Playing through kangaroos

My first taste of coastal golf came in Sunset Beach North Carolina.  When I lived in Charlotte, I would head for the beach probably six times a year, as it was only about a three and a half hour drive.  Myrtle Beach South Carolina is well-known for being a golf mecca, and when I was going to the coast in the late 80s and early 90s, the golf boom was on.  New courses were being built monthly, so competition for business was fierce.  Prices were high during the spring break weeks, but I always avoided those weeks and the lines of cars streaming in on 501 from the north, with license plates from Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, as well as a lot of Canadian traffic.  I would usually wait until around June to hit US 74 through Rockingham, and take a back way toward the coast on a two-lane highway that went along the border of North and South Carolina. 

Sunset Beach was my little slice of paradise.  It was only accessible by a single-lane swing bridge, not one of those concrete and steel monstrocities like you would find one island to the north at Ocean Isle.  Having to wait once an hour at the top of the hour for the bridge to swing open to let high-profile boat traffic through was inconvenient, but it was also part of the island’s charm.  Plus, it made the beach a little less popular, and as a result, a little less populated.  There were no high rise condo complexes and no hotels.  Just an island jam-packed with beach houses, that could be rented for about three to four hundred dollars for the week during the off-season in the summer.  I loved the place, and a big reason was the concentration of quality affordable golf courses. 

The North Carolina Lung Association would sell and annual golf card for $22 that gave you discounted rates at golf courses all across the region.  One of my favorites was The Pearl, which had holes along the Intra Coastal Waterway, and as a Lung Association Golf Card holder, I only had to pay $9 to play and that was with a cart.  Other favorites in the area were Oyster Bay, Marsh Harbor, Sandpiper Bay and Brick Landing.  Playing those courses made me fall in love with golf along the coast, including the pricier golf further south down US 17, toward Kiawah and Hilton Head Island. 

Kiawah had and still has several quality golf courses, but they are much pricier.  The most well-known is the Ocean Course, home to the 1991 Ryder Cup matches, the so-called War by the Shore.  Anyone who followed golf at that time can still picture Bernhard Langer, grimacing in anguish, knees bent, putter held vertically in front of him, as his win-or-lose putt just slid by on the final hole, giving the United States team the victory.  I’ve played the Ocean Course three times and it’s a spectacular layout on the South Carolina coast, with an ocean view from almost every hole. 

I couldn’t see the ocean from any of the holes at the Gunnamatta Course at St. Andrews Beach on the Mornington Peninsula south east of Melbourne.  But on a few holes you could hear it, and on every hole of the Tom Doak layout, you could feel it.    

The vegetation was a mix of scrubby pines and palm plants, with few stubby trees and native grasses that framed the holes beautifully.  The look took me back to my time in the Carolinas, only in this instance, I actually wanted to be with the woman I was married to, and in fact she joined me for both our rounds at Gunnamatta. 

It was strictly chance that led us to this course which was designed by my favorite modern architect.  In researching Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula sounded like a very attractive stop, and it outlived expectations.  We arrived on a Saturday on the last weekend before school started for the locals, so we couldn’t find anything in the port town of Sorrento where the ferry from the other side of the sound came in.  The woman at the information center helped us locate a two-bedroom cottage about a ten- to fifteen-minute drive from Sorrento in an area known as St. Andrews Beach/Fingal. 

I had read that there were a few golf courses in the area, but didn’t know that it would be much like Sunset Beach, with many very nice courses so close by.  A coffee table book called Golf Courses of the Mornington Peninsula happened to be in the cottage where we were staying and it had gorgeous photos and descriptive text of the layouts.  Turns out the one closest to our cottage, Gunnamatta, was designed by Tom Doak.  

My excitement level as we approached the first tee at Gunnamatta was as high as it had been for me on a golf course in quite some time.  We teed off right around 4 pm to take advantage of a twilight fee of $25, with the caveat being that they wanted the cart back in by around 7pm or so.  Annie and I are pretty fast players, so I was confident that with the course unpopulated, that wouldn’t be a problem.  

Quite often, the reality of an event doesn’t equal the ideal.  That wasn’t the case as we played Gunnamatta.  As is typical of a Tom Doak course, the golf holes looked like they were designed by nature.  Doak himself said that it was one of the easiest courses to build that he had ever worked on thanks to the gently sloping sandy terrain.  Construction was started in November of 2005 and the course was open in March of 2006.  That is lightning fast in golf years. 

One thing that added to my enjoyment of the course was how much Annie loved it.  She has similar tastes in golf courses to mine.  The fewer houses the better, and the more natural look the better.  The cart paths were sandy trails through natural undergrowth. 

Gunnamatta has no houses on the course, and none of the holes are unfair.  Some are difficult, but there are five sets of tees so golfers of all abilities can find the course playable, and there are always bailout areas.  There are places on some holes, like to the right of the par three sixth hole, that are certain death, but there is room to the left and the front of the green is accessible. 

The highlight of the course for Annie came up near the green at the following hole.  I had of course, brought my BANGERT ball along.  That’s the Titleist NXT Tour that I had personalized with my last name and was the only ball I brought with me from the States.  Along the way, playing in Fiji, New Zealand and then in Lorne, Australia I had picked up some stray balls and had a decent collection of a half-dzoen or so.  But I still had the goal of having the BANGERT ball for the entire trip, and felt fairly confident as I teed up the BANGERT ball and hit it down the middle of the seventh hole.  Little if any trouble is found off the tee, but the approach shot I faced of about 145 yards toward the green was uphill, with trees to the right and a blind area to the left.  Perhaps fearful of losing the BANGERT ball in the wooded area to the right, I hit a Thurman Munson to the left. 

A Thurman Munson is a golf term used by my golfing buddies and me back home.  It describes a shot pulled sharply to the left, or a dead yank.  Or Dead Yank.  You can also call it a Lou Gehrig or Babe Ruth, or even Mickey Mantle if you like.  Whatever deceased pinstriper you chose to use to paint a mental image of my shot, I had no idea of the fate of the BANGERT ball, and my quest to see if it had met a watery grave or was lost in the knee high gorse was delayed when we got to the crest of the hill and saw three kangaroos feeding near the hole.  They didn’t flinch at all as we played through, clearly accustomed to having golf interrupt their late afternoon snack on a daily basis. 

Fortunately, the BANGERT ball was not lost, it had gone down into a wide open collection area between the seventh green and eighth tee.  That was the only time it was in danger of any peril the rest of the round, as I once again judiciously used the ball only when I felt there was a strong chance it wouldn’t be lost.  

The bunkering at Gunnamatta is another outstanding feature.  At times there are rock outcroppings in them, while others have grass islands.  It's such a great, natural look.

The bunkers are strategically placed, and not just there for appearances sake.

There aren't any "oh-wow" holes on the course that you could describe as a signature hole.  It is, however, a course without any weak holes.  The finishing hole is a strong par-four that is a strong driving hole with an elevated tee providing a clear view of the final challenge of the day.

Annie and I liked the golf course so much, we returned and played again the next day and once again had a great time.  We hope it's not our last time teeing it up at Gunnamatta and enjoying one of the many great golf courses of the Mornington Peninsula.