View from the 1st tee at Lost Farm

I’m in Bridport because it is the home of one of the world’s greatest golf resorts.  Barnbougle has two courses, the Dunes and Lost Farm.  Golf Digest rank Lost Farm as the 23rd best course in the world and Barnbougle Dunes as the 11th.  I’m very cynical about ratings of that sort but there seems no doubt that these two courses are in the best 5 in Australia (with NSW, which I have played, Royal Melbourne West and Kingston Heath, which I get to see nest week.  Importantly, people I know, whose opinions I value, say they are exceptional.  I was booked to play twice at Lost Farm today and then twice at Barnbougle Dunes tomorrow.

It’s possible to build a great golf course on a less that fantastic site but so much easier when the land is wonderful.  Driving towards Barnbougle this morning gave a hint of what was to come:

View from the drive!

Bridport is on the northern coast of Tasmania and the land immediately next to the sea is links land, like so much of the coast in the UK.  This is perfect for golf. The owners of Barnbougle hired two of the very best firms of architects to design these  two courses.  Barnbougle Dunes was designed by Tom Doak and Lost Farm by the team of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.  I was fascinated to see the contrast in what these two made of such great terrain.

Lost Farm was a blast from first to last.  Unusually it has 20 holes (numbered 1-18, with additional par 3s as 13a and 18a) and is the eastern most of the two courses.  It has its own separate clubhouse a 5 minute drive from the Barnbougle Dunes site.

The course is visually stunning.  It has very wide fairways bounded by deep, thick marram grasses.  Miss the fairway and there is no prospect of finding your ball.  Missing the fairway takes some doing, though.  However, it’s quite possible on many holes to be on the fairway but have almost no shot.  It really rewards those who can put their ball in the right place.  Likewise, the greens are large but very undulating.  There are right and wrong parts of the green to hit.  Miss the right parts and putting becomes very, very tricky.

I ended up playing 49 holes.  Twice round the full 20, then out for 9 more in the evening.  There’s no doubt this is a great golf course, elevated by the beauty of the area it is in.

I played pretty well today.  A highlight was on the long par 3 15th, where a 4 ball of middle aged Australians invited me to play through.  Not only did I hit the ball to 10 feet but rolled the putt in for birdie as they watched.  The additional 9 I played was the front 9, as there were three holes on that 9 I had not played well in the previous two rounds.  The par 5 first, which I had bogied twice, I made a birdie on.  The short par 3 4th, where I had made a par with a great recovery shot from garbage behind the green and a blob, I made a regulation par.  Indeed, I was level par for 7 holes, when I came to the 8th.  I had a bogey and a blob here in previous rounds.  Sadly, I still cannot tell you how to play this devilishly difficult par 5.

It appears Barnbougle Dunes is commonly held to be the better course.  If it is, I’m in for a real treat tomorrow!

One other thing worth mentioning is the wildlife.  Yesterday evening, when I popped up to see the place, I had seen dozens of kangaroos (or wallabies, I just don’t know).  This evening, as I finished I had a few as spectators.

A local wonders at my ineptitude on the 8th

Earlier, during a warmer part of the day, this chap watched me putt for par on the 2nd:

I’m told a snake was spotted on the site today.  Fortunately not by me.

After finishing playing, I had an encouraging conversation with the firm I am hoping to join in December and watched the test cricket from Rajkot with a couple of blokes who had played Barnbougle today and  glass of local pinot noir.  What a great day!

Today was a moving day.  I left Sydney, taking with me very fond memories and headed to Tasmania.  I’d been worried before I left for Australia that I was spending too much time in Sydney.  It isn’t the greatest golfing city in Australia and my schedule elsewhere was packed.  As I left, I wished I had more time to spend there.  It’s a wonderful city.  Beautiful but spikey, cultured but grounded, lively but calming.  A really pleasant surprise for me.  So far as I’m concerned those comparisons to New York are way off beam.  This is San Francisco, with a better coastline and better history.

Sadly, after a week of superb weather, Sydney said goodbye with a damp handshake:

Today was, of course, a defining day in US, and possibly world history.  As I left Sydney the weather was grey but there was bright news from the USA. The fivethirtyeight website had HIlary Clinton with a 76% chance of being president.  By the time I landed in Melbourne to change for Launceston, that was 56% and I was beginning to worry.  When I arrived in Launceston, the deed was done.  The most powerful nation on Earth had elected a xenophobic, racist, misogynist, self confessed sex offender as its president.  At least the weather in Tasmania was better than in Sydney.

I flew to Launceston so that I could play the two modern courses at Barnbougle: Barnbougle Dunes and Lost Farm.  Both are ranked in the top 5 in Australia and Barnbougle Dunes in the top 50 in the world.  Barnbougle is closest to Bridport, Dorset, Tasmania.  About an hours drive North from Launceston.  The route my sat nav took me on included several kilometers of dirt track:

and took me along one of the Tasmanian Wine Trails.  Fortunately, it was 5pm by the time I landed and all the wineries were closed as I drove past.

I found my AirB&B quite easily and introduced myself to the owners.  The place is fantastic.  For a bit less than I paid for a room with a comfy bed in Sydney, I get what is basically an apartment.   With sea view:

Having checked in, I decided to visit Barnbougle, as a scouting visit and to get a bite to  eat.  As the sun was setting, what I saw whetted my appetite for tomorrow:

I grabbed a bite to eat in the Barnbougle Dunes bar, before heading off to Lost Farm, where the Sports Bar was showing, amongst several other events, England’s first test in India.  That was going remarkably well.  Joe Root, who some Australians still mistakenly think of as a soft English cricketer was in the process of making a century and Moeen Ali, hopefully, another.  Even better, I bumped into a quite inebriated but very enjoyable bunch of golfers from Brisbane who were playing immediately before me tomorrow.  Sadly, both of the blokes that I had hoped to play with tomorrow had had to duck out.  Scotty and his mates from Brisbane were insistent I join them in the morning and I will.

I’ve been reading the (excellent) Five Thirty Eight, the US politics website, whose coverage of the US Presidential race has been staple reading and their podcast staple listening of mine for the past few months.  It seems they expect the result of the election to be clear by about 11pm Eastern TIme.  I reckon that’s 3pm over here.  That means that by the time I get to Launceston we’ll be likely to know the identity of the next President.

It’s a bizarre campaign which can be so close in the US, whilst virtually the whole of the rest of the world (Vladimir Putin and certain groups dedicated to the downfall of Western civilisation apart) is praying for a Clinton win, or, more importantly, a Trump loss.  I don’t know anyone who isn’t American who isn’t terrified by the prospect of Trump in the White House but I do know very intelligent, apparently sane Americans who intend to vote for him.

Anyway, I shall put the radio on when I arrive in Tasmania with trepidation, hoping to hear that the USA has its first female president.

It’s been hot in Sydney.  The temperature has been in the high 20s or low 30s for almost my entire time here and the sky has been blue and clear.  The temperature hasn’t been a problem, though, because there has been an ever present breeze, or, on occasions, wind.  It has, in short, been lovely.  Today was cooler but there were times when it was overcast and, with no breeze, it felt hotter and muggier.  And now, as I write, it’s pissing down with rain.  I guess I had fallen into the assumption that it simply didn’t rain here.  Worse, the forecast for the Tasmanian weekend is very wet indeed.  Some justification for having packed a waterproof top, at least.