I really wanted to get to Bright, but my father-in-law was so late in picking us up in the Pajero it was a write off and Myrtleford beckoned as the easy option...since i was driving and all....the pop-in-law technically being current disqualified...go figure.
I'd heard a few things about Myrtleford last time i was down and it didn't disappoint. Set slightly back in the hills of the Ovens Valley with views of mt buffalo it was an awesome country course with topnotch greens. $20 for 18 holes and my cool hire clubs were a set of pgf concorde blades, on a handy dandy rack with a handle...best configuration for carrying clubs ive seen in awhile!
The greens were receptive and very quick bent grass. Great fairways too. The course only has one bunker on it, on the cracker 9th hole, dogleg left to an uphill elevated green and it's perfectly placed to boot! like a lovely sandy mirage......wayne (the dad-in-law) managed to get into it though. he called a halt to his own game at the clubhouse once he discovered the $2.50 heavies and mark and me persevered on.
he hadn't played in 8 months and it took us almost 3 hours on the front nine with him....we did the back in just over a hour after he stopped for 'refreshments'.
there are a number of parallel holes on the course, which in some patches makes it a little repetitive, but the native trees and surrounds more than make up for those bits and the back nine had wider holes to boot, allowing for some nice snap hooks in cow herds for over eager guys. the lack of bunkers was offset by plenty of ball eating trees, and the occasional grass bunker or deep grass mound guarding some of the greens.
the beechworth sand scrape had some cool hazards too, special favourtie was the hairy speed bumps on steroids placed just off some of the fairways. nestling a ball aginst them meant taking some high loft to get over, or play off the side of them ;)
unfortunately i didn't play very well at all with my hire clubs, but scraped by a 94 on the myrtleford course...i'd love to play again this year with my own clubs. as for playing beechworth with my own clubs....mmm...nah... :D
country golf...just get into it eh?
Ably complementing each outing was a spot of rabbit shooting post match with the bro-in-law, bagging a nice brace of furries for the dogs. i especially like my headshot on mr.fluffy with the 22...although hitting it with the shotty or the 30-06 would have been more entertaining for us both!
I'd played at Wodonga 2 years ago, which had the softest most receptive greens (a la early days the glades) during the heigth of the drought....tres fun.
This time my 17 yeard old bro-in-law and I popped along to the local beechworth golf club, inaugerated 1899 apparently, and a full sand scrape course. having never played one before it was a great experience, especially on the etiquette of post putting scraping.
The course is laid out over some suberb natural terrain, this being kelly and granite country, and some of the holes were quite long for what i thought was just the local have a bash course.
not the greatest nick, but by god if you ploughed a it of cash into the course and upgraded to grass greens you'd make a killing. There's so much spare land around it play with....g69 could have a field day!
interestingly enough, recently the club was assessing the option of using a bunch of money they had to either upgrade to grass greens, or expand the current clubhouse (drinking hole). They opted to make the drinking hole a better place to hang out :)
Second, i reconnoitered the layout of Myrtleford Golf Club and Bright. I really wanted to get to Bright, but my father-in-law was so late in picking us up in the Pajero it was a write off and Myrtleford beckoned as the easy option...since i was driving and all....the pop-in-law technically being current disqualified...go figure.
I'd heard a few things about Myrtleford last time i was down and it didn't disappoint. Set slightly back in the hills of the Ovens Valley with views of mt buffalo it was an awesome country course with topnotch greens. $20 for 18 holes and my cool hire clubs were a set of pgf concorde blades, on a handy dandy rack with a handle...best configuration for carrying clubs ive seen in awhile!
The greens were receptive and very quick bent grass. Great fairways too. The course only has one bunker on it, on the cracker 9th hole, dogleg left to an uphill elevated green and it's perfectly placed to boot! like a lovely sandy mirage......wayne (the dad-in-law) managed to get into it though. he called a halt to his own game at the clubhouse once he discovered the $2.50 heavies and mark and me persevered on.
he hadn't played in 8 months and it took us almost 3 hours on the front nine with him....we did the back in just over a hour after he stopped for 'refreshments'.
there are a number of parallel holes on the course, which in some patches makes it a little repetitive, but the native trees and surrounds more than make up for those bits and the back nine had wider holes to boot, allowing for some nice snap hooks in cow herds for over eager guys. the lack of bunkers was offset by plenty of ball eating trees, and the occasional grass bunker or deep grass mound guarding some of the greens.
the beechworth sand scrape had some cool hazards too, special favourtie was the hairy speed bumps on steroids placed just off some of the fairways. nestling a ball aginst them meant taking some high loft to get over, or play off the side of them ;)
unfortunately i didn't play very well at all with my hire clubs, but scraped by a 94 on the myrtleford course...i'd love to play again this year with my own clubs. as for playing beechworth with my own clubs....mmm...nah... :D
country golf...just get into it eh?
Ably complementing each outing was a spot of rabbit shooting post match with the bro-in-law, bagging a nice brace of furries for the dogs. i especially like my headshot on mr.fluffy with the 22...although hitting it with the shotty or the 30-06 would have been more entertaining for us both!