Lakes Entrance Golf Club

Lakes Entrance Golf Club: About four hours drive east from Melbourne, the popular holiday resort and fishing port of Lakes Entrance boasts an enjoyable part-links, part-woodland golf course.

The excellent and more open front-nine, starts with a couple of holes bordering Lake George, before getting into a superb stretch of links-like golf holes that run from the par-3 3rd to the par-5 9th. These opening holes are played closest to the sea, which is only occasionally revealed from one or two of the elevated back-tees.

For aficionados of seaside links golf, the more inland, tree-lined back-nine loop may not quite measure up to the front-nine. However, in holes like the back-to-back par-5s at 13 and 14, the course still poses an exacting test for your straight hitting skills. At 509 metres, the 14th (named Tipperary) does indeed look a "long way" from tee to green.

The terrain here is not overly undulating, with flattish fairways leading you to good quality, nicely bunkered greens. The bunkering becomes significantly more threatening at the par-3s. When the prevailing wind becomes a factor, you'll find progress is tough going in one direction, perhaps easier in the other.

Beyond the reasonably (but not pristinely) maintained fairways the layout's natural defences await. These variously include: water hazards in the form of a line of small lakes (that separate the front and back nines), plenty of small bushes, and areas where grass and sand are found in different proportions, creating a mix of sandy-grass lies, or grassy-sand lies.