The Springs - Australia

The Springs debuted in 1997, switching ownership shortly afterwards. It changed hands again in 2004, becoming Greenhill Golf Club, but was sold again to the present owners in 2008. Five years then elapsed before the refurbished golf facility reopened.

Located in the beautiful and tranquil landscape of Peats Ridge, just over an hour’s drive from Newcastle, the course is actually a co-design, with Al Howard laying out the first eleven holes then Graham Papworth the other seven holes. Graham sent us a report in January 2021 on how this unusual situation came about:

“The Springs course was designed as an 11-hole facility by Al Howard, who was a father figure to Australian Golf Course Architecture and did some good work over many years. I think the original site was only large enough for the 11 holes and when the owner at that time (a Korean named Henry Sunwoo) secured a further parcel he asked me to layout and design the 7 holes to obviously make it an 18-hole course.

After agreeing on the layout for the new holes Henry (who was a colourful character) eventually rang to say I could proceed with the green designs, which I did and sent all seven to him with an invoice. He responded that he didn’t expect me to design all of them, just a couple and I knew I’d have a struggle on my hands to get paid.

I found out that he’d had the greens built so I visited unannounced and found the greens had been well built and were very much in accordance with my designs. After all sorts of suggestions from Henry about how I could get paid if I did a few other design jobs for him I decided to take it to court. I won the case but before the judge could announce the penalty for Henry, his solicitor advised that he was bankrupt and couldn’t pay.”