St Michael's

The par three fifth is a great hole that is sadly choked by vegetation 

The 12th has brilliant bunkering and a hidden kick pad short and right that will help the ball find the green, with the furthest right bunker making the hole all the more intriguing

The par four 14th bends to the right, with the flag - visible from the tee - luring the golfer to drive down the right, where these fairway bunkers sit, making for a hole that rewards the observant player on repeat visits 

Course name: St Michael's

Location: La Perouse, Sydney
Four Word Course Review: Green complexes need facelift

St Michael's shares a boundary with the famous NSWGC at La Perouse in southern Sydney. Sadly, the location is really the only strong link between the two. It has ranked around #50-60 in Australia in various ratings lists, but perhaps that only serves to illustrate the lack of depth in the Aussie golf scene.

St Michael's suffers in a few ways: 1. A lack of interest at the greens. 2. Scrub so thick it's an automatic lost ball in many places. 3. Playing corridors choked by overgrown vegetation. 4. A ridiculous amount of forced carries (of up to 150m).

It's also disappointing that much of its small waterfront can not be used. The par five 13th runs parallel with the sea, but too far inland, while holes belonging to The Coast GC use the seaside below 16, 6, 7 and 8 - with the latter three running boringly up and back alongside each other.

The club is currently in the process of converting the course from kikuyu to couch, which itself will improve the playing experience, and a masterplan is in place to overhaul the green complexes. If the recent work on the short par four 9th and slightly longer 14th is any indication of the quality of the work, that bodes very well for St Michael's.

The extent that vegetation chokes the one-shot 5th needs to be addressed. It's a fantastic hole to one of the best greens on the course, but the narrow gap in the foliage stops the strategic merit of the hole being evident from the tee, and restricts the golfer from shaping a shot to use the left-to-right slope of the green and its surrounds.

The greens are a great place to start the work: with about half the greens unbunkered, including seven of the first eight, and of that stretch only the 3rd, 5th and 7th greens have natural characteristics that enable them to work well without bunkers.

The 3rd is a brilliant uphill par three to a skyline green, while the par five 7th has its green built on a fantastic sidehill plateau, with a diagonal valley forcing a running approach to be well thought-out.

The back nine is the stronger nine as it stands, with some great strategy thanks to more thoughtful greens and some ideal golf terrain.

The par four 11th allows a blind drive that gives the shortest distance and best angle in or a safe layup that leaves a mid iron over scrub, while the 12th is part of a great set of par threes, bunkered along the left with a hidden area short right that helps to feed the ball onto the green.

Blindness is combined with a tempting length at the 462m par five 13th, while the 14th's newish fairway bunkers make for a brave decision on the tee.

The forced carry of more than 100m at the 16th is a bit much (as are those at many other holes, particularly the 11th and 18th where they are unnecesary), but the penultimate hole, a par five up a ridge that narrows dangerously near the green to deter all but the best golfers from trying to get home in two is another very good hole.

It seems to me that St Michael's, The Coast and Randwick together fit on land that would be better off housing only two courses. There is some great golf terrain, but in an effort to squeeze 54 holes in, much of it is wasted.

Mike Clayton wrote in Golf Australia magazine this month: "It is extraordinary that all the land between the edge of NSWGC and Randwick GC at the far end of the line has failed to produce a golf course in the top 50. Such a waste of world class seaside property, for whatever reason, is astounding - and an opportunity to make something incredible... What a waste of some of the best suburban golfing land in the country."

Having said all that, I do find St Michael's an enjoyable course to play. And even without changing the routing and using the extra land a three-into-two would provide, there is scope to improve when the planned sexing up of the greens is undertaken in conjuction with some thinning and clearing of the unforgiving scrub that borders many holes.