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The day didn’t start well, an early morning start after going out for Stuarts birthday wasn’t a good combination. I felt 100% better after I saw Shane. The day before was the last game of footy for the year & they had a win. He stumbled home at 5ish in the morning & was in a sorry state 😉

Lancefield Golf Course is a small country course so don’t go there expecting Royal Melbourne, but having said that it is a very challenging & enjoyable round of golf. On this day we had 5 of us, Shane, Tod, John, Stuart & myself. I know it’s supposed to be a no-no but we played as one group & with not another soul in site it wasn’t a problem. I was surprised how few people there were, Sunday at most metro courses is just chockers. This is something I hate about playing on the weekends, the waiting. Not so here at Lancefield.

The course it’s self has open fairways but very tricky greens. Most of the holes here are pretty straight forward but what makes it interesting are the greens. Some of them are just tiny. If that wasn’t bad enough a lot of them slope back toward the front. So if you do manage to hit the small target there is still a chance your ball will roll of the green anyway. A comment that was made during our round was that the greens were pretty quick. We played at the end of winter, in summer, especially towards the end, these greens will be like glass. They are tough enough at the moment, in February they will be near impossible.

My favourite hole here is the par 5 15th. It is a most unusual hole. It is shaped similar to a Z on it’s side. You tee off straight then the hole doglegs 90 degrees to the left. Your second shot has out of bounds on your left & a small forest of pines trees on your right. Your third shot (if you get it past the trees) is a dog leg right up the hill to the green. It is a really cool hole.

I’m glad to say that Shane managed to finish the round in one piece, how I’m not sure. We all had a most enjoyable day & it is a great course to come to for a quite round. Lancefield would be perfect place to learn how to play. You don’t have the problem of impatient people rushing the beginner.

I’ve now added the photos from the day. Some of them are a little dark but you can have a look at them here

Address: Calder Highway, Keilor North

Number of Holes: 18

Carts available: Yes

19th hole: They sell beer at the Pro shop that you can drink at tables out the front.

First time we player here was in August of 2006. I was impresssed with this course, nice fairways & fantastic greens, Not only are the greens in good condition they are challenging. Some of them slope from back to front, some of them have undulations & some of them are quite small. To me this is one of the best parts of this course. Each green can be different & a lot of the time, depending on where you are in relation to the hole, you have to really think about your putt.

Another thing of note. On the back nine there are back to back par 3’s. I haven’t seen this any where before. On the back nine it begins 4,3,4,3,3. All of the 3’s on the back half are 150 metres or more. On the front both of the 3’s are around 125 metres each.

Keilor is quite a hacker friendly course. Three of us played, none of us are what you would call brilliant golfers, but nobody lost a ball all day. That’s gotta count for something 😉 Keilor is also only a par 69 which means only one par 5 on each 9.

The majority of the holes are pretty straight but this can be counter acted by the wind. The day we played out here was pretty calm but if the wind got up I can imgine this would change the course dramatically. What was an easy par 4 with no wind could turn into a nightmare into a head wind.

None of the holes at Keilor are very long, the longest hole on the course is the par 5 3rd. At 435 metres it is not an overly long hole. Three of the par 4’s are under 300 metres, all of them only just. The 1st is 290 from the back, the 5th is 297 & the 17th is 298. None of them really drivable to your average golfer unless you had a decent tail wind 😉

In conclusion. I’m really glad that Stan recomeded playing here. I really enjoyed playing here & will be going back again soon.

The day looked great but looks can be decieving. The wind was up & so were the scores. We had 5 people up for the round, Trevor was told he had to stay home & Scott went to the footy with his dad. Good call Scott. It doesn’t seem possible but nearly ever hole was into the wind. The fairways & greens were in pretty good nick but trying to judge the distance was a near on impossible. The group we had was Neil, Dick, Ian, Stuart & myself. Stuart had to pull the pin after 9 holes, his arm was giving him a bit of jip. Perosonaly my putting gave me a bit of grief, I had 5 birdies putts & finished with 2 pars & three boogies, not a good avareage. Dick’s driving wasn’t bad for an old bloke & he 1 putted the first 2 holes. Sadly it went down hill from there. Ian’s front nine, according to him, was the worst he has played in a long time. Thankfully he’s back nine was better saving us from his continued cursing, wait that was Neil, & his cursing continued throughout the 18 holes. Personally my front 9 was a mess save 3 holes & the back nince was a mess…. no saving. In the end Ian & I both scored 102 (please no laughing) Neil scored a 110 & Dick stopped counting.

If it wasn’t for the wind I have a feeling we could have carved this course up, but I have never played here when there hasn’t been wind. This is probably the courses defence mechanism 😉 One point of note is 3 groups behind us there was little excitment so to speak. On the 10th tee there was a full on punch up. None of us saw it but we were told. Here is the story as we were told. One group came up & asked the group in front if they could play through & that was it, full on brawl. Ice hockey stuff with shirts being pulled over the head, traping arms & punching the crap out of the bloke. As I said, this is all third person. Play Craigieburn at your own risk ; )