Augusta Golf Club

With fairways carved from native bushland, the course at Augusta Golf Club is set high on the cliff tops of Leeuwin Ridge, just nine kilometres from the most south-westerly point on the Australian mainland at the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. The sand greens are not quite as slick as their ‘National’ counterparts.

The club was formed in 1957 and a year later – on 17th May 1958 to be exact – a 9-hole course was brought into play, with design input attributed to Murray Dawson, along with Eileen Dawson and Maxine Bishop. The official club line is that the course was “constructed and subsequently developed by members” with no year given for the expansion to eighteen holes.

Today, the course extends to 5,839 metres, comprised of two returning loops of nine holes, with par set at 72. Kikuyu fairways were literally carved from a dense karri forest and these holes vary in width, but many are narrow, doglegged and lined with thickets of peppermint and grass trees. For sure, Augusta is unlike most courses you will ever hope to play.

Highlight holes include the downhill 352-metre 4th in the northernmost part of the property; the right doglegging short par four 8th; back-to-back par fives at the 12th and 13th; and the par four 17th which features commanding views of the small reefs and islands in the Indian Ocean from the tee – a large grass tree also sits 50 metres short of the “green” with the deepest bunker on the course to the left of this putting surface.