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New
South Wales Golf Club can count itself as one sibling
in the collection of offspring that includes most of
Australia's great classic courses, borne of the vision
of architect Alister Mackenzie, whose visit to Oz
triggered its transformation towards one of the
world's great international golf destinations.
The
Australian-based Mackenzie "family" project
did not start off so ambitiously, though. Mackenzie's
famed first visit down under was a result of being
commissioned by Royal Melbourne to lay out their new
course; his trip was originally set to have a singular
purpose. However, Mackenzie became enamored with the
great landscapes of the continent, managed to attain
further work on his reputation and his earnestness,
and single-handedly went on to produce all of
Australia's best-known golf courses. At gems such as
Royal Adelaide, Kingston Heath, and Royal Melbourne,
Mackenzie massaged stunning inland acreage into three
of the world's most heralded golf designs, but his
work at New South Wales stands in a class of its own,
both worldwide and in the architect's own portfolio.
Working with a stunning oceanfront property just south
of the New South Wales capital city of Sydney, the
intoxicating drama of the layout is matched by some of
the United Kingdom's world-class seaside links;
indeed, when the wind blows, the golf played in
Mackenzie's homeland is conjured here. Gentle
posthumous renovations by the great Australian player
Eric Apperly has done little to diminish the original
work of Mackenzie, and in fact, some have said that
Apperly channeled the great design instincts of the
late Mackenzie in his construction of the famed sixth.
Apperly's adjustments, and the sod-walling of bunkers
in recent years, to add both challenge and endurance
to the design, has turned New South Wales into a
formidable and improved version of the Mackenzie
original. New South Wales, like few other things in
life, appears to be getting better with age.
A
diegesis on the merits of each hole at New South
Wales, from the first tee deck to the final putt,
could fill a tome; suffice to say that each hole is an
integral piece of the awesome whole, though a select
handful are clearly that beams on which New South
Wales' elite status rests. The first of these can be
found at the fifth, a par five of 514 yards that
rushes downhill toward the sea. From the tee, the
vista is to a crest of the fairway that actually
erases the landing area, filling it with the ocean and
the distant horizon. Aesthetically, the harmonious
convergence of land, sea, and sky is enough to make
one miss a breath, but the strategy behind the
biospheric merger translate well to the golf. Drives
should be able to carry the ridge, effectively making
the tee shot a blind one, and allowing for 60-80 yards
of additional roll as good drives bound out of sight
toward the sea. From there, the green is in reach, set
again in the foreground of the sky and sea, but the
peril of Mackenzie's design takes over here. As
tempting as the short yardage seems, the sharp
downslope from which the second must be played makes
it difficult to control a long iron. Between the firm
terrain and the slope, the play must be a cautious
one, and even thin mishits run the risk of
accelerating through the green and into the water.
It's an archetype example of a profound hole that
tests the skills of an accomplished player, while
perhaps playing easier for the modest, average player.
The
sixth, Apperly's amazing feat of inserting a new hole
into a classic design, is the immediate follow-up,
forming the latter half of one of the back-to-back
stretches on the continent. From a thin peninsula on a
shoal in the ocean, tee shots on this 195-yard par
three play uphill to a small green fortified by a
series of bunkers.
With the required fairway wood or long iron, the green
can be a very difficult target to hit, especially if
the seas are choppy from a stiff and swirling breeze.
Moving
back inland after Apperly's one shot gem, it is not
until the back nine that the course finds his way back
to the immediate edge of the sea, where the first of
three in a stretch of four puts an exclamation point
on the New South Wales design. The approach to the
413-yard par-four 13th brings the sea back into full
view, where the elements wreak an amplified havoc on
iron approaches that are not flighted low and solid.
The follow-up, the 355-yard 14th, exchanges an air of
caution with one that hints to reward unbridled
aggression. It is nearly impossible to resist the most
aggressive line from the tee, even though a fairway
wood down the right side leaves an easy pitch into a
banked green. as with most holes at New South Wales,
wind can turn strategies and temptations on their
head. Rarely can a hole like the 14th be approached
the same way twice.
With
the 16th comes the end of the holes playing towards
the water, and this dynamic 443-yard par four is a
challenging way to finish off the stretch. The hole
moves from right to left, and the land feeds the ball
in the same direction. The angled pitch from right to
left at the green requires some thought when driving
the ball. Although the right side leaves the front of
the green open, the slope means you cannot land the
ball short, while the left side forces the golfer to
flirt with the front left bunkers, but also affords an
opportunity to make use of the slope, letting the ball
pitch back to the flag in a single bounce.
In
recent years, renovations to the New South Wales
property has included the clearance of idle sections
of brush and foliage, further opening the course to
the wickedness of the elements and the charm of the
landscape.
While
travelling golfers may be ready to unwind from a
flight and explore the city of Sydney, to travel to
Australia and miss New South Wales would be an
egregious sin for any golf enthusiast.
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