golf australia | APRIL 2018 11F
amed golf course designer Dr Alister
MacKenzie once wrote: “A pleasurable
golf course is not necessarily one that
appeals at fi rst sight, but rather one that
grows on a player like good music, good
painting, or good anything else”.
The man, who designed Augusta National
and Royal Melbourne, went on to add: “there
are many bad golf courses made in an attempt
to eliminate the element of luck – a mistake
surely. Luck is the zest of life, as well as of golf.”
The Links Lady Bay certainly doesn’t fall into
MacKenzie’s category of bad courses. In fact, if
MacKenzie were still with us today he would
probably cast a wry smile as he looked out over
the layout and be moved to say “what a
pleasurable course this is.”
And I would have to agree.
The design team of Jack Newton, Graeme
Grant and John Spencer created a wonderful
links course that heads out from the clubhouse/resort in two loops of nine holes. Each hole runs
in a dif erent direction to the previous, which
challenges the golfer to become a keen judge of
the breeze from all points of the compass.
Strategic mounding and bunkering on each
hole introduces the element of luck – whether it
is good or bad – with the bounce of the ball
being heavily dictated by the lie of the land. For
this reason, as MacKenzie quite rightly points
out, The Links Lady Bay is an enjoyable course
that calls for a full repertoire of shots from a
variety of lies. Put simply, I don’t think a round
at Lady Bay could ever be called boring.
Located 70km south of Adelaide at
Normanville on the Fleurieu Peninsula, The
Links Lady Bay is a testing 6,400 metres from
the Tournament course (Blue) markers. The
white markers of er a shorter 6,020 metres and
is more suited to the longer marker.
The coastal plain wedged between rolling
hills and the waters of the Gulf of St Vincentwas rezoned from general farming to
residential (golf course) back in 1994. The
Links Lady Bay Unit Trust purchased more
than 135 hectares of the dairy farming land
later that year.
The land provided an ideal canvas for
Newton, Grant and Spencer to make their
18-hole design debut two years later. The fi rst
nine opened in 1998 while the second nine took
a further 18 months to complete and is now
played as the outward half.
I really like the opening hole. I’m a great fan
of a golf course that eases you into your game.
At 356 metres, there is nothing overwhelming
or tough about the par-4 1st. There is ample
area down the dogleg right fairway to land your
drive but the best line is from the slightly higher
plateau in the left half of the fairway. This will
give you the best view for the approach into the
green, which is set in an amphitheatre created
by sand dunes.South Australia’s No.1 ranked Public Access Course has not rested on its laurels
and is one of the most improved layouts in the country.
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY BRENDAN JAMESBunkers and mounds surround
the beautifully-shaped green on
the par-3 6th hole.