James had invited me to play with him at Royal Adelaide.  There was a shotgun start, to be followed by a lunch at which the presentation of trophies for the recently completed season (RA has a winter season) would be made.  As with all the golf I had played this month I had avoided reading much about RA in advance.  I wanted to be able to form my own opinion of each of the courses I played.  I knew RA was quite highly rated in Australia but it is certainly not as well known in the UK as Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, NSW and the Barnbougle courses.  It turned out that I was in for a treat.

We started on the short par 4 3rd, which was fortunate as the tee is right by the clubhouse.  RA has a single story clubhouse, which, whilst a very new building has the same profile as the older clubhouse it replaced.

It is also notable for the fact that a single railway track runs through the course, immediately next to the clubhouse.  Indeed, the clubhouse used to have its own station for golfers!  As with all the courses I played in November I deliberately did not read too much about RA before playing it.  I wanted to form my own opinion, rather than be too influenced by those of others.  I knew it was quite highly rated and had been warend about the thickness of the rough after the wet summer which Adelaide, along it seems withn most of Australia, had suffered.

My first impression was one of space.  Compared to Glenelg on Friday, RA appeared to have a lot of space.  Encouragingly, as we approached the clubhouse, the land seemd to have enough movement without being too dramatic.  The third is a very good hole and a tough one to start with.  A blind drive plays over a ridge but the green is driveable by long hitters.  The entrance to the green, however, and the front part of it (where the flag was on Saturday) is tiny, requiring great precision, even with a short pitch for an approach.  Missing pin high leaves a very difficult up and down for birdie and puts bogey in play.

The 3rd green from behind.

I really enjoyed RA.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that the whole package is a better course than most of the sandbelt courses in Melbourne, other than Kingston Heath and the courses at Royal Melbourne, which means it is very, very good indeed.  The greens are not dramatic but each one slopes enough to make it treacherous and there is a definite benefit to being on the right side of the hole.   There is also a real advantage to hitting the right part of the fairway.  The course has a number of very good holes, among them the “Crater Hole” 11th:

The 11th approach

The railway comes close to play on the 2nd (the 17th hole we played)

As David, one of our playing companions demonstrates:

As part of this round the club’s new 19th hole (many Australian clubs seem to have 19 holes, so that one hole can, at any time, be taken out of play for maintenance work)

The new 17a

After we finished and showered, we sat down for the club’s end of season presentation lunch.  A very enjoyable lunch, during which the strong connections between Adelaide and the wine industry became clearer, several winners were in the wine trade and at least one very well known winemaker was at the lunch.

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