A tick over 13 years after it opened, Melbourne’s Growling Frog Golf Course is no longer just the public access course with an ‘out there’ name. It really is something to croak about
Growling Frog Golf Course can be found about 30km out of the city at Yan Yean and opened for play in September 2004. In the 13 years since, no other course project in Australia has been undertaken in quite the same way.
Unlike the majority of courses built in this country during the past 40 years, there is no real estate development, hotel or resort attached to the Growling Frog course. The City of Whittlesea Council, in its wisdom, decided to do something with land it had owned for nearly three decades. A public golf course was proposed and then the search began for someone to design the 18-hole layout.
Nestled among stately 300-year-old River Red Gums on more than 300 acres – more than twice the land of many suburban Melbourne courses – Growling Frog Golf Course offers a different playing experience to traditional sandbelt courses.
Marsh’s design works away in two loops from the gorgeous clubhouse, which is perched high on a hill overlooking the course. Walking out of the clubhouse to either the 1st or 10th tees, not only gives you panoramic views of the course but also a feel for any wind.
The 330-metre par-4 1st is a good opening hole with a deceptively wide fairway that is welcoming to even slightly miss-hit drives. The second shot is played to a large green that sits well below the fairway and is protected by a bunker left and right. The approach can be difficult to judge, in terms of club selection, when a southerly is blowing into your face as you stand on the crest of the hill.
The next seven holes wind their way through wetlands and River Red Gums. The hairpin loop of the par-4 4th, par-3 5th and par-4 6th is a highlight of the front nine. The 421-metre par-4 6th is a demanding hole where your tee shot must skirt by a bunker on the inside of the dogleg-right fairway to set up a straight approach to the green. That done, a long iron or even a fairway wood may still be required to reach the putting surface if the wind is pushing in from the south west.
The back nine starts solidly with a 360-metre par-4 that is played from an elevated tee in front of the clubhouse to a fairway that doglegs slightly right around a large bunker to a smallish green guarded by one bunker left. The water hazard left of the fairway and the boundary fence behind the green should not come into play.
The best hole at Growling Frog Golf Course
Growling Frog’s best hole is almost left until last. We love the 332-metre par-4 17th because you emerge from a tree-lined tee to find an expansive fairway. Then you find out you have been deceived by the width of the driving zone and your tee shot is in a large bunker on the inside of the dogleg right fairway. From this bunker, or even from the fairway, it is a tough mid- or short-iron approach to a green that appears almost triangular and is protected closely by three traps.
To conclude, at Growling Frog Golf Course the playing surfaces are well-maintained, while the layout has matured beautifully.
