Queensland’s greatest golf course - designed by Jim Tucker
Designing Brisbane’s best golf course is an 18-hole jigsaw which has drawn on the layouts of a city mad for the game during the coronavirus lockdown. This is JIM TUCKER’s ultimate 18 holes.
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Designing Brisbane’s best golf course is an 18-hole jigsaw which has drawn on the great and underrated layouts of a city which has gone nuts for the game during the coronavirus lockdown.
This is a course you’ll never play but a composite of the toughest, most majestic and most teasing holes from Redcliffe to Brookwater and south to Carbrook.
Golf writer Jim Tucker has put his lens on this project at more than 20 courses from a dusty 12-handicapper’s viewpoint and taken advice from club pros, administrators and well-travelled former Queensland PGA champion Ossie Moore.
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The final selection will stir argument and controversy but you have a crack too as “course designer” with three strict criteria.
An 18th hole only contests for the 18th hole which means the second-best 18th can’t be a compromise pick as the fifth. You must also include a minumum of 10 courses to compose a classic layout with four par fives, four par threes and 10 par fours.
Personal favourites have unashamedly crept in. Don’t agree with “the best” or “the most challenging” tag by all means but you’ll all definitely want to play these 18 holes.
1ST HOLE: Wolston Park...316m Par 4
Wow factor to launch this project at “Wolly Park.”
From an elevated tee, you peer left at a wide, magnetic bend of the Brisbane River where the sun dances on the water.
The hillside rough down the right side of the fairway is banked like the Anna Meares Velodrome and offers a helpful kick.
Arrive late afternoon and there’ll be 30 kangaroos lolling on the bank behind the green or in the greenside bunker.
2ND HOLE: Virginia...383m Par 4
A terrific hole that can ruin a round early.
A tree-lined creek winds down the right side of the hole and the fairway tightens at driving length with subtle mounding and terminal trouble for sliced tee shots.
Basically, show some courage to find the centre of the fairway because the cautious golfer will run into the sparser treeline down the left side of the fairway.
3RD HOLE: Ashgrove...160m Par 3
This mid-iron distance makes it a fine challenge for men and women. The large pond or tough chipping swale catches short or mishit shots by the jittery golfer.
The quirky play is to go over the large tree guarding the right edge of the green and cannon off the bank beyond to nestle close to a centre-green pin.
4TH HOLE: Brookwater...551m Par 5
At Brookwater, you could easily prefer the Par 3 fifth, the sweeping downhill joy of the Par 5 13th or the devilish uphill Par 4 10th with its pinball of trees.
It’s hard to have a love affair with this Frankenstein hole, so majestic from the elevated tee shot but a tough uphill slog stitched on from there.
Playing your third shot from the right, tilted side of the fairway is a blind shot over cavernous bunkers and you can have your ball thrown wickedly back down the slope like at Augusta National. No shortcuts.
5TH HOLE: Brisbane...386m Par 4
The adventure on this classic dogleg par four starts with a blind tee shot. For bearings, always pick out a tall gum in the distance.
The expansive lake left fills your head for your second shot.
Scuff a ball along the ground into the water, pull a long iron on the wind into the water...most players have experienced all those watery sensations when aiming a long iron at a green with a rightside bunker.
6TH HOLE: Indooroopilly...355m Par 4 (Gold Course)
A beautifully-framed hole with Mt Coot-tha as a lofty presence in the distance.
You need a well-struck drive to avoid the bunkers left and right and a sure approach iron with three three bunkers guarding the green.
The sucker pin on the left side of the green can lure you in and you’ll curse careering off the steep slope left into the hazard.
7TH HOLE: Nudgee...380m Par 4 (West Course)
Rarely seen by the outside world because it’s only been open since January 11 as a new hole in Nudgee’s marvellous makeover. Tour pro Scott Hend found the fairway bunker 130m from the green on his test drive and there’s a pond right if you slice it. Pull back to a three wood off the tee and you’ll have a challenging approach to an elevated green with multiple undulations.
8TH HOLE: St Lucia...122m Par 3
A quality little hole. The green crowns a hill so it has a super blue sky backdrop with a towering gum as a sentinel well to the right of the green.
Some will flip just a wedge or nine iron to this green but there are plenty of ways to be tripped up when there is such a tricky downhill putt to a front pin.
9TH HOLE: Indooroopilly...478m Par Five (Red Course)
A double-water carry loved by low markers but less of a favourite with high markers who have to lay-up short of the second testing stretch of water.
You have to catch a good drive because leaking right towards the water is fatal.
A second shot over the water leaves a short iron to a green protected by a bunker right and water long or left. A great finishing hole to a betting round.
10TH HOLE: Keperra...398m Par 4
A tough hole even with a pinpoint drive that avoids the pond poking its nose out on the edge of the fairway.
When shooting to the angled green, even a well-struck iron shot that’s overcooked can tumble off the banking into the trees lurking as a backstop.
11TH HOLE: Wynnum...406m Par 4
Both sides of the fairway are bordered by trees and ball-catching gullies. There’s water in play for the longer hitters before a long approach to a raised, bunkered, two-tiered green. You’ve earned your beer with any par at the rollicking Wynnum Pro-Am.
12TH HOLE: Royal Queensland...292m Par 4
Every course needs a short par four and this is a beauty. RQ’s own Jed Morgan blasted a three wood to find the green during this year’s Australian Amateur.
Mere mortals can take a tiger line down the left side of the fairway and bring trees into play or play to the right of a teasing line of bunkers that snake down the left-centre of the fairway.
The prevailing wind is always pushing any full drive towards the reeds and water. Even with a wedge in your hands, it’s easy to lament coming up short on a long, contoured green.
13TH HOLE: Brisbane...165m Par 3
Countless golfers are magnetically drawn to taking on the pin too boldly and leaking a shot right into the water or the traps guarding the green.
Those players invariably walk to the green and ponder “dumb shot...so much room left.” Cross-wind adds difficulty.
14TH HOLE: Redland Bay...508m Par 5
Head pro Gavin Beck unashamedly calls it “one of the best par fives in Queensland” and he’s right. Players need to avoid Moreton Bay’s mudflats to the right, dense trees to the left and seven pot bunkers strategically placed on the fairway and around the green. The mudflats turn into a giant water hazard during king tides. Two good shots to the corner will leave you 110m to the green.
15TH HOLE: Gailes...403m Par 4
From the tee, there’s a bank of gums down the left side of a generous fairway that sweeps uphill with the left-to-right dogleg.
Pick the right line to the elevated green by aiming at the left side bunker towards the back of the green.
You can’t walk in off the street and pay $25 to play 18 holes at an Australian Open course anywhere else in the country.
16TH HOLE: Redcliffe...483m Par 5
Pro Doug Klein rates this hole at his home course. “It’s not a snack par five” and the signature hole on an excellent four-hole stretch to finish.
Staring down from the elevated tee, the no-go zone for a sliced drive is obvious with handsome trees marking a boundary the full length of the hole down the right hand side as they blend into Hays Inlet.
There are gums and a waste bunker to catch second shots on the left side of the fairway so a prudent iron for position is often better than blazing a fairway wood for a 50-50 result.
17TH HOLE: Royal Queensland...125m Par 3
There so much packed into this short 125m shot to a tricky elevated green.
You must first carry wasteland all the way to a two-tiered green that tests your putting.
Misclub by going too long or get caught on the wind and your ball tumbles down off the steep sides of the green into a tough chipping position. Great hole to test the best at the Australian PGA in December and RQ-based pro Jake McLeod’s favourite.
18TH HOLE: Brookwater...396m Par 4
A classic finishing hole with the grassy, sloped amphitheatre around the elevated green as shown at three recent Queensland Opens.
The big test off the tee is not to leak your drive right into bunkers or trees. A difficult uphill approach shot awaits even from the middle of the fairway because you can never see the bottom of the flagstick on a big green.
UNLUCKY TO MISS OUT: 10th at Brookwater, eighth at Wantima, ninth at Carbrook, 12th at Oxley, 14th at Pacific, 15th at Oxley and 15th at Keperra.