IT’S lengthy been thought to be among the finest golf layouts in Australia.
But huge modifications are occurring on the famend Newcastle Golf Membership at Fern Bay, Newcastle, close to the mouth of the mighty Hunter River.
And one in every of Australia’s main course designers Bob Harrison is main the way in which because the membership has begun main modifications to accommodate a 172-unit retirement village on a bit of land owned by the membership.
Harrison was excited to turn out to be concerned with a course that has all the time captivated him.
“I like this place,” stated Harrison.
“I first started coming right here after I was at College. We’d play 54 holes right here after which drive house.
“It truly is a particular place.”
Newcastle GC president Alan McKelvey defined that growth consent for the retirement village was the ultimate hurdle for the membership’s growth mission and after 10 years of cautious planning it enabled them to press on with much-anticipated golf course enchancment works.
“We are actually at some extent the place the membership could make its nice golf course even higher,” stated McKelvey.
“The course shall be among the many finest regional programs in Australia, and is certain to draw consideration domestically, nationally, and internationally.”
McKelvey stated he anticipated the works would take about two years to finish.
“Due to the character of the modifications, the works will contain restricted disruption to regular play, and 18 holes will stay open through the building work,” he stated.
Already one in every of Australia’s finest, huge modifications are on the way in which for the Newcastle Golf Membership to make it even higher.
Newcastle Golf Membership was based in 1905 on the location of an previous racecourse and, apart from time throughout WWII when it was coated in barbed wire and tank traps, it has remained one of many prime programs within the nation.
Harrison Golf really designed a masterplan for the course in 2020 to transform the greens and it was authorised for subdivision in 2023.
“The Newcastle course is already ranked in Australia’s second 10, and on events has made the highest 10,” stated Harrison.
“Previous to producing this new masterplan, we had been intending to transform the entire bunkering and a number of the greens.
“The pure holes at Newcastle are unbelievable, and you would argue that the one weak point was within the ‘ending’ of those important parts.
“Provided that it’s nonetheless the membership’s intention to pursue this remodelling in parallel with the proposed new holes in higher {golfing} nation, our ambition is definitely to maneuver Newcastle into the highest 10 on a everlasting foundation.”
Definitely, this membership has a storied historical past and the late nice Australian skilled Norman von Nida as soon as commented that he felt Newcastle had the most effective stretch of par fours you’d discover anyplace on the planet.
All of it started in 1913-14 when work started on the Newcastle Golf Membership nine-hole format on a distant stretch of sand dune nation at Fern Bay, then known as North Stockton.
Play started in 1915 with the golfers travelling by chartered ferry from Newcastle.
Within the Thirties, when a vehicular ferry service made the course extra accessible, Eric Apperly was commissioned to design an 18-hole course.
It was a tribute to the imaginative and prescient of the pioneers that seven of the unique 9 holes had been included into the 18-hole design.
The present 1st, 2nd, tenth (authentic third gap), thirteenth (authentic fifth gap), 14th (authentic sixth), seventeenth and 18th had been all a part of the 1915 (9 gap) format. The course was constructed by Fred Popplewell Senior (father of the Membership’s first Skilled Fred Popplewell Junior).
This historical past is recognised by Popplewell Highway in Fern Bay, adjoining the 4th and fifth fairways.
Harrison is loving his involvement at Newcastle.
“The tenth gap, you wouldn’t see that wanting form anyplace else, I like it,” he instructed members in a video presentation.
“We have now the prospect to enhance the looks of bunkers and greens and the hassle to make them really feel like they’re pure and a part of the encompassing form.
“The fifth gap is a mind-blowing form you wouldn’t discover that rolling extreme form in lots of programs.
“However you get to the inexperienced and the form doesn’t match the remaining.
“Our purpose is to make it really feel like a part of the rolling form.
“And the massive bushes listed here are fabulous.
“You’ve gotten rolling form and isolation – and the result’s unbelievable.”
Requested to call his favourites, Harrison instructed that on the present course, the present tenth and the present fifth had been ‘phenomenal’ apart from the ending at greenside, which he identified he hoped to repair.
“The present eleventh will blow folks’s minds and is perhaps my early alternative as favorite, which can change because the course develops. We’ll wait and see,” he stated.
