Ocean Shores Country Club in coastal New South Wales features a rarely seen course configuration as well as being the birthplace of golf-course living in Australia.
Lofty heights were no doubt the vision when Ocean Shores Country Club was dreamed up in the 1960s featuring a combination of large residential development, singer Pat Boone as an investor, an occasionally cape-wearing course designer and stunning coastline at
the doorstep.
Some 50 years later, the result is a unique and testing layout with plenty of water to challenge golfers that has been improved in recent years as the club and course continue to thrive as a must-visit course in northern New South Wales.
Ocean Shores was originally designed in the 1970s by the sometimes-caped crusader Robert von Hagge, a former ‘Marlboro Man’ with hundreds of courses to his name, alongside his partner on the redesign of The Lakes in Sydney, PGA Tour winner Bruce Devlin.
Sitting atop a hill in a suburb of the same name, just 20 minutes north of Byron Bay and 30 minutes south of the Queensland border, the spacious clubhouse offers panoramas of the Pacific Ocean to the east, with the golf course and surrounding ranges to the west.
Leaving behind the views of the clubhouse to start your round, and sure to return for refreshments after, the memorable moments continue while on the golf course that is constantly being upgraded via a Richard Chamberlain-led masterplan. Encompassing six par 3s, six par 4s and six par 5s, with two holes of the same par never played consecutively in a round starting from the first tee, finding rhythm among the mix of pars is a unique experience across a risk-reward design played almost entirely in low sections of the property.
Water is a constant feature, yet not always a threat to playing lines, throughout the par-72 layout. It begins with a “gentle handshake”, as encouraged by Donald Ross, who created hundreds of North America’s great courses and influenced Von Hagge. Featuring water right of the fairway and green, yet able to be skirted safely by players not taking on the hole in two shots, the par-5 opener measures 488 metres with two large bunkers guarding the more conservative approach to a vast, undulating putting surface in a sign of what is to come during the round at Ocean Shores.
Water again guards the right side of the par-4 second hole, before the first of the six one-shot holes where the recurring theme of a front nine with the waterways more in play again shows itself. Chances to be more aggressive on the back nine are to come. A short par 3 at 143 metres, the third hole’s large green is a primary defence of par as players head from there to a pair of the more dramatic holes in the first half of Ocean Shores.
Turning hard from left-to-right off the tee, the par-5 fourth will remind golfers of Von Hagge and Devlin’s work at The Lakes when this year’s host of the Australian PGA Championship was split by a new freeway in the 1960s. Requiring island hoping with the second shot and water left along the entire journey to a big green, the fourth offers a chance for longer hitters to reach in two blows at 483 metres, their chances of eagle or birdie aided by the always true-rolling greens, nearly half of which have undergone conversion from TifDwarf Bermuda to TifEagle.
Players are again asked to navigate water and multiple islands of short grass at the short par-4 fifth, where the forward tees can allow longer hitters to set their sights for another large green offering countless pin positions with their drive.
A straightforward par 3 at the next eases the pressure on players, followed by the hard-doglegging, par-4 seventh then a par 3 with arguably the largest green on the property as the challenge is thrown right back at the golfer at the conclusion to the front nine. Played straight uphill to just below the club’s bowling greens fronting the clubhouse, the par-5 ninth measures a meaty 549 metres from the back tees and rates as the hardest hole on the course. The fairway narrows at the driving zone, which is heavily treelined, before golfers need a couple more of their Sunday bests to find the correct section of a wide, shallow green guarded by a lone greenside bunker on the left.
Doglegging right, with deep stands of trees ready to catch an errant drive, the 10th heads back down the hill as you start the back nine and is followed by another 540-plus-metre par 5 before you take on the best stretch of holes, which long time Ocean Shores professional Chris Graham calls “our Amen Corner”.
Able to be stretched out to 186 metres, the par-3 12th again offers a route away from the water, however, if you are to hit the green in regulation the lake fronting the putting surface must be challenged, while a large bunker long is ready to accept any shot looking to take the water out of play.
Turning from right-to-left, with a lone fairway bunker as an aiming point from the tee, the par-4 13th features a shallow, well-bunkered putting surface that makes par feel at least half a shot better before you head for the longest hole on the course.
Tipping out at 556 metres, the 14th is another of the par 5s at Ocean Shores that rates highly on the card as the third most difficult hole, with a fade around two trees guarding the right side needed if taking driver from the tee. Bunkered throughout the rest of the journey, the 14th is one of the most tranquil sections at Ocean Shores away from housing on the boundary of the course. Water is present, but well away from fairway and green, as is the case with much of the second loop. An almost unusually small green, for Ocean Shores at least, is the final challenge of this par 5 before the spectacular run of four holes ends with the mid-length, par-3 15th, which can play two clubs different depending on the pin position of the day.
It is another narrow, uphill par 5 to finish the round at Ocean Shores, with the march up to the 18th green undertaken knowing a cold drink and more beautiful views of the surrounding region are within reach.
Those refreshments and scenic outlook are undertaken as the club looks towards the future when its well-maintained layout will continue its decades-long run as a popular must-try destination for golfers that has only improved since Chamberlain’s work.
THE DETAILS
Ocean Shores Country Club
Where: Orana Rd, Ocean Shores NSW 2483
Phone: (02) 6680 1008
Web: oceanshorescc.com.au
