The Golf Course

The Course

The Heathcote Golf Club is best known for its fast and true-running, top quality Pen Eagle bent grass greens. The club takes great pride in maintaining what are some of the most beautiful putting surfaces in regional Victoria, which are an inviting challenge to golfers of all standards.

Founded in 1928, Heathcote is a well established par-71 course lined with a superb collection of pine trees and magnificent Red Gums and Box Gums. It has a distinctively Australian character, reminiscent of some of the superb Murray courses just 90 minutes to the north. The course design features a reference to the famous double greens of St. Andrews with a huge two-tiered double green in front of the clubhouse shared between the 11th and 18th greens.

The local fauna always make visitors feel welcome. Two emus and a mob of local grey kangaroos have made the course their home and make a round in Heathcote a uniquely Australian experience. Like Anglesea Golf Club on Victoria’s Surf Coast, the roos take a most leisurely approach to the passing golfers.

In recent years, the course has greatly benefited from the arrangement to access recycled water from the township. Whilst so many courses have suffered during the drought, Heathcote has been fortunate to have maintained the couch fairways and the famous greens in excellent condition. The course offers a great test of all parts of your game with four par 5s and five challenging par 3s laid on undulating ground at the foot of picturesque Mount Ida. A few of the feature holes are:

The long par-4 4th hole: 414 metres from the men's back markers the fairway gently turns right at about 180 metres. Big hitters take on the trees on the right side of the faiway and try to draw the ball back to the middle. From there its a downhill shot to a long, narrow green, guarded by a cypress pine on the front left.

The short par-4 sixth hole: This is a beautifully designed hole that offers golfers a number of strategic choices. Measuring only 260 metres, this hole invites the big hitters to go for the green if they want to take it on. It is a great risk/reward hole requiring a power fade to negotiate the left to right dogleg at the 200-metre mark and the significant gum that guards the front of the green. However, if you are going for it, beware as there is water lurking both left and right of the fairway. The smart play is a lay-up from the tee leaving a relatively easy short iron into the smallish green.

The par-3 8th hole:  At only 130 metres to the centre of the green its a pretty simple shot, or should be. The massive gums lining the fairway mask the wind making club selection vital. A wayward shot will either catch the bunker in front or run over the back. Behind the green is a massive slope at 50 degrees requiring incredible skill to make the up and down. 

The long par-4 11th hole: This is one of the longest and toughest holes at Heathcote. It is a straightaway par 4 with a stand of pines lining the left side of the fairway on the drive. The second shot is slightly uphill and needs to be threaded between two magnificent gums beautifully positioned about 50 metres short of the green. No matter how long your drive, these two guardians require that the second is played well. If you get to the green in regulation, par is no snack on the huge sloping double green.

The par-4 12th hole: 342 metres from the Men's tee. Drive, approach, birdie putt. How hard can it be? If you position your tee shot to the right side of the fairway, you'll get a look at the green, past the big gum tree on the left. Long hitters routinely drive through the slight left dogleg and find themselves stone dead behind the pine trees. Your second shot is across the valley to a green which has some significant fall in some areas making it difficult to hold the green.   

The Par -5 14th Hole: Having got through 11, 12 & 13, you're ready to launch one! This par 5 is a long hitter's delight. A gentle left to right bend in the fairway at the landing zone. Get the Big Dog out and let it rip! You may wish to consider that the fairway narrows and is less than 20 metres wide at the big hitter's landing zone with gum trees and cypress pines either side. But, you're confident! Give a rip! Or maybe the three wood?