[Photos: Jacob Sjoman]
The Cliffs Kangaroo Island officially opens for play today, and my first look at the course earlier this year was an assignment with a difference. Firstly, I had never previously been to the island, making my visit to The Cliffs an opportunity to experience the entire destination as well as the new golf course. Secondly, it represented the first time I had played golf alongside the designer of the very course being walked.
That last point surprised Darius Oliver, who assumed it must have happened before. But it hadn’t for me.
RELATED: The making of The Cliffs, Kangaroo Island’s bold new masterpiece
Darius and I have known each other for 20 or more years as colleagues in the golf media. He was a golf writer, book author and course-architecture critic before ‘switching sides’ to design courses. At one stage during the late 2000s and early 2010s, he was this magazine’s architecture editor. After making the switch, Cape Wickham Links on King Island was his first notable design venture, but that project included input from Mike DeVries; The Cliffs Kangaroo Island is Oliver on his own.
Darius is an exceptional golfer with a low, single-figure handicap. At 51, he still owns a silky swing that produces a tight draw and the ability to flight the ball perfectly in cross-breezes and with or against a stiff wind. We hadn’t played golf together in more than a decade before our 36-hole lap of The Cliffs in late April, but I instantly recognised his enviable action as one unchanged from the swing I remembered.
The other thing I love about Darius’ game is the way he thinks about shots, holes and courses. He’s a golfer who doesn’t obsess over his score and instead prefers to create shots. Over the years, we’ve had many discussions about the way people approach playing the game and it’s fair to say we are of the same ilk in that regard.
Which probably explains why I‘get’ his design approach at The Cliffs. At times golf risks being too dumbed down to cater for an influx of newcomers to the game. There’s a fine line to be walked in that regard, especially with new designs, which are such a rarity today. That won’t happen at The Cliffs. A scratch marker will be amply challenged, yet 25-handicappers needn’t quiver in fear. Lesser golfers won’t burn through sleeve after sleeve of balls – providing they play smart golf.
Blind shots – especially blind approaches – tend to divide golfers. The lack of total visual information offends some players. Yet at The Cliffs, Oliver gives you clues… if you know where to look. The 15th hole [below] is a prime example. The par 5 where the coastline flanks the entire right side shows you the hole location from the tee and again in the driving zone. However, depending on whether you hug the higher left side of the fairway for your second shot or let the ball bound down to the lower right side, your approach might be blind even if from only 60 or so metres away. Yet the designer afforded you the information you need earlier in the hole.
The need for a cerebral approach is evident right across the property. It might be looking for logical natural aiming points on blind shots, such as the 18th hole, where the drive plays across a high dune, the highest point of which is the best line to take. Or it’s spying a bank or slope to help feed a ball towards a certain flag. The visual cues are everywhere, reinforcing how The Cliffs is a perpetually engaging design, and that it helps to keep your brain in gear throughout.
Of the 12th hole, a par 3 where the sunken green is guarded by a mound across the front and hides the target, Darius knows criticism will come. And I agree that for first-timers, discovering that a perfectly struck short iron has bounded through the green might elicit a scowl or two. However, second time around you’ll figure it out, adjust and probably make the easiest par of your life once you learn how to work the slopes.
Plenty of golf courses ask golfers to think and The Cliffs is no different. But if you take a moment to think in the manner the designer wants you to, you’ll fare far better. Trust me, it’s even better when you get the chance to watch the man himself show you how it’s done.
