On Wednesday evening, when I arrived at Barnbougle, I had met 5 blokes from Brisbane on a lads trip to Tasmania; Scotty, Jonno, Myles, Ainsley and Kevin.  They’d been slightly the worse for wear but very friendly and we’d intended to play together yesterday but they’d cocked up their tee times, so we couldn’t make it work.  This morning they were due off at 8am, rather earlier than my booking of 9.20 but I joined them, playing in a three with Jonno and Kevin.  Jonno was rather the worse for wear and not a serious golfer and Kevin was a 15 handicapper having a bad day.  They were great company, however, and Barnbougle Dunes was just brilliant.

There is, apparently, some debate as to which of Barnbougle Dunes or Lost Farm is the better course (though all major publications rank Dunes above Farm).  I loved Lost Farm but it seems to me there’s no room for discussion.  Lost Farm may be one of the best courses in the world.  Barnbougle Dunes is one of the best in the world.  It is visually dramatic.  It has width but huge strategic interest.  It has greens that test short game skills to breaking point but reward invention and real skill.  It has dramatic shots and natural beauty.  It has, perhaps, the best set of short par 4s I have ever played.  It has brutal, baffling but wonderful par 5s and it’s par 3s aren’t overlong but demand precision.

I have a Holy quartet of courses I have played (Muirfield, Dornoch, Portrush and Cypress Point) which are in  a different league to all other courses I have played (and some of those others are great courses) and which I do not want to, or can’t, seperate.  I’m going to need to mull it over but, at the moment, I think Barnbougle Dunes joins that group.

My front 9 was scrappy, a number of really well played holes matched by a few poorly played ones.  And then a few I thought I played OK but that beat me up.  The par 3 7th was an example of that.  At just 98 metres (110 yards) on the card it looks simple:

It is, however, brutally difficult.  The green is tiny.  As the photo shows, short left is not good.  Long, anywhere, is worse.  Right, pin high, is hopeless, as it drops off steeply.  If you are going to miss, the only miss is short right.

After playing with Jonno and Kevin:

I had lunch with them and the rest of their group and we agreed to meet up for dinner that evening.  I went back out for another 18 and played really well.  Having played through a father/mother/son 3 ball on the long, brutally hard par 4 8th I caught a single on the 10th tee.  I loved the tenth.  A wide open fairway allows you to blast away but the trick is in the second shot a long iron or utility to a wildly contoured green, protected by huge bunkers:

By the 11th (a stunning par 5, with a really difficult green) that single had joined up with another, and they asked me if I wanted to join them,  Sean was a Canadian fireman (from Edmonton) on a year long job swap with a fireman from Adelaide and Peter was a retired Australian:

The 12th is a wonderful short par 4 which plays uphill, to a fairway angled from left to right, with a bank of bunkers flanking the right side of the fairway:

Carry the second of those bunkers and you’ll almost certainly reach the green in one.  In the morning I went for that shot and caught the bunker just a yard short of the lip.  By coincidence, it turned out that Sean had seen that shot.  We agreed that it encapsulated the brilliance of the course.  I had gone for, what for me, was the risky but, if executed, most rewarding play.  I had hit the ball as well as I can and failed to execute by one yard in 240.  Watching that ball in the air and coping with the closest of failures wasn’t disappointing, it was thrilling.

I parred the par 3 16th, having missed the green by 30 yards, pitching the ball past the hole and using the steep bank beyond it to bring the ball back to the hole.  There are a number of places on the course where the smart play with the short game is to go well beyond the hole and let gravity bring the ball back.  Again, these are shots requiring imagination and are great fun.  Peter offered to take a photo of me on the 17th tee, with the 16th green in the background.:

When Peter, Sean and I finished, I decided to go back out for another 9 holes, choosing to play the back 9.  I have now played 94 holes in 2 days and my body is letting me know!  That said, I’m playing pretty well and loving every minute of it.

Barnbougle is a beautiful spot.  Here are some more images which hopefully show that:

I got back to the clubhouse just in time for dinner.  The restaurant (at Lost Farm) is in an elevated position, with simply stunning views of the bay.  Even better, it has a viewing platform, where most diners went to watch a simply stunning sunset.  Sadly, I forgot to take my camera to dinner!

I have loved Barnbougle.  Two absolutely top notch courses in a truly beautiful place and the whole place has a wonderfully relaxed feel.  This morning I head on down to Hobart, for a get together with members of the Australian based The Golf Forum at Royal Hobart.  Sadly, a month’s rain is due to fall this weekend.  Vindicating my decision to pack a waterproof top!

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