Magazine - The Australian Masters and Huntingdale Golf Course

By Rob Jenkins in Golf on 2nd Dec 2008 17:20

The first Australian Masters was held at Huntingdale in 1979. Twenty nine years later the tournament is worth $1.5million, and Huntingdale golf course is one of Australia's truly great layouts.

I live just five minutes from the world famous Melbourne sand belt region, and having lived around the area for most of my life, its easy to take for granted these beautiful golf courses. 

Not being the greatest golfer in the world I have only played Huntingdale once, this was over 10 years ago and I wasn't a greenkeeper then, and despite being a local I have never soaked up the atmosphere and all that Huntingdale has to offer.

The first time I attended The Masters at Huntingdale was also 10 years ago, it was on the final day and I witnessed Bradley Hughes tear the course apart, he shot a 268 over the 4 days, and managed to make the course look easy. Not that the course was a walk in the park 10 years ago, Hughes just played some freaky golf! Since then the course has had numerous works done to it, new dams and some new greens have made it even even more difficult, seeing anyone shoot a score of 268 on today's course would be witnessing a golfing miracle.

I had been given some tickets for this year's Masters and to be honest I didn't plan to use them, reasoning that I could can go and see the course any old time. Having talked myself into watching the final day on the television I settled back on the arm chair, the overnight leader Robert Allenby was about to tee off in the last group, then the guilt kicked in!  

The course had looked stunning on the TV screen and the day was too good to be true, around 20 degrees celcius with no clouds or wind. So I decided to get my arse into gear have a shower and get across the road, I did have a free ticket after all. I arrived as Allenby was about to tee off on the 4th, so  there was still plenty of gold left in the day.

While your reading this and shaking your head at me, I'll say in my defense I'm not writing this article to talk about the golf, as we know this is a website for greenkeepers and groundsman! Although being a sports fan it's hard not  to get caught up with the big names in the game. I could quite easily write a article about the stunning win and the 3 hole play-off that saw a former Caboolture club champion and a greenkeeper himself Rod Pampling wind the coveted gold jacket. 

I haven't even mentioned grass at all yet! Well if the course looked great on television it looked even better walking around it. You never really see the undulations of the greens and fairways on a 2D box. I was truly impressed with Huntingdale's greens, they were true and quick. They looked huge standing on the sides, and it would take a masterful putter to tame them.

Obviously with the course set up in tournament mode I was unfortunately not able to walk over the surface. A little bit of poa annua was viable on the green, but they had a very healthy coverage of bent, and with full dams and some good drops of seasonal rain over the last month the entire course was in great colour.

The dams at Huntingdale are very well placed; one of the country's best par 3's, the 15th, has seen many a golfer come unstuck when Melbourne's afternoon wind picks up. Adding dye to dams is such an easy way to beautify a hole. It's not that expensive to do, and who would rather a dirty brown looking water to that of an ocean blue?

Huntingdale has never been renowned for it fairways like its adjacent course, Metropolitan Golf Club. Metro has just about the best fairways I've ever seen, but Huntingdale is by no means a poor neighbour. I didn't see a bad lie all day, the fairways were in great colour and the pure coach grass didn't have a weed in sight, a credit to the team down there. 

As far as the layout, Huntingdale is an underrated course,  the famous Golf Digest top 100 courses places it at 28. I must admit I do scratch my head at this. Walking around the course there isn't much even the most pedantic judge can find fault on, beautiful old trees grace the holes, well positioned bunkers masterly sculpted into the fairways give the holes character and an edge. The greens are some of best in the country, and the rough has feel as most of our sandbelt courses do. Lovely native grasses left uncut to punish the wayward shot also make the holes look natural and blend into the towering gums.

My favourite hole at Huntingdale has always been a toss up between the 15th and 18th. The 18th as it's one of golf's toughest finishing holes. Tough fairway bunkering on the left and deep scrub on the right, make this a treacherous driving hole for anyone.
 
The 15th as I mentioned before is one of the best par 3's in Australia. This green is an angry greenkeepers best friend, if he's having a bad day watch out as there are some tricky pin placements on this fantastic green!  For evidence of this just ask Robert Allenby, as his dream of winning the masters again vanished in the deep green side bunkers on the final day.

I must admit I'm glad I got off the sofa and made the long 5 minute trip to Huntingdale, its fair to say I won't need any motivation the next opportunity I have to visit this great Australian layout.

Congratulations to Michael Freeman on another great year and tournament.

Read more articles in Golf, by Rob Jenkins or from December 2008.