Camden Valley & Lakeside redevelopment

[Andrew]

Yes, lots of words like 'envisions' & 'planned'.

They have a huge billboard on the corner of the closed course showing a couple walking down a fairway with bags & buggies in tow. The caption reads: "Some call it relaxation. We call it the backyard".

[jimandr]

I know that a few regular Sydney readers are interested in this, so the thread needs a bump due to some major developments.

The developer, Sekisui House, now has a masterplan of the entire development on display on the website, www.thehermitagesydney.com.au

The golf part looks like a real dogs breakfast, but if it goes ahead in the published form there will be big changes to the Camden Lakeside course.

Essentially, only the first four holes, 10, 11 and 18 will stay in their current form.

The good news is that overall there will be 27 holes again, but it appears the other nine will be totally separated from the main 18, so it may not be possible to mix and match nines. It also looks like there will be some huge distances between holes.

There is a members information night happening this Thursday, but I'm not going to attend. I will, however, be playing golf on Friday, so if I hear anything of value I'll post it.

[Grunt]

Looks like we as golfers will lose out yet again to housing.

[Peppas]

Looks.... interesting.

[Grunt]

I thought of another adjective and a little more offensive starting with F.

[Peppas]

i thought of another adjective and a little more offensive starting with f.

fantastic?

[Andrew]

Thanks Jim,

Well, this looks like the confirmation of my post back in October. Yes, they are ‘delivering’ 27 holes, yet it is still 18 holes less than what was there previously.

These masterplans are never an accurate representation of the golf holes or even the routing. It would be interesting to see if they have any sort of golf architectural plan yet.

Unfortunately Jim, it looks like a mess & the course & club will suffer.

A few observations:
- The new practice fairway is about 1.6km from the clubhouse as the crow flies.
- Of the holes closer to the clubhouse, it is going to be 8 holes out & 10 back or visa versa.
- The drawings of the golf holes near the road haven’t taken into account the widening of Camden Valley Way.
- There is two or three spots where I don’t believe they have enough room to fit as many holes as they have drawn in.

To give you an idea of how much these drawings mean, the existing 9th hole has 3 tees drawn in, one playing at approximately 270m, the next at around 230m and the other at 145m.

There are also 2 new holes that are missing greens.

This is going to take ages to be completed, if it ever is completed. The housing will always take priority over the course during construction. With only 8 existing holes remaining, they have to build 10 new holes just to keep the course complete. I would be interested to know if they are making any commitment to keeping a reasonable amount of holes ( preferably 18 ) playable during construction.

[jimandr]

One of my playing partners today, and a few guys I knew in the clubhouse, went to the members information session last night.

From a golf point of view there is nothing to panic about for a long time. They were apparently talking about 2018!!! as the target date, so it would appear that the big changes won't start occurring for a very long time.

The meeting apparently concentrated more on cosmetic changes planned by the new course superintendant and financial support being provided by Wests Leagues in the short and medium term.

One of the guys who claimed to know a bit more than what was discussed was saying the development would start from the Camden Valley end, and the new golf holes would be built at that end before any existing holes would be taken away. He also claimed that the drawings were concept plans only, so that might not be the final layout at all.

So this forum will probably fold before the destruction of the golf course starts.

[Grunt]

Good to hear Jim,
Will have to have another game there again soon, will Easter be a good time to have a game? I have the Australian Canoeing Marathon Nationals on Easter Saturday but could do Monday.

[Andrew]

From a golf point of view there is nothing to panic about for a long time. They were apparently talking about 2018!!! as the target date, so it would appear that the big changes won't start occurring for a very long time.

I figured it would be a long way off. I still wonder if it will ever happen.

One of the guys who claimed to know a bit more than what was discussed was saying the development would start from the Camden Valley end, and the new golf holes would be built at that end before any existing holes would be taken away.

It would be great if it happened that way, but compared to other developments over the years it would be unusual.

He also claimed that the drawings were concept plans only, so that might not be the final layout at all.

Well, they are obviously concept plans, but have they actually had a golf course architect on site to look at the land. They will struggle to fit that many holes on the land they claim is going to be golf course.

What cosmetic changes are they looking at?

[jimandr]

They are going to rebuild/redesign the practice putting green to create a chipping practice area, and apparently do some drainage work to fix some of the wet areas that don't drain well.

The one thing that is already obvious is that the bunker surrounds are being cut short rather than be a bit overgrown.

Grunt, Easter will not be good for golf. The greens are being cored/sanded on Monday, so they will still be soft and probably a bit bumpy. Also, the Masters is on that weekend, so they are having a Masters Breakfast and Golf Day on the Monday, at a cost of $90 for breakfast and golf after the Masters finishes. I'll probably have a game on Good Friday anyway, so PM me if you want to play that day anyway.

[Grunt]

Ok Jim. Good Friday is a maybe,

[Andrew]

They are going to rebuild/redesign the practice putting green to create a chipping practice area, and apparently do some drainage work to fix some of the wet areas that don't drain well.

The one thing that is already obvious is that the bunker surrounds are being cut short rather than be a bit overgrown.

That all sounds good, sensible stuff, especially regarding the bunker surrounds. CL plays better when the green & bunker surrounds are shaved.

[TS]

Ok Jim. Good Friday is a maybe,

Will be interested to join you guys for hit if there is a spare spot.

[Greeny]

I saw Camden Valley got a mention in this article during the week...

http://smh.domain.com.au/real-estate...327-1vwnk.html

[Jono]

Will be interested to join you guys for hit if there is a spare spot.

me too. I wouldn't mind playing lakeside again.

[jimandr]

While this is the wrong thread to be arranging games of golf, it just happens that I booked a tee time for four on Good Friday today, and now I seem to have three partners.

PM's will be sent shortly.

[Guru]

I was a member at the Rugby Leagues Country Club in the early eighties before I moved down to Melbourne, I had been back a couple of times and had a game there with my daughter seven or eight years ago. A couple of weeks ago I had to go see a customer in Liverpool and after catching an earlier flight had a couple of hours to kill so decided to revisit my old stomping ground. Imagine my shock to find the course gone. After finding this thread I now know what happened but can anyone tell me what happened to the honour boards of the old club? I had my name on a couple so am interested in if they were preserved.
Thanks

[KristianJ]

Just saw on a Nine news update that Norman's got a redesign in the works...

[wazandnic]

Yeah saw that also. An article in The Age says it will include another 9 holes also, which I believe has been on the cards for a while.

[mrbluu]

Does anyone know how this is going??

[wazandnic]

Played there a few months back and no signs of anything happening.

[FuzzyJuzzy]

I hear (from pretty worthy sources) that the plans for Greg Norman to redevelop Camden Lakeside have been ditched, but that they'll still be building a new 9-hole course out there as part of the new residential development.

[mrbluu]

I hear (from pretty worthy sources) that the plans for Greg Norman to redevelop Camden Lakeside have been ditched, but that they'll still be building a new 9-hole course out there as part of the new residential development.

So the old course will remain the same??

[FuzzyJuzzy]

So the old course will remain the same??

Guess so. Camden Lakeside to stay as is - although I've not been out there for maybe a year. Did they already lose some holes to the housing that's going in there? I remember hearing that there were plans to put houses around the 2nd and 3rd holes, or something.