Indooroopilly (West)

Indooroopilly Golf Club sits on the banks of the Brisbane River, a short distance south west of the Queensland state capital, and golfers have played in this riverside location since the 1920s.

Modern day club members are in the very fortunate position of having a 36-hole golf complex at their disposal and the four nines can be interchanged to provide six different 18-hole configurations.

The East course (using the Green and Blue nines) is public, allowing visitors to pay and play whilst the West course (designated by the Gold and Red nines) is a member only layout.

Architect Ross Watson extensively redesigned the West course in recent times, adding three new holes and remodeling thirteen of the old holes. Ross kindly provided us with the following comments in March 2010:

There are a number of composite courses combining the four nines into various permutations at Indooroopilly. Each of the four nines has a colour coding; the West course is Red and Gold and the East course is Blue and Green. In June 2006 the Committee of the day resolved to upgrade the West Course to a standard capable of staging the Australian Open or equivalent major professional golf tournament.

As well, the brief called for the architect to re-route a part of the layout to accommodate potential future real estate development areas, maximize river frontage holes and introduce water storage lakes to provide insurance against potential irrigation water shortages in the future. The first challenge was to review not only the West course but also areas of the East course as the future real estate areas impacted both.

A Master Plan was agreed and by late 2006 the first stage of the West course upgrade, comprising the 5th, 6th and 7th holes, got underway. Stage 2 followed in 2007 with holes 9, 17 and 18 including associated lake-works and improvements to the adjacent practice range. Other stages of works have followed and the final two holes should be completed in 2011 bringing to an end the West course upgrade.

A feature of the West Course is the sub-tropical landscape comprising many large flowering trees with huge canopies. The flashed white sand bunker faces provide a strong contrast and highlight the play lines on each hole. The finishing holes are strategically intertwined with the new lake system calling for some serious risk and reward shot-making options. Gradually the membership has come to embrace the different challenges of the new look West course and now look forward eagerly to its completion in 2011.