Royal Hobart Golf Club

Royal Hobart Golf Club

I've taken over a month to write this review after playing Royal Hobart  in early April 2009.
"Why?" I hear you ask. Because I can't figure out how to review Royal Hobart Golf Club without offending the members. I want to be honest in my reviews so that people know that they can trust what I write. I don't want them to read like paid advertisements or sooky criticisms. It seems to me that so many golf course reviews on the internet are extreme one way or the other.

This is probably a good time to differentiate between a "golf course" and a "golf club".

Golf clubs are run on a golf course and they usually have the same name. Golf clubs are almost always affiliated with a golfing body such as Golf Tasmania. An examples of a golf club that has a different name to its golf course is Prospect Vale Golf Club which utilises the Launceston Casino golf course. Some courses, such as Barnbougle Dunes and Rosny Public Golf Course, do not have a golf club associated with them.

So armed with that information, here comes my hard hitting statement ...
In my opinion Royal Hobart Golf Course is one of the best courses in Tasmania - (no surprises there).
Conversely as a golf club it would rate down the lower end of the scale mainly due to its historically unfriendly establishment and generally unfriendly attitude to visitors. I know many people who are members there who seem very happy, but they are not looking from the outside in. Most of my feelings stem from my visits to the club as a junior in the eighties and things may well have changed since then.

In most cases the phrase "golf course" is interchangeable with "golf club" which happens when the club and the course are of equal standing. Conversely in the past Claremont has probably been a better club than a course. The players make the club and assessment is quite subjective depending on who the person is. A golf course stands on its own merits but opinion might differ between different levels of golfers or depending on the condition of the course (or weather) on the day. I guess that it can be hard to review a club based on a one-off visit such as what I will be doing for the majority of Tasmania's golf clubs. I think I've just talked myself into review golf courses, not golf clubs.

So let's review Royal Hobart Golf Course.
The course
Royal Hobart Golf Course (RHGC)
Par 72, 18 holes, 6133m

RHGC is located near the Hobart Airport and is dead flat. It is built on a sand base (rather than clay like most other Tasmanian courses) and has held Australian championships. Jack Nicklaus won the 1971 Australian Open at this course while it was the location for Brett John's triumph in the 1987 Australian Amateur. Royal Hobart is also the home course of Tasmania's Lindy and Mathew Goggin. The golf club has been in its current location near Seven Mile Beach since the 1950's. Prior to that it was located at Rosny which makes the phrase "Royal Rosny" seem somewhat less funny.

Most people who have played the course will remember the first hole which has to be one of the most difficult opening holes in golf. It seems like a relatively straight-forward par 4 at first glance but is anything but that at 402 metres with trees on the left and right punishing wayward drives. Chuck a fairway bunker, greenside bunkers, a difficult green and not being warmed up and you have a probable bogey start (if you're lucky).

Royal has its fair share of short holes as well but they are well designed and invariably doglegs. These include the par four 2nd, 5th, 7th and 17th holes which range from 309 to 331 metres. You'll find that driver is not the club of choice and more success will be had choosing hybrids or irons off the tee in order to leave yourself with a full shot from the middle of the fairway. These holes prove that distance is not the only factor in making tough holes and other courses should learn from this.

I am a big fan of Royal's course layout as designed by Vern Morcom who also designed Woodrising at Devonport. The only thing I don't like is the back to back par 5's on the inward nine (12 and 13). For the better player, par 5's offer good birdie opportunities and to have two of these in a row is contrary to the rest of the course. Having said that, I assume that you don't design a course on paper and then find some land to put it on. You must look at what land is available and what sort of holes are naturally defined. If back to back par 5's is the only design fault at Royal Hobart then it's not travelling too bad.

There are many strategically placed fairway and greenside bunkers at RHGC and if your going for a visit then it's worthwhile practising your sand technique prior to the round. Course management is a must around here and it's not simply a case of aiming at flags. There are some places you just don't want to end up and its a matter of eliminating the bad scores from your card. The greens are usually some of the best in the state and run true.

The worst:
The 445 metre par 5 12th is probably my least favourite hole at Royal just ahead of the 127 metre par 3 11th. Both of these holes are just too short compared to the rest of the course but they are not bad holes by any means.

The best:
The 402 metre par 4 1st plays more like 450 metres. It is a brute of a starting hole and is a refreshing change to most powderpuff starting holes on other Tasmanian courses (e.g. Claremont, Tasmania). Start with a par here and you are at least one shot up on the majority of the field.


The Round
Date: 5 April 2010
Score: 78,  Greens Hit: 9,  Fairways Hit: 6/14,  Putts: 33

I played in the annual Royal Hobart Easter Tournament this year purely for the opportunity of playing a top golf course for relatively little money ($30). Although I had been playing relatively solid golf leading up to the 36 hole event I developed a case of the duck hooks in my two rounds prior to teeing it up. You can get away with hooking drives onto the next fairway at courses like Claremont and Kingston, but Royal Hobart will punish wayward drives in a similar way to Ulverstone and Barnbougle.

I turned up in the morning with the full intention of hitting a bucket of practice balls to work the duck hook out of my swing. Unfortunately my stomach decided that my time would be better spent warming up in the toilet. Those people who know me well will be aware that I have Crohn's disease and when I need to go to the toilet, I need to go to the toilet. This unplanned event did allow me to make one unexpected discovery:
Royal Hobart Golf Club member's shit does stink! After recently crapping in the fine establishment of Huntingdale, I must say I was let down by the toilets on offer. I might need to start a new blog (or bog) where I review golf club toilets. I could call it Around Tasmania in 75 Bowls. Sorry, I digress.

After making a par 5 on the first (yes I know it is a par 4, but that was a little too much to ask) I hit a nice 1 hybrid up the middle of the 2nd leaving me with a 9 iron the the green. The ball sailed straight at the stick and stopped about 8 feet away where I was able to knock it in for birdie. I wasn't hitting it real good on the front nine but I wasn't in much trouble and used my lob wedge around the green to give myself good opportunities for par on most holes - not that I converted many attempts. I finished the front nine by missing a gettable birdie for a 39.

I knocked it near the green on the par 5 12th and pitched up to about 3 feet. Miss! I then found myself in the cross bunker on the 13th for two and played an easy 7 iron to the middle of the green, with the pin at the front. I gently caressed the ball down the slope but it powered past the hole to about 15 feet. Nice one! Normally people who barge a putt downhill will then over-compensate and leave the following uphill putt well short. Not me - I took this into account and also barged the 2nd putt to about 4 feet past the hole. Drawing on my short range experience from the previous hole, I missed this one too. Nice four-putt and nice double - I never four-putt! I know I'm not reviewing the afternoon round here, but let me quickly tell you that I also four putted the 13th in the afternoon. I left my 3rd in the afternoon round about 15 feet above the hole and once again barged the first effort well past the hole. I then threw my marker at the ball in disgust and hit the ball (from about 20 feet away). I gave myself a two stroke penalty (wrongly or rightly - I should have argued that I moved the ball accidentally in the process of marking it) and angrily holed the 2nd (4th) putt. 1 hole, 2 rounds, 8 putts, 2 doubles.

On the par 3 15th I hit it pin high on the left of the green with the flag on the right. After my putting woes I was a little surprised to hole it from here for birdie. I knocked it on in regulation on the following hole, also pin high but on the far side of the green - another birdie. Looks like I found my range. Unfortunately all my other putts for the day seemed to be inside of this distance which I obviously had no hope from. I signed for a 78 in the morning round with 33 putts. My usual 29 putts would have given me a more respectable 74 but I didn't feel too bad about my round after not playing the course in so long.

The best shot
My 3 iron into the 200m 15th was a real solid shot which I was lucky enough to convert to a birdie. I've struggled recently on par 3's and it was nice to get through the round playing the four short holes in 1 under.

The worst shot
My four putt on the 13th was shocking. The fact that it took three shots to hit it 512 metres and another four to get it on the hole is atrocious for golfers of any level.


So in summary, sorry to the Royal Hobart members for the criticism of your golf club (and toilets) .... but you have a mighty fine golf course!

Patto

p.s. Sorry for the lack of photos. I forgot to take my camera and didn't want to steal photos from other websites. I'll add them in at a later date after I play Royal Hobart again (if I'm allowed on).

Next reviews: Bothwell (Ratho) and Barnbougle (again)