Royal Sydney

The glorious 5th green falls away on all sides, with plenty of bunkers waiting to be fed

The 18th plays back to the foot of the brilliant clubhouse and is a fitting end to an enjoyable round

Course name: Royal Sydney
Location: Rose Bay, Sydney
Four Word Course Review: Front nine outshines back

Royal Sydney is definitely one of those places that is more about the club than merely the course, but the Australian Open venue, redesigned by Ross Watson in 2003, is definitely no slouch.

The flat back nine terrain stands in the way of the layout reaching absolute greatness, but there are plenty of great holes and memorable features nonetheless.

A reachable par four greets you as the opening challenge, and despite a tempting opening to the green over the sea of sand in the fairway, it's one - like the opening holes at NSW, Woking and North Berwick - that might be more likely to have you reaching for the driver were it later in the round.

At the par five second is a fantastic centreline bunker set into the front of the green that dictates the lay-up strategy in conjunction with the day's pin position, while the 4th and 5th greens sit high above the surrounding terrain, accepting only a perfectly-positioned approach and shrugging anything else into deep bunkers or down tightly-mown slopes away from the putting surface.

The par five 7th tumbles naturally over land perfect for golf, before the second reachable par four of the day at the 8th, where a confounding gouge out of the land in front of the green ensures both brain and braun are required to reach the green in one. The 9th green ends the outward side on a high note, nestled into a sandy hillside.

The disappointment as you walk downhill off the 10th tee is that the best of the terrain is behind you, and most of the best holes are, too. Where the front nine follows the boundary fence on three sides, the back plays up and down the centre of the property.

Trees begin to dictate the strategy on the way in, to the detriment of several holes, particularly the 12th, where a drive leaked right would leave a tantalising but very difficult approach over sand to an angled green were the driving zone not overcome with trees.

Three holes later, the 15th is not much more than an over-indulgence of length and sand played over level ground.

The gold standard of the three-shotters that is set on the front continues with the 13th and 16th, which both feature fantastic greens and a smart use of some of the better back nine land - particularly with the placement of the centreline lay-up bunker in the face of a diagonal ridge at the 16th and the two-tier plateau green at the 13th.

The home hole returns the golfer to the foot of the stylish clubhouse, the greensite at the base of the hill a combination of ample sand, a tough green and plenty of mounding for spectators: the perfect place for a national championship to be decided.

If there is a general disappointment at Royal Sydney other than the back nine terrain it's the repetition of the par threes. The first three are mid iron drop shots to greens well-defended by sand, before the 17th dishes up something different in the shape of one of the toughest green complexes on the course, requiring a long iron to reach, no less.

Inside after the round, there are few clubhouses that are more fun to explore with a drink in hand. Photos galore adorn the walls, documenting the club's history, both as a tournament venue and a haven away from the bustle of the city for its members, who also enjoy tennis, lawn bowls, croquet and squash, as well as a nine-hole golf course that offers a less demanding test than the main course.

To judge Royal Sydney merely on the merits of the course would be to miss the point: the combination of course, club and fantastic staff make it well worth experiencing.

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).

Woolooware

The par four 11th, with its kidney shaped green, has a front right bunker that makes for a difficult approach from that side

Course name: Woolooware
Location: Woolooware, Sydney
Four Word Course Review: A decent public option

Woolooware is a public "council course" in the south of Sydney that while being nothing special in the grand scheme of things, is a fun course, demanding much more considered shot placement than most other courses of its type.

The small property means the holes are packed in more tightly than would be ideal, so it's trees rather than bunkering or natual landforms that dictate the best places to position the ball off the tee.

The front nine opens with some long, straightforward two-shotters, before the shorter 5th, 6th and 7th call for drives to certain positions for a good line in (or on the last two, even a chance to get on the green).

The recipe continues on the back nine, and while it's not the greenside features that dictate strategy for the most part, the putting surfaces themselves are some of the best you will see on a public facility, with a mixture of constant slopes and rolling undulation.

No one will ever drive too far out of their way to play golf at Woolooware, but it's an enjoyable place to play nonetheless, and the thick and juicy $10 steaks on a Wednesday night are great value!

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.