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[ VIEWPOINT ] TOUR TALES & TRUE

Grant Dodd
the allure of ellerston is difficult to ignore once youve had the privilege of being there.

A club of one
graced what may well be the worlds most exclusive course. Ellerston, located on the Packer family estate in the isolated northern reaches of the New South Wales Hunter Valley, averages less than two rounds a day per year, with an effective membership of one. As a result, an invitation to play Ellerston (no Country Club or Golf Club suffix is necessary) rates as one of the more rare privileges likely to be bestowed on someone for whom such things matter. The estate, replete with polo stud, innumerate polo fields and world-class stable facilities, has been legendary for decades in the horse world. The addition of a Greg Norman/Bob Harrison-designed championship layout, 70 kilometres from the nearest town and purely for private use, has merely added to the ever-evolving Packer mystique. Courtesy of my place as a judge on Australian Golf Digests Top 100 Courses panel, I was fortunate to recently add my name to one of the most finite roll calls on the planet. A hole-by-hole analysis of the course here would be unnecessarily indulgent. It is suffice to say that it is a brilliant layout, taking advantage of limitless routing opportunities, utilising existing watercourses and undulating terrain to frame the individual holes to full effect. In virtually flawless condition, with billiard-table greens running at elite tournament speed, Ellerston in many ways redefines the possibility of what the golf experience can deliver. Pictures, words and numbers will go some way towards portraying the essence of that experience. Inevitably, though, there are elements that cant be captured by totals on a scorecard or a wide-angle lens. To draw a slightly long bow, purity may be one of them. Perhaps a little esoteric, but partly born out in this instance through the lilt of crystal-clear water coursing through streams and creeks, the clarity of natures echo only occasionally encumbered by the crass intrusiveness of civilisation. But if wistful romanticism is not your thing, then wallowing in the self-indulgent luxury of being able to inhabit such a space in serene isolation might be. Both hedonist and naturist will likely find common ground within Ellerstons sanctuary. The taste of extraordinary privilege is rarely savoured, and for the few whove momentarily dined at this table, its a flavour likely to prove both addictive and tantalisingly out of reach.

to ask grant a question, e-mail us at golfdig@ newsmagazines.com.au

Through a cleverly thought-out process of elimination, I worked out early in life that the only way I was going to wrangle a game at Augusta National was to play my way into that event in the second week of April. None of my sheep-farmer neighbours were members, and I wasnt a major winner, but I reasoned that if I turned pro and made the top 50 players in the world, Id achieve one of my lifetime goals without having to beg. A withering charge up the World Golf Ranking in search of said goal was cruelly halted a mere few hundred places short of the mark. And despite a constant vigil by the letterbox after what might be considered intimidatory requests to the Masters committee for charitable inclusion, my invitation would appear to remain lost in transit. There are a number of bridge too far courses in the world that golf tragics will have penned on their bucket lists. The perennial world No.1, Pine Valley, would be on many, but like Augusta National it has a small and exclusive membership that, as a rule, isnt in the habit of phoning stray green-fee punters when needing to fill out a foursome. But for every thousand golfers who have played Pine Valley or Augusta, there is likely only one who has

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/ august 2011

tony webeck

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