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Otaki (The course for all Seasons) Golf Course Review
Phone 06 3648260. Green fees: Affiliated $25, non-affiliated $30. www.otakigolfclub.co.nz
It's been such a wet winter that keen golfers may have started to develop webbed feet and gills. I f you're tired of wet feet but don't want to restrict your swing by wearing gumboots, you should head for Otaki Golf Course, one of the few Wellington courses where you still get run and don't need placing because your ball won't collect mud. (Unless you go OB into the farm paddocks, and then you'll get to clean it, anyway ... if you can find it.)
Okay, I may be a little bit biased, because it's my home club, but we've had a few interclubs lately and I've yet to find another course that's in such excellent condition - greens and fairways. Visitors have said the same, so I'm only reiterating their opinions.
It's 5477 metres off the men's blue tees, NZSCR 68.2, par 71, and 5033 off the women's, NZSCR 71.2, par 72. While the course appears benign, many of those 'easy' looking holes are capable of rearing up and biting you on the bum. (My following comments pertain to the women's course and I'm on an 8 handicap, which may give you an idea of my point of view.)
The first hole is a short par 5 (384 metres) but you need a long straight tee-shot so that you can thread your second through a gap between rough and tree-covered hillocks. And when I say 'rough', I mean 'rough', as in you could make hay out of this stuff, if it wasn't on such a steep bank.
The second is a short par 4 (272 metres) but almost impossible to stop your second shot on, unless you're playing a short iron ... an 8 or less. And if you get too cute, the bunker in the front, middle of the green will teach you not to overestimate your length, while the back bunker will teach you not to underestimate. Regulation par is a great score here.
The fifth is another short par 5 (379 meters) which offers a great chance of birdie, providing you can ignore the Out of Bounds left and the trees on the right. Get your tee-shot away safely and it's wide open to a bunker guarded green but a mean slice or vicious hook will see you playing out of trees on the right and hay and trees on the left.
The ninth, pictured below, (par 4, 337 meters) lives up to its rating as the 2nd shot hole. You'll need a long straight or right of centre drive (left is dead in the rough and trees) and will then be faced with a really tight second shot. On the left you've got gnarly old pine trees lining the fairway and a large hillock short of the green which will stop anything going in that direction. On the right there's another hillock, covered in trees and deep rough. So you've got to get your ball between these, and hope like hell you haven't hit a long slice or hook, or you'll drop off the green down steep banks.
The twelth is an inviting par 3 (124 meters) where you play from an elevated tee to a green protected on three sides by bunkers. A pretty simple hole, really. I had a hole in one here just a few weeks back on July 9. And I'm not going to tell you what I used but suffice to say my priority of clearing the front bunker, and taking heaps of club to ensure that, paid off big time.
Okay, okay, I played a three iron (I've never seen the tee so far back). After hitting the shot and imploring it to get over the bunker, when it hit the green, I begged for it to hit something so it'd stop. Sure enough, after landing on the green, it bounced straight into the hole. Which proved my other theory that you're better off being polite to your ball, rather than threatening it.
If you hit fifteen and sixteen, long par 4s, in regulation, you've hit two damn good shots. Watch out if you're above the hole on fifteen as I've seen people putt clean off it and then take a couple of chips to climb back on gain. If the pin's on the right of sixteen, and you tend to slice, go for the middle because the camber of the green forces anything with a righthand bias to flee into the rough.
The eighteenth is an easy dogleg left par 5 (400 meters) with a long three-tiered green. It's such an easy hole that I regularly bogey it (a common problem with the easy ones). Because it's the last hole, if I've had a good round I come to it thinking 'here's a nice easy finish to get a decent card in'. If I've had a lousy round, I come to it thinking 'and now it gets worse'.
Yes, it's one of those mind-altering holes (and I'm talking 'P' here, rather than laughing gas). Because in both instances (good or bad round) I'm focusing on my 18-hole score, I forget the most important rule of golf: the only shot that matters is the one you're playing. Six or seven shots later, I'm shaking my head as I head for the seat to slump down on, where I play the 18th perfectly in my head, and then add up the card.
But at least there's always lunch to look forward to.
View from 11th tee, back to 10th tee
Page last updated July 20 2008
