Penrith

The 7th's greenfront bunkers make the angled surface seem smaller than it is, and swallow up plenty of balls when the pin is cut on the more distant left hand side

You don't want to leak your drive to the right at the home hole

Course name: Penrith
Location: Penrith, Sydney
Four Word Course Review: Bunkering enhances flat site

Penrith, about an hour from Sydney's CBD in the far west of the city, is built on an exceptionally flat riverplain site, but savvy bunkering brings a wealth of strategy into most of the holes.

Combining with the shotmaking demands of the bunkering is the fact that at 6380m (7012 yards), this is a long course, but one that doesn't feel like a death march, aside from on the odd 40C+ summer day when there isn't a breath of wind.

The par threes provide good variety: an 8-10m drop shot at the 140m 3rd, greenfront bunkers that obscure the putting surface at the 130m 7th, a 200m tour de force to a green set by water at the 11th and a 165m journey across a ridge at the 13th.

One thing that sets Penrith apart from most others courses in the modern era is that all four par fives are genuine three-shot holes. Diagonal greens are combined well with bunkers or streams in the lay-up zone that stop you thoughtlessly flailing away with a fairway wood for your second shot.

The 17th is the only one of the par fives that is borderline reachable, but its green deflects the ball on all sides to make up for the slightly more modest length. It is also the meat in the sandwich of a brilliant finish.

The par four 16th doglegs left around a pond, leaving a long to mid iron into a long, narrow green guarded right by sand, while the 18th is all about staying left of the cavernous greenfront bunker that makes an approach from the right one of the toughest short irons you'll ever face.

The bunker blocks your view of the steep green, making it hard to control your distance and keep your ball below the hole on the treacherous surface, with the dowslope of the mound into which the bunker is set kicking anything landing short through to at least the middle of the green.

The 16th and 18th may well be the pick of the par fours, but the dogleg left 4th and reachable 14th - guarded by a sea of sand - are also standouts.

Another feather in Penrith's cap is the pure couch fairways, where most other non-elite courses in Sydney are kikuyu. Regardless of the colour during winter, they are always kept in fantastic condition.

Penrith's greens are on the tame side, but with the combination of sand and length that's probably a good move. Nonetheless, subtle breaks reward those who can read the greens well.

Sydney doesn't have the golfing riches of Melbourne, London or New York, but for the club golfer, it does have a solid selection of thought-provoking layouts that will keep you engaged, and Penrith fits well into that group of courses, and at an affordable price (in part thanks to its distance from the city and less than desirable address).