Pacific Harbour

One of the best conditioned public access courses in the country, Pacific Harbour Golf and Country Club arrived on the Australian golf scene in 2006, two years after architect Ross Watson and his construction team first started work on the 18-hole layout. Watson, incidentally, was the designer behind the acclaimed Magenta Shores course which debuted the same year.

The course sits within a multi-million dollar residential estate at the northern edge of Moreton Bay on Bribie Island – the only island on the Queensland coast connected to the mainland by bridge – and although the wide fairways may appear generous, even low handicappers will appreciate the variety of playing lines on offer.

The signature hole at Pacific Harbour is the long par three 17th, stretching all of 225 yards from the championship tees. What’s so striking about the penultimate hole on the scorecard is the waste area or “beach barrier” that runs along the entire right side of the hole between the fairway and an adjoining lake – some think it’s the longest bunker in the southern hemisphere.

Ross Watson course architect kindly contributed the following article:

We were first contacted by Brisbane developer QM Properties around 1997 to provide input into the initial planning and feasibility phase for an integrated golf and residential community on Bribie Island. By early 2000 there was commitment to the establishment of the Pacific Harbour golf course, followed by several years of negotiations with local authorities to gain the necessary permits.

Construction commenced in early 2004 with heavy earthmoving equipment shifting a total of 650,000m3 of sand. In essence the total site had to be earth-worked in order to create useable landforms both for golf and adjacent home-sites. Some areas of native vegetation were able to be kept and integrated into the final landscape plan.

For the most part however the golf course is man-made, the land has been cut and filled and then shaped by machinery to resemble the natural undulations found on Scottish links courses. The natural sand-based heathland vegetation has since re-established and today only five years after opening the course appears to have been in existence for an eternity.

As a designer the most pleasing feedback I have received is that “I was fortunate to have such a wonderful piece of natural golfing terrain in the first place”.

In terms of playability the course is definitely no pushover as on most days wind to varying degrees and from different directions comes into play. From the back tees the course stretches to a little over 6,400 metres with a par of 72 and in tough conditions can be very testing. However, multiple tees on each hole provide the flexibility to set the course up for pleasurable golf to suit the occasion.

We are often asked which is the "signature" hole at Pacific Harbour and I say in my view all 18 are. This is not to brag but simply to point out our design approach to create 18 uniquely different and memorable stand-alone golf holes on an otherwise flat featureless site. Nevertheless, when pushed on the subject I invariably come back to the four par 3's as a package. Each play in a completely different direction, with variable wind effect. Their distances vary and the setting and challenge on each is distinctive and truly memorable.

As Pacific Harbour continues to mature, we are most gratified to hear the good reports from the golfing fraternity.