I’m planning a camping trip to Denilliquin over the Australia Day long-weekend (Thur 26 — Sun 29). Anyone else in the vacinity want to join me for a round of golf? Add a comment on this post if you’re interested and we’ll hook up.
[UPDATE: I’ve had a change of plans, and it looks like I won’t be heading to Dennie this weekend. Anyone want to play a round closer to home on Sunday?]
Well, Christmas is well and truly behind us and we’ve been up and running for a couple of weeks now, without too many hitches. We’ve just completed an upgrade to the WordPress 2.0 software that runs the site. As a result there have been some minor outages over the past couple of days — mostly due to some technical problems at the other end and beyond our control. I also noticed that the subscribe functionality has also been AWOL, so if you’ve been trying to subscribe to receive updates via email, give it another try. Hopefully these issues is all resolved for the time being.
There’s been a fair bit of golfing action over the short-break, but plenty more to come with the weather being perfect for golf. It’s great to see that we’re attracting new visitors to the site (welcome!), and the faithful band of regulars have stuck with us. Thank you to everyone. We look forward to your continued participation.
Remember, if you have any suggestions on how we could improve on the site, we’d love to hear them. Email us!
Cary & Shane went out to Ivanhoe on a gorgous Thursday. Trevor was supposed to join us but couldn’t get his clubs out of his shed. I’ve heard some lame excuses but this takes the cake ; ) The place was chockers so we got paired up with a couple of blokes, Barry & Bob. We had a great day, Shane is still trying to figure out how to play after mangaling his finger but he is getting there. I’m trying to deal with the horrible problem of driving the ball straight, the problem being I’m still aiming left to compenstate for a slice that appears to have run away. The course was in good condition with lush fairways & smooth (once your clear the leaves) greens.
In the end, after handicaps, Shane beat me by 1 shot.
Address: Whitfield Rd, Whitfield 3733
Number of holes: 9 (different tees for 18)
19th Holes: No, but it is right next to the Pub!
Motorised Carts: No
Cost: 9/18 — $5 (honour system)
Whitfield is a very pretty small town located 245 km north-east of Melbourne, 60 km north-east of Mansfield and 50 km south of Wangaratta. It is situated in a dairy and tobacco growing and wine producing district in the scenic King River Valley where lush river flats are surrounded by some magnificent high country.
On our recent camping holiday, my brother-in-law Michael and I played a couple of rounds at the local course.
The course is probably a little better than what you’d expect a course to play this far out from a major town, despite the gravel ‘greens’ and the fact that the course is short and only has nine holes. After being a little frustrated during our first round and trying to decypher the course layout the second round was a little more enjoyable.
There are a couple of really nice holes on the course, and the absence of any real hazzards (no bunkers — although the greens are sand!) and no long Par 5’s makes life on the course a little more comfortable for the hobby golfer.
The 1st — a Par 4 (284m) — starts off at the tin shed club house, with a short tee shot required to navigate the 90 degree dog-leg over a crest. You cannot see the green from the bottom of the crest, which makes the approach shot a little tricky. Quite a difficult little hole. Neither of us managed better than a boggie on either round.
The 6th — another Par 4 (256m) — was my favorite hole. You tee off from the top of a picturesque ravine through a couple of trees forming a gateway to the promised land that is the fairway. Once through the trees there is a gentle approach to a smallish ‘green’.
The 8th — a short Par 4 (190m) — is a really nice hole with a narrow fairway and a sharp dog-leg to the right around the 160m mark. You need to get your drive spot on here to give you a good approach to the green because the air-space through the corner of the dog-leg is OOB (over a house). If you get the drive right, it’s just a short chip onto the green.
The 9th — a short little Par 3 at 104m is a nice little hole back to the club house is a good one to finish off with. No hazards to speak of and you have a direct shot at the green.
I really enjoyed my couple of rounds at Whitfield and my scores were OK. I even managed a couple of birdies and a couple of Pars, which is pleasing. If your heading to the high country, I recommend you check the course out for yourself.
Stuart & I played 9 holes at Whittlesea on the 2nd of January. The place was pretty busy & we got paired up with a couple from Wattle Glen. The course is in pretty good condition, but it is starting to get dry in places.
The best part of the day was my birdie on the 6th. I was left with only a 3 foot putt & made it. Stuart beat me by 4 shots but he didn’t get any birdies ; )