Course Previews
Three very different tests, all within a few hundred metres of each other on the Tasmanian coast.
SaturdayBarnbougle Dunes
Needs no introduction to most of the group — Doak and Clayton's original design opened in 2004 on what used to be nothing more than a potato farm, and has spent two decades ranked among the best courses in the country. Doak himself has called it the windiest site he's ever worked on; anyone who's stood on the 5th tee into a headwind knows exactly what he means.
Few things are as reliable as Pete finding a way to throw away a great score somewhere between 16 and 18, while the driveable 4th and 12th have produced their fair share of highlight-reel moments and blow-ups in equal measure. The walk from the 4th green up to the 5th tee is one of the great views in Australian golf — worth the trip across Bass Strait on its own.
Friday AMLost Farm
Coore and Crenshaw's layout opened in 2010, six years after the Dunes, and quickly earned a reputation as the more forgiving of the two — wider fairways, flatter terrain, kinder off the tee. Don't let that fool you: miss those fairways and the ball is genuinely never coming back. It's also the only course of the three with 20 holes on the card.
The 3rd and 4th are genuine front-nine highlights, and the mound on the 7th catches out everyone who hasn't played it. The 5th is the toughest hole on the course — carry a 20-foot dune up the right or the river's waiting — while the famous 18a, a nearest-the-pin decider hole, is the perfect way to settle a bet at the end of the round.
Thu PM · Fri PMBougle Run
The baby of the family — opened in 2021 and built largely by hand during Covid lockdowns, tucked into the highest dunes on the property. Fourteen holes, twelve of them one-shotters plus a couple of driveable par 4s, all playable in under two hours. Nowhere near the length of the other two, but just as capable of wrecking a scorecard.
The driveable par 4s bring plenty of risk-reward fun, and the downhill 10th with its punchbowl green and the fully exposed par-3 5th are the two holes everyone walks off talking about — proper tests despite the short-course billing.