New South Wales Golf Club

The sixth tee is out on the rocks behind the fifth green, and the sea washes under it. The shot crosses the water to a small green on the mainland. The rest of the course runs along the cliffs at La Perouse, above Botany Bay, where James Cook first landed on the eastern coast of Australia from HMS Endeavour in 1770. The club dates from December 1926. Alister MacKenzie routed the course with Carnegie Clark and it opened in 1928; Eric Apperly built the sixth in the 1930s, and Mackenzie & Ebert have remastered the course in recent years. Writing in May 1927, MacKenzie said the views here were beaten only, possibly, by the new Cypress Point course in California. Adam Scott won the Australian Open here in 2009.

Here is the design detail worth knowing before the first tee. The course has four par threes and four par fives, and within each set one hole runs north, one south, one east and one west. On this headland that means no single wind allowance survives a round: whatever the wind is doing, one short hole plays into it and another plays downwind, and the par fives repeat the problem. The card is metric: 6,245 metres, rated 74 with a slope of 135. The club recommends a maximum handicap of 27 for guests, men and women alike.