St Andrews Beach

[WBennett]

Blakey, it was built as a members course, so it needs lots of plays to know ‘how to play it’!
It has some great moments but some bad low moments.

The impossible to hit it shelf on #3
The impossible right pin on #6
The impossible green to hit and hold #10
The stupid drive/fairway on #13
The ‘Redan’ type hole that doesn’t feed from the right on #16

I really like the rest, although you are always walking 40 metres plus from the green to the next tee!

You are spoilt at RH. 40m is a short walk at a modern course. Pushing a buggy through the sand up the hill from 5-6 and 6-7 was brutal from memory

[WBennett]

I'm not that well travelled, but would there be a course with as much scale as StAB but where the greens feel so small?

The greens are tiny, but you can putt from 20m off them most of the time.

[ParkRoyal]

You are spoilt at RH. 40m is a short walk at a modern course. Pushing a buggy through the sand up the hill from 5-6 and 6-7 was brutal from memory

I only realised recently how short the walks are at Tasmania, makes a quick nine before or after work so much easier.

StAB has a lot of up then down walks from greens to tees or vice versa, that gets annoying.

[LeftyHoges]

Haven’t we already resolved this? #aplayerofyourability

100% 17 fairway pot needs to be filled in

Seems like we have, yes.

#****ingbullshit5yarddraws

[Bruce]

13s a great hole, accurate tee shot,ongoing 2nd into a very receptive green

Can you help me understand how accurate works on a blind shot with the amount of contours in the landing zone? A couple of metres difference on the first bounce can have more than 50m of difference in the final result.

[petethepilot]

Can you help me understand how accurate works on a blind shot with the amount of contours in the landing zone? A couple of metres difference on the first bounce can have more than 50m of difference in the final result.

Totally agree Bruce! The dropoff is very severe on the left and the fairway has elephants buried in it. The right side falls off to leave a blind second over 2 huge bunkers. Up there with BBD #8 tee shot for sillyness…..and both are Doak holes!

[Bruce]

The course design is a good one but the fairways are overly generous for a course of its length (even when the wind blows). The green complexes are a highlight, a nice natural flow to them which is a real treat to see on a modern golf course as most have a very artificial feel too them.

Dont get me wrong St. Andrews is a good course I just dont think it should be in the top 10. I bet The National are wishing they had asked Doak to do the 'Ocean' course instead of Thommo.

Cheers
Yoshi

I scrolled back to start of this thread to find this spot on prediction for the future made 10 years earlier.

[ParkRoyal]

Totally agree Bruce! The dropoff is very severe on the left and the fairway has elephants buried in it. The right side falls off to leave a blind second over 2 huge bunkers. Up there with BBD #8 tee shot for sillyness…..and both are Doak holes!

BBD 8 at least has outs and you can see roughly where to hit or not. 13 StAB doesn't have any of this.

If the tee is levelish or a bit higher than the fairway then its probably the best hole on the course and one of Australia's great long par 4's.

[petethepilot]

BBD#8 would be a much better hole with either;

a flatter, more advantageous upper shelf or

a new tee further back and located up on the dune overlooking the beach. This would have the hole as a risk/reward par 5 (as well as having another all world view). Also, BBD#9 can become more of a ball breaker Par 4 by using the ‘Clayts’ tee just above the #8 green. It is an amazing tee shot down a speed slot (coloured in blue) on the left of the fairway!

StAB #13 is a better tee shot from the front left tee. The back right teeshot is almost impossible to not hit it down the massive left slope at Driver range…especially in a Northerly wind.

[PerryGroves]

Where are Marto and Just? Think I prefer the work of Yoshi rather than Yoss.

I really like St Andrews Beach and would play it over most down that way. The 3rd has always annoyed me but that's because I'm not good enough.

[Toxic]

Can you help me understand how accurate works on a blind shot with the amount of contours in the landing zone? A couple of metres difference on the first bounce can have more than 50m of difference in the final result.

It's blind the first time you play it, every time after that it's known.Every fairway has contours and run off's of various degrees.Real question, at 450m can you reach it in two or should the average golfer play it as a par 5 and take their 2 points and be happy?Something like a 3 hybrid, 4 iron, wedge and 2 putts

[markTHEblake]

what a thread revival! seems to be a golf course that generates points of views.

No. One of the very, VERY few "links-ish" designs in Australia that aren't ****ing stupid.

for a bloke that seems to think everything is ****ing stupid, if you like it, then thats saying something!

[Toxic]

Where are Marto and Just? Think I prefer the work of Yoshi rather than Yoss.I really like St Andrews Beach and would play it over most down that way. The 3rd has always annoyed me but that's because I'm not good enough.

3rd I love, little fade around the corner and take 1 club extra into the green.The bloody par 3 4th however- it just bends me over dry every damm time ffs

[LeftyHoges]

what a thread revival! seems to be a golf course that generates points of views.


for a bloke that seems to think everything is ****ing stupid, if you like it, then thats saying something!

C'mon now, don't be like that....


Only the ****ing stupid things are ****ing stupid.

[backintheswing]

I've played it once at the 2015 vic champs. The only hole I can really remember is the dogs breakfast called 1. It got worse after that.

[Toxic]

I've played it once at the 2015 vic champs. The only hole I can really remember is the dogs breakfast called 1. It got worse after that.

1...the short easy par 5....cmon man

[backintheswing]

1...the short easy par 5....cmon man

Absolutely no idea where the green was.

[WBennett]

On 1, 3 Jab hit it to something like 15 foot then made eagle. Simples.
On 2, Gammon brought out a sonic boom, made the putt, and we had back to back eagles.

I wasn't talented enough to eagle 3 to keep the run going.

[Bruce]

Absolutely no idea where the green was.

There is a sign on the tee box describing where the green is. Has been since 2 weeks after they opened up to the public.

[markTHEblake]

The Starter also made a point of telling us where the green was.

[PerryGroves]

There is a sign on the tee box describing where the green is. Has been since 2 weeks after they opened up to the public.

As a general rule, no sign on a golf course is ever read by the intended recipient.

[markTHEblake]

Ha. I think there was a sign at StAB that said "careful steep descent", on maybe 8, that was too late and should say "sharp corner" instead. My mate in the right seat was taking a video and nearly lost him😀

The steep descent was no danger as it was just straight down after the corner.

[Webster]

St Andrews Beach is great fun - very different, quirky half par holes, a tonne of awkward shots and blind approaches to mess with your head (usually if you are out of position). Those used to straight forward vanilla golf usually detest it and certainly don't understand it. The wind is a massive factor, but there is mostly enormous width to hit into to.

The two par 4.5's (3 and 13) are terrific holes and head **** those who start thinking about the approach/tee shot well before they get there. At times you can slap it anywhere, others you need a high degree of precision to pull of the shots asked of you. Can be hard to get the ball close to the pin on a lot of holes regardless of where the pin is.

The green sites are very cool, rarely are there bunkers hard up against them, but there is a heap of room around which allows for every possible short game option.

The conditioning is well below what it was when it first opened which is a shame, but its almost always very firm and running. Oh, and it's not a link course; doesn't look like one and certainly doesn't play like one.