At the end of 2020, Lonsdale Links re-opened after an extensive re-design by OCM, the design company of Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashly Mead. Five new holes were added on new land to the southwest of the old course, with a new clubhouse built close to where the old 1st green once was.
At the end of 2020, Lonsdale Links re-opened after an extensive re-design by OCM, the design company of Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashly Mead. Five new holes were added on new land to the southwest of the old course, with a new clubhouse built close to where the old 1st green once was.
4
Lonsdale Links was something of a lower-tier Victoria course until a daring OCM redesign, completed at the end of 2020, put this course onto the map.
Template holes and geometrically shaped greens are borrowed from distant Raynor/MacDonald US designs and are not something you’d traditionally associate with Southern Australian golf, but this facelift adds a new dimension to golf in this region.
The concept of template holes has honestly never really sat well with me. I’ve always felt that features from golden-age design work better than full scale lift and paste holes, but the OCM team have lent into this design concept as the likes of Biarritz, Plateau, Eden, Leven, Punchbowl, Thumbprint, Redan and Road are all on proud display at Lonsdale. A Principal’s Nose bunker comes into play on the 3rd whilst a set of church pews grace the final hole, so in reality, it’s not just in the named holes that you can find some classic architectural features gracing the course.
Many of the greens have raised surfaces, albeit not always on all sides, so knowing the course and which side is the safe miss will be key to a good round unless you have the soft hands of Shane Lowry around the greens. And the sharp edges to those geometrically shaped greens look more bizarre from overhead shots than they do on the ground, so I’m pleased to report that the shapes work surprisingly well up close. Lake Victoria is then the prominent visual feature on the course, although only two of the holes, 4 and 5, bring this natural waterscape into the course of play.
The design dynamics are introduced as early as the 1st hole, as a ridge (the Alps) needs to be summited, providing the ideal fairway landing ground before a waste bunker with a rustic broken fence is sited ahead of a large, untypical green surface. This green has a large depression to the front left, as balls missed marginally to that side are allowed to cascade towards the green but will likely settle within that aforementioned depression.
Whilst the template concept doesn’t always strike a chord with me, there can be no doubt that the use of this design characteristic works very well on the par threes, all of which are excellent. Back-to-back threes are introduced on holes 6 and 7 with a sunken inverse-style bunker on the latter of the two. This is located at the front left of the green which is another raised plateau making a missed green-in-regulation a probable bogey or more.
Of the longer holes, Punchbowl at 11 was probably my favourite. Blind to most on both the tee shot and approach, a cavernous bunker needs to be carried from the drive, whereas the sunken rectangular green is well guarded with two mounds short of the apron-downslope which may invariably make this a bizarre hole that might not be to everyone’s tastes. Thumbprint at 12 immediately follows which then happened to be what I considered the finest of the short holes. A beautifully constructed green with strong internal contours, as if a child had pressed some Play-Doh into the turf, is set amidst an upturned saucer that will test even the most savvy of green-readers.
Sandy marshland makes an appearance on 14 and 15 in what’s the visually least inspiring part of the course, although the drivable 16th will make for a test of most golfers as the green backs onto an out-of-bounds fence whilst a Road Hole bunker provides the hole with some depth to its design. 17 and 18 also offer greens whereby a ball is easily repelled from the wrong entry point, whilst a shoulder on the right side of 17 allows for more generosity with the correct play. One final note on the design I would like to make though is a negative one, and an issue I often have with redesigned courses such as this; the routing has clearly been changed making it a less than ideal walk, as the tour from green to tee often has to switch back to a location more suited to a hole earlier in the round. But overall, this is a minor grumble.
For fans of golf architecture and strategic, yet visual design, Lonsdale should be on the itinerary if you’ve already checked the list of the sandbelt’s finest courses. Whilst Lonsdale Links won’t compete for a place amongst the highest-ranked of Victoria’s courses, it’s a pleasant and worthwhile detour, so a trip to the Bellarine Peninsula is well advised.
The course also happens to be open for weekend visitor-play which is rare for a highly rated course in Victoria, hence providing a pleasant escape for those on a longer golf tour at a time when the prominent private courses are closed for visitor play.
T P Dean
Overall rating
4.5
Overall rating
4.5
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
California, United States
New Jersey, United States
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
New York, United States
New York, United States
