The National - Old
Rare in golf is to experience a venue entirely unique – shots never hit, a journey totally unfamiliar and an experience unto itself. In fact, if we take a step back, a vast majority of courses can be comfortably placed in a box golfers are accustomed to, amongst peers of parallel traits. In routing The National’s Old course amongst the turbulent clifftop terrain of the Mornington Peninsula, Robert Trent Jones Jr delivered a journey of few equals and a layout that draws even fewer comparisons - for that he should be nothing but commended.
A dramatic site flooded with original golf (15 tee)
Set to become Australia’s first equity-based membership, The National thought they had the right man to build their first course in Pete Dye until he became disenchanted by the necessity to travel from the States. The club’s desire for an internationally acclaimed architect then led them to Dye’s countryman Robert Trent Jones Jr. Today’s majestic three-course site at Cape Schank looked a lot different in 1987 when RTJ Jr was handed the keys - a wildly rambunctious site of rolling hills densely smothered in Tea Tree and Moonah presented few obvious hints at an eventual routing. Though once cleared by tractors and chains, it was this tumultuous terrain which became the elixir for the distinctive singularity of the Old Course.
Holes twist and wind over wild landforms (No. 8)
The word which best encapsulates the Old is overwhelming. Whether by nature or by the architect’s hand, everything is dialled up to the absolute limit and everywhere the golfer’s eye is drawn it lands on something stimulating. Deep elevation changes, gorgeous native and crashing waves beyond the hills combine to create an unforgettable journey amongst a remarkable setting. RTJ carved swathes of short grass through the native bush, riding broad slopes and hillsides as the fairways chop with rugged randomness and staggered tiers, while greens find themselves perched amongst the chaos of the land. At times it makes the golf uncomfortable – tee shots jumbled and confounding, flat lies few and far between and level approaches seldomly offered, but at all times it makes it engaging.
The aggression of the land forces variety into the layout, each hole an entirely different test from the one that comes before – hostile uphill approaches offset by a smattering of tee shots diving down to valleys below, with a distinctiveness to each.
A showing of what's to come from the first tee
Typically, on a site of such loud features, the architect offsets the pandemonium with a more subtle and subdued set of greens – not so on the Old where the final 20-yards of holes may be the most tumultuous. The Old is a course of great score variance, where opportunities for threes can quickly turn to sixes and despite the at times arduous journey in reaching them, much of this is owing to the perplexing collection of putting surfaces. Heaving ridges, daring spines and steepled tiers litter the large surfaces, crafting wild quadrants and greens within greens. Though bold and at times confounding, the surfaces are shaped with intelligence – building strategy into the tee shot and inserting the need for creativity into the round, where utilising the slopes and finding the best road home to a tucked pin becomes one of the layout’s greatest joys.
Multi-tiered greens like this at 10 are a common theme
Amongst the chaos of the routing, RTJ sprinkles in some of Australian golf’s most magical moments. A smattering of elevated tees and greens deliver breathtaking views across the rolling hills of Cups Country and the infinite Bass Strait, as golfers are dragged around one of Australia’s most varied and spectacular golfing properties. Most famously, the magical seventh tee, with its surface clinging to a cliff’s edge, separated from the tee by a deep ravine with nothing but ocean to the golfer’s left. Visually arresting, the Old’s many personalities perfectly match the intensity and variety of the golf it yields, and the sheer drama and solitude of a late afternoon jaunt as the sun falls finds few peers.
The views never grow old
Though routing golf across such dramatic terrain requires concessions to be made – namely in the walkability of the course (the Old is best appreciated from a cart) and a couple of less-than-ideal transitions to navigate aggressive landforms, the Old is an intensely memorable, exhilarating and singular experience. A round of the Old has golfers traversing the widest spectrum of emotions imaginable; frustration, confusion, wonder and flat-out joy.
First timers often view RTJ Jr as something of a masochist for his work at the National, whilst those most acquainted with the layout deem him more genius than sociopath. Regardless of where the golfer lands, the architect achieved exactly what he set out to do - very few loops of The National’s Old slip by quietly.
A remarkably special golfing outpost
The Second
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Winding through a valley of native bush, the second fairway is extremely wide until it’s not as it bottlenecks sharply. Once navigated, the visuals of the uphill approach are junked up by waves of tumbling terrain and an enormous hazard wrapped around the left half of the green. A surface of multiple segments split by a heaving ridge, a ball in the wrong section is a three-putt waiting to happen.​
Threading the needle at the second tee
The Third
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One of the great strengths of RTJ’s layout lies in the variety and balance of ways it tests golfers. At times the sharp shaping of the green surrounds confound - testing creativity and touch, whilst others outmuscle golfers with sheer brawn. The stout two-shot second lies firmly in the latter as the fairway dives left off the tee beyond a terrifying row of cross-bunkers and climbs almost comically to a skyline green perched metres above the golfer’s head. Commanding two heroic swings, there are plenty of ways to make a wipe at the second.
The third is a daunting prospect from the tee
The Sixth
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The scale of the Old’s features are both breathtaking and perplexing, as they impose their will on golfers’ depth perception. Dominated by a heaving hazard up the left and a severely tilted fairway, the sixth tee is a visual feast as it doglegs right to a green tucked beyond the native. Picking out a target is a gamble for the first timer, whilst the enormous, angled and double-tiered green places a premium on distance control in the approach. The sixth is a wonderful summation of many of the Old’s design traits.
Wild proportions down the sixth fairway
The Seventh
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A handful of spots in the world of golf can’t be surmised in a paragraph, nor will photos ever do justice to just how special they feel – the seventh tee is one of them. Rounding the corner to the tee box as the view of crashing waves below and the Melbourne skyline beyond unravels, there are few places you could ever wish to be. Little that has gone unsaid about the exhilarating short-iron across a gully to a clifftop landing pad – there are few spots to miss safely and even those whose misses find short grass face a tumultuous up and down. One of Australian golf’s most memorable moments.
Perhaps Australian golf's most inspiring spot.....
The Eighth
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In designing The National’s Old Course, RTJ didn’t shy away from the severity of the land, leading to a handful of original holes – most notably the rambunctious par-five eighth. Occupying another magical point of the property, the vistas from the tee box are magic, whilst the view down the hole is utterly perplexing as golfers scramble to figure out where they’re headed. With a partitioned fairway of multiple terraces, the tee shot plunges blindly to the bottom of the valley where marrying up a line and distance is no mean feat, though there is far more width than it appears. Two options present with the second shot – laying up to the next terrace short of the green to leave a delicate uphill pitch, or attempting to reach the picked up surface smothered by deep bunkers. A hole of great score variance, there are countless ways to get the ball down at the eighth.
Visual chaos looking down 8
The Eleventh​
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No two views from tees look the same throughout a loop of the Old and the eleventh opens with a blind swing over a saddle in the fairway. It’s the approach which stamps quality on the hole, offering one of the rare opportunities to a attack a green below the golfer’s feet. Handsomely draped in flanking bunkers, a deep groove bisects the wide surface and carves it into three with its wide open mouth dealing a plethora of options to get the ball close.
The inviting approach into 11
The Fifteenth​
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The vistas keep coming as golfers get deeper into the round, the fifteenth tee stretching views out across rolling farmland glistening sea. Another downhill tee ball dominated by a single hazard up the left, those willing to play near it will have the best look at finding an eagle putt. Few putts come straightforward however, as perhaps the old’s most boisterous and eccentric green complex awaits, with three dramatic sections shaped by a steep shelf. A surface which invites more imagination and fun than flat-out strategy, there is no prescription in getting the ball close.
The wild waves of the 15th green
The Sixteenth​
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Despite three of the quartet demanding dramatic forced carries, the Old’s par threes are a wonderfully diverse set which boasts a variety of thrilling green sites – no two swings alike. On most courses the gorgeous sixteenth, tucked amongst an ampitheatre of ti-tree beyond a gully, would be their most famous one-shot hole, but most courses don’t also have the Old’s seventh. Set in a wonderful pocket of the property, the target is a tight window surrounded by consequence – short being the most severely punished by a steep false front.
Utterly breathtaking