Horsham

Horsham Golf Club was founded in 1898, moving twice before settling on the current location at Haven on the southwestern edge of Horsham. Victorian architect Sam Berriman designed today’s course in 1946 – a few years earlier he also fashioned the highly acclaimed course at Cranbourne.

An underrated course where the holes have been carved through tall timbers, Horsham Golf Club is a delightful parkland layout – extending to a modest 6,274 yards with a par of 71 – with a variety of well bunkered holes that reward golfers who can play the ball straight rather than long.

The course once had the reputation as a tight track with tall, mature pine trees lining the secluded fairways but a fire in February 2009 destroyed many of the trees, resulting in fairway fringes that are not nearly as dense as before. The clubhouse also went up in flames but golfers were undeterred, striding the fairways again within weeks of the disaster.

Some of the best holes appear around the turn. The tough par four 8th measures a little more than 400 metres from the back tees and it doglegs left to a narrow, sloping green guarded by three bunkers. Two enticing back-to-back par fives soon follow at holes 12 and 13 before the challenging 403-metre 16th is played to a fairway that doglegs left towards a back-to-front sloping green that's protected by deep bunker on the right.

Crafter and Mogford Golf Strategies have been working with the club for a number of years to implement a master plan to elevate the Victorian layout, which now bears little resemblance to the tree-lined course that the members enjoyed prior to the devastating fire.