The five clubs in the World Top 100 are Barnbougle Dunes, Cape Wickham, Royal Hague, De Pan and Victoria.
At Cape Wickham every hole on the course has an ocean view, which is extremely rare, and no 2 holes are the same. The undulating course normally plays firm, allowing the imagination to go wild with limitless shot-making possibilities. Tees, Fairways and Greens are all seeded with fescue grass, following in the footsteps of the old traditional links courses in Scotland and Ireland.
Golf magazine writes about Cape Wickham: "Wickham wows with an opening stretch of seaside headland holes, three par-3s that skirt the sea and a Cape-style 18th that demands a bite-off-as-much-as-you-dare drive over Victoria Cove. Set in the windiest spot of any course on our list, Wickham compensates with wide landing areas".
It’s the most unique and diverse site I’ve ever seen for golf. Most seaside courses have a consistent sort of shoreline—rocky cliffs or low-level dunes. We got everything here, from cliff-top holes to tees on the rocks in the water with waves washing below you to sandy beach
Mike DeVries
Mike Clayton has been working for many years with his two clients Barnbougle Dunes and Victoria.
Barnbougle is one of the the worlds most exciting and natural links courses. The exisiting dunes allowed Mike ,and his co designer Tom Doak, to almost drape most of the holes onto the existing landscape. As the Barnbougle website states: "A blend of fescue and bent grasses, the course flourishes in the coastal environment. Fairways are wide, wider than most golfers will have experienced on traditional courses. The greens are lively; rolling with the natural undulation of the dunes and with the 4th hole boasting the largest bunker in the southern hemisphere, this course is designed to challenge. The greens at Barnbougle Dunes run at speeds closely resembling the original greens of the great British links. Contoured in tune with the tumbling land around them, the greens feature a combination of broad slopes and ridges through the playing lines."
Golf magazine writes about Barnbougle Dunes: "Australia's greatest links achieves top-40 status thanks in large part to the sophisticated design and but also to the stirring seaside setting in Tasmania, with holes nestled in the large dunes that run parallel to the ocean".
Victoria lies in a very different landscape. As the club website says: "The site was described by early club member, Bob Hancock in 1924 as “absolutely nothing except dense tee tree scrub covering the whole area”. The site in fact sits together with its neighboring Royal Melbourne Golf Club on ancient sand dunes. It is no coincidence that the high point of this terrain near the 12th tee, Battery Point, was reserved as the meeting point for 6 of the courses’ most interesting holes. The ‘submerged’ dunes give the course the basis of its indigenous heathland vegetation set over rolling topography and natural sand. This is the signature of the Victoria Golf Club, positioning it as one of the leading and most unique ‘city’ courses in the world."
One of the things I love about Barnbougle is the relaxed atmosphere of the place. There are none of the restrictions or stratifications that are so much a part of the Australian private club scene – it’s very friendly, and guests feel none of the intimidation that public golfers experience when visiting a private club. A bit of this comes from Tasmania’s rural character, the rest from the fact that Richard was unacquainted with many of the formalized customs of golf. He didn’t want rules like ‘no jeans,’ and there aren’t any such rules. People come to experience the beauty of the place and the great game that the course affords.
Mike Clayton
Frank Pont has been working for many years with two courses in the Netherlands, namely Royal Hague and De Pan.
Although both courses were designed by architects from the firm of Harry Colt, Hugh Alison and John Morrisson, they could not be further apart in terms of the landscapes they lie is and the challenges they pose for the player. Royal Hague lies in one of the more extreme dune landscapes of the Netherlands, and on top of that is one of the sterner tests of golf on the continent; the design brief to Colt & Co was to build the "Pine Valley of Europe".
Golf magazine writes about Royal Hague: "Better known to English speakers as The Hague, The Netherlands' highest-ranking course is a Morrison and Alison collaboration that plays across chaotically heaving fairways amid substantial dunes that set the tone for a remarkable — and taxing — lay-of-the-land journey".
De Pan does not lie in the dunes at the coast, but in a way has its own dunes. These are the sand deposit leftovers of the receding glaciers of the last ice age that now surround the holes of the course. De Pan is a very different golf course from Royal Hague, in that it is much more forgiving course and a much easier walk.
Golf magazine writes about De Pan: "Modern architecture did itself no favors by pursuing holes that constantly scream at the golfer, because at some point the golfer goes tone deaf. Colt never went down that path and he achieved the best possible result here in that he produced a course that would be a delight to play every day. De Pan doesn’t have the topography of St. George’s Hill but it does have sand dunes sprinkled throughout the property. A master router, Colt incorporated them in every possible manner".
Ihave been very fortunate to be working with both Royal Hague and De Pan now for over 15 years, and it has been some of the most satisfying work in my career. They are very different animals, but in their own way they are both unique. As one American visiting architect once told me: " If I could play only one more round in my life it would be Royal Hague, but if I had to chose one course to play the rest of my life it would be De Pan". Either way you can't go wrong with both of these courses!
Frank Pont