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Neil & I had last week off work so we headed to Ivanhoe. I haven’t been here for a while & was looking forward to getting back. It’s a nice short course, just the 1 par 5 but it is also in a nice setting. We were paired up with a couple ladies & were hoping to beat the cool change. I’m not sure if it is a deliberate ploy by the ground staff here or we just caught the course before a haircut but the rough was quite long especially around the greens. As I mentioned it’s not a long course & if this is not the norm around the course it should be. The thick rough added a couple of shots at least, Neil got caught out a couple of times.

Hopefully it wont be so long before we head back out here.

We headed out to the Dunes with a couple of last minutes cancellations. In the end there was a group of 6 of us. Neil, Trevor, Luke, Russell, Glen & myself made the trek. I had been waiting to play The Dunes for a few years now & finally got the chance & I must say I wasn’t disappointed.

From the 1st tee this is a challenging course. Get off line & it will bit. Conversely put it down the middle & you will reap the rewards. The fairways are perfect & you drives will run.

A bit of local knowledge comes in handy on this course, or you can buy a course guide from the pro shop. There are 2 available, the el cheapo for about $3 or the deluxe model for about $9. They will pay for themselves on quite a few holes as there are a number of blind tee shots on this course.

The course is beautifully bunkered with fairway bunkers right on the driving distance & the greens are brilliantly protected. Once you are on the green, if you get the line right they will run true.

We got lucky on the day we played, the wind was not really a factor. Having said that even on a calm day there a couple of holes that are higher up than the rest of the course & the wind was still a factor. This course could be an absolute beast if the wind is up.

I enjoyed our day out here & it is one of my favorite parts of Melbourne to play golf. There are so many great course out this way that you have to make the time to come out.

You can check out the photos here