Robert Trent-Jones Jnr. designed
course is situated in rugged sand
dune country high above the Cape
Schanck Coastal and Point Nepean
National Parks and offers ocean
views from 16 of it’s 18 holes. Trent
Jones has moulded his course to
take full advantage of the visual
beauty.
As a stiff southwesterly wind whips
across the tee, I line up my ball
and take one last look at the green
- an emerald island high above
a no-man’s land of ball-hungry
woodlands. Hit it left, hit it short
or hit it too long and it’s a lost ball.
There is little room for error. This
is the 121 metre par-3 second, the
course’s signature hole and one
that typifies the National.
On coastal land next to the
National’s Old Course are its
two other courses; the Moonah
course, which is a links-style
layout designed by Greg Norman
and debuted in the top ten
golf courses in the country, and
the Ocean Course designed by
Thomson, Wolveridge and Perrett,
and based on the great links of
Scotland and Ireland. These three
top-drawer courses add up to the
only 54-hole golfing facility of its
kind in Australia.
After my encounter with The
National’s deep bunkering, multitiered greens and the howling
winds, my golf ego is well and
truly broken. Just as well that I
am basing myself next door at
the RACV Cape Schanck Resort,
complete with another top-quality
Robert Trent Jones Jnr. Layout.
Slipping into the hot bubbling spa
is just reward for a demoralised
golfer.
Volume 3 • Issue 30
21