Caption: The panoramic view of Port Phillip Bay from the 16th tee of the Clifton Springs Golf Club, near Geelong in Victoria.

Curlewis Golf Club in Victoria had it all

By Paul Gueorgieff, editor Golfer Pacific

When it comes to golf in Victoria most minds turn to Melbourne’s sandbelt region.

The sandbelt region is in Melbourne’s south east and some of the top courses there include the likes of Royal Melbourne Golf Club, Victoria Golf Club, Kingston Heath Golf Club, Huntingdale Golf Club and Metropolitan Golf Club.

There is a multitude of others as well. I remember playing at Southern Golf Club a few years ago and we were staying only a 20-minute drive away.

But when I turned on my global positioning system (GPS) device to show the 10 nearest golf courses, Southern didn’t appear because there were at least 10 others that were closer.

On a recent trip to Victoria we didn’t go to the sandbelt area. Instead we headed to Geelong which is the second biggest city in Victoria with a population of more than 250,000.

Geelong is more than an hour’s drive from Melbourne and about the same travelling time by train from the central city’s Southern Cross station.

The main course we played was the Curlewis Golf Club, just out of Geelong.

It was a fabulous establishment.

Notice I used the word establishment, not golf course. That’s because it is more than a golf course.

This is mainly due to local woman Lyndsay Sharp. She has obviously spent millions of dollars upgrading the course and building a new clubhouse and accommodation units along with a nearby modern driving range.

Caption: Hand motor mowers being used in the morning to cut the 18th green at Curlewis Golf Club near Geelong in Victoria. The green is about 10 metres above the fairway and is guarded by large bunkers back and front.

Caption: Looking out from the balcony of one of the accommodation units at Curlewis Golf Club. Towards the left is the ninth green.

The driving range is a 20-minute walk from the golf course. It has about 20 bays all with prime ball tracing technology and excellent dining facilities.

The clubhouse at Curlewis contains a large restaurant, a cafe/bar area and a golf shop. The restaurant is not just for golfing events.

While I was there it appeared locals were using the restaurant for functions or special dining occasions.

The menu was that of a top class restaurant and there was a matching wine list, aided by the fact that the Sharps own a handful of nearby wineries.

The cafe/bar area was where smaller meals were served and where golfers enjoyed a drink after their rounds.

The accommodation units are beside the clubhouse and are next to the first tee and 18th green. They are hotel-like rooms with no cooking facilities.

They are obviously encouraging visitors to have breakfast in the clubhouse as there is not even a toaster in the rooms but we mainly got by with cereals for breakfast and other food purchased at a nearby supermarket.

So what about the golf course?

Top class.

The fairways are couch grass where the golf ball sits up perfectly and the greens are immaculate.

We were at Curlewis for a week and I noticed that the greens, which were large and undulating, were cut with a hand motor mower during the week and a ride-on mower at the weekend.

The fairways were reasonably generous for most holes but if you did stray into the rough, the grass was often long enough to make it difficult to find the ball.

There were bunkers all over the place. Most holes had both fairway bunkers — or sand waste areas — and greenside bunkers. The bunkers were large and deep and added to the test of the course.

Avoiding the bunkers was imperative but that iss easier said than done.

I find it hard to pick a signature hole as there were many good holes. But simply for the exercise I will choose two — numbers 17 and 18.

The 17th is a par three of 130 metres but the green is perched on a rise which is heavily guarded by two large bunkers. You either have to carry the green on the full or trust to luck to run the ball up between the two bunkers.

I need to declare a conflict of interest. It was the 17th hole that I won a nearest-the-pin prize in the tournament I was playing. I hit it to six feet but missed the putt.

The 18th is a par four of only 275 metres but makes for a good closing hole.

The surface of the green can’t be seen from the fairway as it is about 10 metres high and it has two large bunkers covering all of the front of green. Longer hitters probably only need a wedge for the second shot but precision is required because of the slopes of the green.

The slope rating from the white tees at Curlewis was 128 for men and 133 for women.

Caption: One of the fairways, with bunkers galore, on the creek course at 13th Beach Golf Links near Geelong in Victoria.

We played four times at Curlewis but during a rest day of the tournament we headed out to 13th Beach Golf Links.

This course is on the Bellarine Peninsula, is about a 20-minute drive from Curlewis and in recent years has become the venue for the Victoria Open.

New Zealander golfer Michael Hendry won at 13th Beach in February while Ryan Fox finished second to West Australian Min Woo Lee in 2020.

Thirteenth Beach comprises two courses — the beach course and the creek course.

The beach course is used for the final two rounds of the Victoria Open but we played the creek course.

Once again it was immaculate couch grass fairways, large undulating greens and daunting bunkers both on the fairway and guarding the greens.

Because we were first-timers at 13th Beach we sometimes became confused at where the next tee was and one occasion we were not sure which green to aim for. A map of the course on the scorecard would have helped and some better signage when exiting a green.

Caption: One section of the impressive clubhouse at Curlewis Golf Club near Geelong in Victoria.

We played the blue tees at 13th Beach because we entered the day’s local competition and it carried a slope rating of 138 for men.

We played one other course during our seven-day stay. That was Clifton Springs which is best known for it’s 180 degree panoramic view of Port Phillip Bay.

Clifton Springs is not in the same class as Curlewis and 13th Beach but remains a good course. We found the greens very difficult to read and that sentiment was echoed when we enquired with locals who have played the course.

The green fee at Clifton Springs was about $50 at the weekend while it was $A115 for the creek course at 13th Beach during the week. We paid a tournament fee to play at Curlewis but I have read the green fee is about $A80.