COURSE REVIEW - Settlers Run Golf & Country Club

(Issue 52)

Settlers Run is the newest urban development that showcases a pristine golf course as its centre piece. I was eager to visit the new development 45 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD in Cranbourne South – a burgeoning growth corridor.

The reason for my eagerness was the man that has put his name to the course – the one and only Gregory Norman. I love his course designs and I wanted to see for myself what he may have done to what I anticipated to be a flat, boring, country landscape.

The complex is a collaboration between Macquarie Bank and Norman’s Great White Shark Enterprises – a Medallist project – while the newly opened Golf and Country Club is managed by Troon Golf.

Like many new courses, Settlers Run intends to be an exclusive member’s only track (with room for corporate’s no doubt), but in its infancy golfers need to be able to play the course to decide if they’d like to purchase one of the limited memberships or indeed buy a property on site. Therefore you can get a game there at the moment if you ask nicely, and in fact Troon have just announced a deal where you can play there for a full month, as often as you like, for $250. A try before you buy if you like, and not a bad deal if you’re a local!

If you choose to live in the community, you in turn return receive two free “memberships” with each home site (playing rights to the course and all the attached amenities – tennis, gym, sauna, spa, pool etc.). It should be noted that “free” is a loose term – there’s a body corporate fee that sticks with each home, from which the course upkeep is paid for. If you’re a keen golfer it’s a reasonable deal as you get two non-transferable playing rights that remain with the title, but if you don’t play golf the annual fee might be a bit harder to swallow.

Anyway, enough about housing, with one final footnote; there’s a lot of construction on at the moment so it’s hard to say how intrusive home sites will be to the overall aesthetics on course. Our guess is you will see plenty of homes but as trees grow and coupled with the architectural designs/colours being used, they should blend in very nicely.

New grass was being rolled out and plants dug in around the clubhouse when we visited in late 2007. The Clubhouse itself is ultra modern, blending in beautifully with the surrounds – recycled timbers hug the façade and earthen colours seamlessly tone in with the landscape. One end of the Clubhouse itself is almost dug into the side of a hill and hides underground.

Inside, a state of the art gym, indoor lap pool and upmarket locker rooms compliment the dining, coffee shop, golf shop and other lounging areas. Its modern deco just like you’d want in a new home – everything smelt so fresh (even the paint that was still being slapped on while we were shown around!)

New plasmas hang from ceilings, sails flap over fashionable outdoor furniture that sits on an impressive verandah/outdoor el fresco area availing terrific views over the course and the rolling landscape. The contemporary infrastructure is as impressive as I have seen. This was all good and well, bells and whistles if you like, but I came here to see what Greg had done with the golf course and I wasn’t disappointed.

One thought was quickly dispelled – this wasn’t any flat, boring piece of land. The rolling hills gave the master designer plenty to work with. So often course architects can be handed an ordinary canvas and one of the things I admire about Norman is his ability to make a silk purse from the proverbial sow’s ear. Here, he hasn’t been quite as challenged.

My initial reaction was one of wonderment – how do they get a course so young looking and playing so well in such a short period of time? Only twelve months before they were seeding fairways, now most are lush with magnificent Legend couch. There’s a distinctive first cut mown before the wild native grasses appear. Fairways are usually generous, but get way off line and you will lose your pill.

Bunkering no doubt takes inspiration from Norman’s love of the sand belt. There are plenty of them, most are penal and they have that sand belt shape often tearing into the side of the large, undulating greens. Some edges are clean, some rugged, others again adorn natives grasses butted up against the edging.

Water too is a feature. A couple of water crossings come into play, none more dramatically than on the short par four, 17th. It’s risk versus reward golf at its best. On my visit I played off the Gold tees for a par 72 course measuring 6027m, however off the Black you can tackle an intimidating 6607 metres. The 17th from the Gold is only 277m (303m from the back plate) and if you clear the lovely billabong / lake on the right you could make the green in one. A safer route is a longish iron out to the left for a short iron in, but the choice is there as it should be on good short holes.

The first is an open driving hole from elevated tee that then sees the fairway climb uphill to the green - what you see is what you get. Played sensibly it’s a fair, albeit challenging opener.

There are only three par threes on the layout – all good - and all could vie for title as the signature par three. For aesthetic appeal you may choose the 8th with water surrounding the tee and a decent bail out on the left; however the 11th is a cracker. A somewhat hidden dance floor and treacherous bunkers left, it’s open to the elements with a large, wide green and lots of undulations on and around the putting surface. There’s pin positions a plenty to keep the most nasty superintendent happy for hours.
The third hole has you thinking early. At good driving distance on this longish but downhill opening par four the fairway narrows, tightened by a deep bunker on the right. Do you drive and hope not to reach this reachable hazard or do you lay up for safety leaving a long uphill second? If there’s and wind in your face have a crack because the bunker is further away than you think.

Both closing holes to each nine are tough, rated hard on the card and depending on the wind they could change from being relatively challenging to near impossible.
The ninth begins with a wide inviting fairway to drive at, and then narrows the closer you get to the green which is also an uphill climb.
Eighteen sees you shoot through a stand of gums, over water; again it’s an uphill climb all the way to the flag.

In between there’s features a plenty – a great water hazard on hole twelve, a feature tree in the middle of the fairway nearer the green on sixteen, water edging the green on hole five and a lovely clubhouse vista on eighteen.

I came to Settler’s Run expecting another Greg Norman triumph in golf design and I departed happy that once again he’s delivered.