Mount Lofty Golf Club: course review
Mount Lofty is the highest point in the Mount Lofty Ranges overlooking Adelaide. A nice restaurant and cafe sit on the site and is generally a nice spot to spend a part of the day.
A short drive away is the Mount Lofty Golf Club and as it’s situated in the Adelaide Hills, you’d expect it to be…well, hilly.
Aussie Golfer has played this little track a few times and it’s got a few interesting quirks. Firstly, any mention of Mount Lofty to any golfer will yield a description of the first hole. A 209 metre par-4 straight uphill. Good golfers will have no real trouble making the distance to the green in one despite the elevation but it’s a tough one for high handicappers. Anything left and right is almost dead and I’ve seen many second shots come up short and roll back to the same spot.
The second quirk of the course is it’s undulations. I realise you have to work with what you’ve got and I don’t mind a bit of up and down, but it’s the lateral up and down that is the problem. On several holes it’s near impossible to keep your ball on the fairway no matter how well you hit it, the 2nd, 4th and the 14th are prime examples.
The 14th threw at me one of my pet hates on a golf course. Trees. Not just ordinary trees, but trees and branches in a direct line between my ball and the pin from the fairway. I’d gone too far left off the tee trying to roll the ball down to the fairway. A chip out left me a 9-iron to the green. Could that branch over-hanging the green be in my way to the flagstick? Surely not. That would affect almost everyone.
A sweetly hit 9-iron looked destined for the pin when it struck the branch and flew off into the right rough! Oh the pain! I’ll keep any further comments on this unfair part of golf for another article.
There are some nice holes at Mount Lofty. The 4th, a 352 metre, downhill par-4 is probably the nicest. A straight drive can run forever but eventually you’ll have to face a short iron into a shallow but wide green sitting behind a large creek. Think Augusta’s 12th hole…but in the Adelaide Hills. Not quite the same I guess but they don’t have Farmers Union Iced Coffee or Vili’s pies in Georgia.
I’ve also always enjoyed the 8th hole despite never scoring well on it and the 18th is a good test of golf before the pie and chips.Overall it’s a fun little course for would-be golfers and at $35 it’s well priced.
Lots of local knowledge would help to use the hills and slopes to get the ball in the right spot. The pro shop seemed to be under new management or getting in new stock when I played and needed some work but the club are doing lots of things to promote golf and get people up and playing the course. Some of the membership options are great for golfers looking at playing more often at a good price.
Mount Lofty Golf Course is similar in style to a few other golf courses around Adelaide (Mt.Osmond, Hahndorf, Highercombe) that are good for your short game and fun to play now and then.
