The Australian Social Golf Club Championships (ASGCC) was originally developed by Palm Meadows Golf Course as a stand-alone event for players representing their social golf clubs. The event has been supported by Golf Australia since its inception and was first held in 2005. In 2008, the 54-hole event expanded to be played over three courses for the first time and Sanctuary Cove and Royal Pines were added to the roster. As the foundation course, Palm Meadows remained as the host for the final round of the Championships. In 2009, two new courses were added to the roster: the highly-rated Lakelands and Robina Woods. The event is a contest between teams of four players playing stableford aggregate over 54 holes. In the first five years, on the first day (Sunday), players played a practice round. In 2010, the first Sunday will feature a fun stand-alone competition with teams in the championships playing four-ball ambrose together. In July 2010, Hungat Worldwide announced the closure of Palm Meadows on August 1 which forced a rescheduling of the courses for the 2010 event and The Colonial and Royal Pines have been included to replace the rounds at Palm Meadows. For details on the Championship Packages and entry details, see the How to Enter page.
2010 ASGCC - Day One - The Colonial
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The Colonial Golf Course opened in 1992. Originally called Paradise Springs Golf Course, the facility was renamed The Colonial Golf Course in October 2003. Designed by Mitsuaki Kobayashi, the course boasts of beautifully groomed fairways and meticulously manicured greens and is widely regarded as being in the best condition on the Gold Coast. A farmland once home to cows, weeds and bush has been transformed into a visually stunning golf course with a reputation for always being presented in superb condition. |
The 6,424 metre, par 72, championship course is a resort-style layout that meanders its way through 39 hectares of towering eucalyptus, picturesque lakes and serene waterways. Flowering native and exotic trees and plants abound, while ornate bridges cross waterways throughout the course. One of the most striking and memorable elements of the facility is the stunning colonial-Queenslander-style clubhouse. Designed by Alan Griffith Architects, it is a feature of the venue and was the inspiration for the new name and logo design.
2010 ASGCC - Day Two - Lakelands
Since opening in February 1997, the wonderful Lakelands golf course has forged a deserved reputation as one of Australia’s very best golf courses. Situated in the heart of the Gold Coast adjacent to the luxurious Radisson Resort and next door to Palm Meadows, Lakelands was the first signature designed course in Australia by golfing legend Jack Nicklaus.
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Lakelands is often described as a thinking player's course with a unique Nicklaus flavour to the design. The brief for Nicklaus was to create a golf course that could accommodate all standards of golfers. It features generous landing areas and a number of options on every green for tournament pin positions. This means strategic hole locations can alter the degree of difficulty and the course can be set up to test even the very best golfers. The course has hosted Australian Open qualifying rounds and has even been touted as a possible future venue for the national championship. |
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The par 72 layout is an international standard championship golf course with five tee positions ranging from 6492m to 4685m. The par threes offer great variety, from the 133 meter 14th through to the demanding 210 metre 17th. The 14th is one of the prettiest holes in the region and although it is only a short iron from the forward tees, it still requires precise execution to avoid the water guarding the front and left of the angled green. Of the par fives, the 495 metre 16th is regarded as one of the best. A centrally located bunker about 80 metres short of the green demands a decision when playing about the second shot about where to position the ball for the approach and avoid a very awkward long bunker shot. |
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With its immaculate fairways and stunning views of the hinterlands, Lakelands is renowned for its superbly maintained playing surfaces. Not only has it been rated as the Number 1 Public Access Course in Queensland, Lakelands has also been honoured as Queensland's Number 1 conditioned course for eight consecutive years. In their 2009 rankings of Australia's Best Public Access golf courses, Hacker Golf Magazine ranked Lakelands at # 21 in the country and the highly-regarded publication The Australian Golf Course Guide has nominated the course as the best-conditioned Australian public access course in four of the last five years.
2010 ASGCC - Day Three - Robina Woods
Robina Woods is one of the most visually stunning courses on the Gold Coast. Designed by Graham Marsh in partnership with Ross Watson, the layout winds through 65 hectares of native bushland with rolling fairways and natural waterways set amongst stately strands of towering eucalypts making it unlike any golf course in the region.
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The 6078-metre par 71 Championship layout opened in January 1990 and rapidly developed a reputation as one of Queensland’s most popular resort courses. The facility features a fleet of electric carts, a shaded driving range and practice facilities. Today, it consistently ranks in the top 25 resort courses in the country and in 2009 it jumped from number 42 up to 26 in Hacker Magazine’s list of Australia’s Best Public Access golf courses. The par five 18th is regarded as Robina's signature hole; it is played from an elevated tee and features three water hazards to a well-protected green. |
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Considering the technical demands of the layout, Robina Woods is extremely accessible for the mid-to-high handicapper from the forward tees, but keeping the ball in play is vital to prevent the tall timber and other hazards taking their toll. Robina Woods is universally accepted as one of the most picturesque golf courses on the Gold Coast. The rolling fairways and manicured greens framed by soaring gums make for a strikingly beautiful vistas around the course. Landscaping of the course surrounds involved planting more than 60,000 native trees and shrubs. The natural water-course featuring lakes, ponds, creeks and the native wildlife in the area make a round at the course a truly memorable golfing experience. |
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2010 ASGCC - Day Four - Royal Pines
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With undulating terrain, magnificent greens and tight fairways that demand respect, Royal Pines is a great golf experience for players of all standards. With 27 Championship holes of golf, the facility features three distinct course combinations and three unique golfing experiences. As the permanent home to the ANZ Ladies Masters and many other prestigious golf tournaments, RACV Royal Pines Resort has been recognised as a premier golf destination for over a decade. The final round of the 2010 ASGCC will be played on the The Gold Course - the Ladies Masters course. |
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Palm Meadows was the first golf resort course on the Gold Coast. It opened in a blaze of glitz and ceremony in the mid-80s and pioneered the Australian resort golfing boom. The course has packed a lot into its short history and in the late 1980s and early ’90s the club hosted one of Australia’s richest tournaments – The Palm Meadows Cup. Some of the world’s best golfers made the annual pilgrimage to play in the event including Greg Norman (who was the touring pro for Palm Meadows for several years), Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Curtis Strange, Nick Faldo and many more. |
Palm Meadows was the original home of the Australian Ladies Masters and founded the Australian Social Golf Club Championships in 2005. These days Palm Meadows annually hosts a number of top amateur events and around 40,000 rounds of golf are played on the course each year. The layout blends rolling fairways with groves of palm trees (hence the name) and features an extensive lake system that ensures golfers must take great care with their club selection on many of their shots.
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The first hole is recognised as one of the world's most challenging opening holes. The 353 metre par four has water on the left running the entire length of the hole and a towering clump of enormous bamboo on the right side of the fairway waiting to catch any pushed or sliced drives. This remarkable feature confronting the opening drive is now world-famous and was nicknamed The Bamboo Curtain by Greg Norman. The course boasts some wonderful and memorable holes and the par five 18th is rated as one of the greatest finishing holes in Australia and is Palm Meadows’ signature hole. The hole shapes in a slight dogleg to the right and measures 525 metres from the championship tees. The drive is over water to a fairway set diagonally to the tee, so golfers are required to make a big decision from the first shot.
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It is a brilliant finishing hole and the ideal way to complete a National Championship. In 2002, American Golf Digest rated the 18th at Palm Meadows as one of the top 500 golf holes in the world. The winning teams at the first five ASGCC needed to make a good score here on the final hole to pass what Greg Norman described as “the ultimate test”.
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