Joondalup Resort (Quarry & Dune)

The Joondalup Resort is a 30-minute drive north of Perth, a few miles from the Sunset Coast in Connolly, an estate created in the late 1980s. There are three 9-hole courses – Lake, Dune and Quarry – laid out over some severe bushland terrain within the resort.

Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., Joondalup – “the place of shining waters” – is one of only a handful of projects undertaken in Australia by its esteemed course architect.

The three courses are routed over a harsh landscape of bush, gum trees, rocky outcrops, limestone quarries, lakes and dunes – quite a combination which allows the much used phrase “no two holes are the same” to be used here appropriately.

To say that golf at Joondalup is challenging is something of an understatement. Golfers of all abilities will have their skills put to the test, whether it is from playing an approach over a 150-yard long bunker to a green protected by a 30-foot high rock face or a shot from an elevated position to a green guarded by a 150-foot high cliff on one side and a 60-foot deep ditch on the other.

There are two great par three holes on the Quarry/Dune composite course. The 137-yard 3rd hole on the Quarry nine is all carry across an abandoned quarry gorge from the tee to the green and the 130-yard 7th hole on the Dune loop plays to an elevated, three tiered green with bunkers front left and back right.