Sydney’s North Turramurra Golf Course Has Undergone a Multi-Million-Dollar Transformation
COUNCIL-OWNED public layout measuring just over 5,000 metres hardly fits the brief for someone used to rating Top 100 Courses. But that changed when a boys’ midweek trip to the New South Wales Central Coast came to a sodden conclusion.
With the slim hope of trying to salvage something for two infrequent golfers, I suggested we try to fit in a cheeky nine holes back in Sydney. North Turramurra Golf Course came to mind because of its proximity to the M1 freeway exit.
The drive into the car park provided a hint of optimism. Not a puddle was visible on the large practice putting green or two sporting fields that flank the entrance. Surprisingly, the nearest green complexes out on the course appeared to be in beautiful condition, allowing us to assume they have been built to modern standards.
Surely, this couldn’t be the pint-sized track that’s mockingly referred to as Royal Turramurra by locals who cherish the fact it’s where they played their first round of golf?
Indeed, it wasn’t. North Turramurra has undergone a multi-million-dollar transformation with the creation of 10 new holes on the site of an old tip. The construction of the new holes was motivated by Ku-ring-gai Council’s desire to remediate the North Turramurra landfill site with new sporting and recreation facilities.
That initial plan fell over when it was realised high-end sporting fields require at least 20 metres of solid ground underneath, otherwise the differential settlement can worsen the surface quality and render it unsafe. Hence, the southern portion of North Turramurra Golf Course became the location of the sporting fields while the ‘tip land’ was allocated for golf.
The result appears to be a resounding success. When completed at a total cost of $28 million, Ku-ring-gai ratepayers will have a splendid golf course, three floodlit multi-use sports fields, four netball courts, amenities buildings, walking paths plus a water recycling system and wetlands.
The 10 new holes have wide Santa Ana couch playing corridors and expansive green complexes. The course architect, Golf By Design, was able to lengthen the layout, ensuring North Turramurra was challenging for accomplished golfers and playable for the lesser skilled.
Most impressive is how Golf By Design founder James Wilcher and design associate Mark Wylie took advantage of the vista over Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Holes 4-7 are routed along the top of an escarpment and offer breathtaking views of the park.
The green complexes on seven of the eight remaining holes are yet to be upgraded, however this work is in the pipeline in an attempt to bring the entire facility up to a similar standard as the newer holes.
Now boasting such an impressive golf asset, it would be a shame if Ku-ring-gai Council failed to finish the job and turn North Turramurra Golf Course into potentially the best 18-hole game-improvement facility in Sydney.
INCREASINGLY, councils and governments are under pressure to deliver leisure facilities to the whole community rather than a small sub-class such as golfers.
Hence, North Turramurra’s transformation may come at the expense of somewhere like Rohan ClarkeR, a public-access course with a dwindling membership base that lies on a valuable plot of land on Sydney’s upper north shore. Gordon is surrounded by 14 courses within a nine-kilometre radius.
It would be an act of sheer folly to believe golf will retain all of its existing courses while our major cities strive for increases in housing density.
So if the quantity of courses is to be sacrificed, golf’s stakeholders should be lobbying the government for funding to improve the quality of those facilities that remain.
