The Lakes Golf Club - Mascot, NSW, Australia

It was my second time playing The Lakes and the course is a notch above the others around Sydney in my opinion.  I was lucky enough to have played The Australian the day before so I both are fresh in my head to compare.

The Lakes stands out due to its hole layouts and green complexes and is my favourite course that I've played in the Sydney area thus far - even though I've never scored well there.  The green complex on the par 5 14th is a) the largest green I've ever seen and b) has multiple tiers with severe slope.   Enjoy putting on that one.  The course is challenging and will test ever club in your bag.  There is a good mixture of short, medium, and long par 4's sprinkled amongst short to mid par 5's and par 3's.  You don't need to be a long hitter of the ball to score well here, but you do need to play smart.

The Emirates Australian Open was just played at The Lakes in November.  

Hole 11 - Par 5

Contact details:

Office	+612 9669 1311
Fax	+612 9669 6206
Golf Shop	+612 9669 3544
Starters Hut	+612 9669 5107

The Lakes Golf Club, PO Box 545, Mascot NSW 1460

Golf Bookings	match@thelakesgolfclub.com.au
General	info@thelakesgolfclub.com.au
Functions/Events	ann@thelakesgolfclub.com.au

The Australian Golf Club - Sydney Australia

It was a hot day on the links today.  Mid 90's for the fahrenheit loving Americans out there, mid 30's for the rest of the world.

The Australian Golf Club is nice and has a lot of history; however, the course itself is a bit of a let down.  I contribute this to being told by numerous of my golf mates that The Australian is the best course in Sydney.  Yes, it is a nice course, but I wouldn't say it is the best.  Many of the holes are straightforward, and the green complexes are relatively unchallenging, aka flat.

I will take my hat off to the staff at The Australian.  The staff go out of their way to ensure that you are having a good time and to make sure that all of your needs are met.

This post about the course is a bit negative, but I don't want people to get the impression that it is a bad course.  It is a topnotch course, it is just that I wouldn't call it the best.

One final note on the course, The Australian sends off the competition groups with 3 golfers in each group.  I found this absolutely wonderful as we finished our Saturday mid-morning round in less than 4 hours.  I wouldn't have thought it would have made much of a difference going from 4 golfers down to 3 in a group, but it did.  I would highly recommend that other golf clubs do the same thing.  I'm a very fast golfer and when rounds start creeping past 4 hours, it is frustrating.

Hole 18 Green