National (Old) - Victoria - Australia

I'd be waiting with baited breath to play the old course at the National. I've watched the golf course flyover on their website a number of times hoping it would live up to expectation. The old course. No. 10 on Golf Digest Top 100 list - is absolutely awesome.

Set in a huge elevated dunescape with sweeping ocean views, The Old Course is nothing if not dramatic! It certainly is a challenging course and is famous for large undulating greens and impressive bunkering.

First time golfers can be overwhelmed with so many elevated tee shots exposed to the ever-present coastal breezes. The amply bunkered fairways framed by thick ti tree seemingly shrink the target zones. Miss a fairway and you had better hope it catches a bunker!

Although not overly long off the normal club tees at 5873 metres, the elevation change, wind and bunkering all present challenges. Perhaps the greatest of these challenges is the movement in the greens, which at first can seem too severe.

I had a long conversation with Trent Jones after the course opened and he took time to explain to me that windy sites generally demand larger greens, and larger greens become boring if there is not quite a bit of movement through them- his example was The Old Course at St Andrews where the greens are enormous with little flat land.

Further he agreed that while some of the putting could be quite difficult, he argued that if the greens were smaller these slightly errant shots would miss the green altogether.

While the first time golfer can struggle, the membership who play the course regularly are passionate advocates for the course. I must admit I am in that category and rate The Old Course as my favourite course to play in Australia.

When the club added The Ocean and Moonah courses and a new clubhouse in 2000 the hole sequencing for the Old Course changed to allow easy access to the rest of the club. Hence the old 14th hole became the first in the new set up.

Hole 3 is possibly Australia’s most challenging hole! A longer par 4 which demands carry, length and accuracy. The tee shot needs to fly a large gully and the approach is all uphill and a little claustrophobic with trouble both left and right. The two level green has significant elevation change between levels making it important to hit the right part of the green.

Peter Wood is the founder of The Travelling Golfer – click the link to read his full review.

By far the best of the three courses, this one offers the most to all golfers. Unlike Moonah with its brute force requirements this course both beguiles and deceives. Not a long course, which is just as well, as it is tight and liberally bunkered. The greens are very large and have whole herds of elephants buried in them; the wrong side of the whole can be a good three putt. Two par threes I played I was on for one and walked off with five, simply because I was in the wrong place on the green. I haven't seen greens that tricky since Royal Melbourne, and what seemed like good shots would often end up 40 or 50 feet away. The course is very hilly as well, so if you don't like too much exercise, recommend you use a golf cart. However, the real joy of this place is the sheer beauty, with views to die for, especially at the short 7th. Trent Jones has ensured he has made use of the beauty of the tee tree covered dunes by winding his way up hill and down dale. This can cause confusion as to the correct line to take off tees, so if you are not playing with a member buy the yardage book. The 3rd completely bamboozled me even though I could see the entire hole, it doglegs to the left and you just have no idea without yardage as to how far everything is. I also enjoyed the tenth, a par five where I deliberately drove right to avoid the fairway bunkers, and found that even though I was on the fairway, all I could was hit a 7 iron as I was completely blocked out by trees to go for the green. A better play would have been hybrid short of bunkers and then wood to green. And there are quite a few challenges like that to be had. Love this course, will be back lots of times.

The first of the 3 courses at the National Golf Club with a distinctive look and feel. This RTJ Junior layout from 1985 is considerably different from the Moonah course as each hole navigates around dense vegetation terrain with more dramatic changes in elevation. There are many beautiful views of the Sea, the surrounding Cape Schanck national park and the southern coastline running all the way up to Portsea. The original clubhouse was behind the 5th green, but was recently torn down and removed completely. This then changed the routing as the original 1st hole is now the 6th hole. Many believe, and I share the same opinion, that knocking this clubhouse was a shame – more so because of the negative impact to the routing. The highlight is the well documented and photographed par 3 7th hole playing over a deep ravine to a shallow wide putting surface. The background of the Sea is distracting enough from such elevation! Almost all of the holes play through an enclosed corridor of vegetation with very large bunker complexes. It’s very much target golf and man-made. Walking the course is not really an option given the distances between holes, the changes in elevation and the ravines that have to be carried. The course isn't as penal as the Moonah and is more conducive to having fun while playing golf. Many consider it the best of the 3 courses. From a scratch golfer’s perspective, I certainly enjoyed the challenge of the tight tee-shots and found it much more scorable than the Moonah. It’s visually more enjoyable being able to see the Sea and play from great heights. The change in the routing leads to a very anticlimactic short par 4 18th hole, but otherwise, I recommend it to all visitors. God only knows what Alister MacKenzie would have created if he ventured down to Cape Schanck and witnessed the untapped land with staggering potential down along the ocean.

RTJ II has a habit of creating tough courses and the Old is no exception. The tight rollercoaster greens seemed a bit tricked up for my liking and coupled with narrow treed fairways it called for very restrained golf. A tough walk on this undulating track took its toll in the heat and the only saving grace was the spectacular views from the high points. This is my friend’s favourite course the National but it’s second best IMO behind the excellent Moonah IMO especially as I lost two balls on the crazy P5 8th.