22 | course development
The Lost Farm sets tongues waggling
By David Newbery
The Barnbougle Lost Farm golf
course in Tasmania hasn’t even
opened yet it is already receiving
rave reviews.
A soft opening has been schedule
for October, but that hasn’t
stopped some golf observers
predicting it will rival its next door
neighbour Barnbougle Dunes
– Australia’s top-ranked public
course.
Elizabeth Sattler, the course’s
marketing manager and daughter
of landowner Richard Sattler, said
most of the work on the Lost Farm
course had been completed.
“At the moment we are giving the
fairways of the course a chance to
‘grow in’,” she said.
“The coming months will provide
us with an opportunity to allow
the grass to knit to establish a
foundation, ensuring the dunes
are stable and the fairways are in
top condition for golfers.”
The soft opening in October
will be followed by the official
opening in December, which will
coincide with the opening of the
clubhouse, restaurant and bar,
well-being centre and on-course
lodge accommodation.
Sattler said she had heard
rumours the Lost Farm golf course
would rival Barnbougle Dunes.
“The sand dunes on the Lost Farm
course are more dramatic than the
land on which Barnbougle Dunes
was designed, which means that
the courses are quite different
given their close proximity,” she
said.
“The courses will certainly
complement each other
because both Doak [designer
of Barnbougle Dunes] and
Coore and Crenshaw have the
same philosophy – to utilise
and the natural contours of the
land to design a course which
complements the surrounding
landscape.
“Will the Lost Farm be better? I will
have to let golfers pass their own
judgement to which is the better
golf course.”
The American design team of
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw
painstakingly sculptured Lost
Farm, a links course, set among
dramatic coastal dunes in
Tasmania’s northeast.
“The site at Barnbougle Lost Farm
is very special,” Bill Coore said.
“For a golf architect, opportunities
to work with a piece of land like
the dunes of the Lost Farm don’t
come along very often.
“To turn down this project would
be like a professional golfer
passing up the opportunity to
play in one of the majors because
it was too far to travel.
“People are always asking if the
Lost Farm will be better than
Barnbougle Dunes, but there is no
way it could be. What it will be is
different.
“We have aimed [at the Lost
Farm] to build a golf course that
complements the first course,”
Coore said.
“What Richard Sattler [owner
of the land) has done with the
clubhouse precedent at the
Lost Farm has to be seen to be
believed.
“It really is going to be a
spectacular place to visit.”
The Lost Farm golf course has
holes that play along the coast
and holes that play inland and is a
mix of all angles.
“I think it’s quite a good mix and it
certainly won’t be boring,” Sattler
said.
“We have aimed to create course
that is fun for golfers of all
standards – not just those with a
low handicap”
.
Sattler said Coore and Crenshaw
had taken the windy environment
into consideration and had
widened some fairways.
So, how will the Lost Farm course
stack up against the Tom Doak
and Mike Clayton-designed
Barnbougle Dunes?
Lost Farm designer Bill Coore
hopes that they will be akin to one
another.
“Our aim is to have golfers
in friendly banter with their
colleagues regarding which is the
better course,” he said.
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