COURSES COURSES
Pelican Waters Golf Club on the Sunshine Coast ranks inside the top 60 courses in Australia. Pictured is the 18th which is rated as one of the toughest closing holes in Queensland
Flying
high The Greg Norman-designed Pelican Waters Golf Club will play host to the 2017 Toro AGCSA Golf Championships. ATM editor Brett Robinson catches up with course superintendent Troy Muir to talk turf, the tournament and his unique hobby.
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he Toro AGCSA Golf Championships is always a hotly contested event and over the years it has been fought out on some of Australia’s great golf courses. 2017 will be no exception as the top 60 ranked Pelican Waters Golf Club gets set to host the AGCSA’s premier golf competition for the first time. It is the second Greg Norman and Bob Harrison designed course to hold the event after visiting The Glades Golf Club in 2010. Open for play in late 2000 and officially opened by the Great White Shark himself in February 2001, Pelican Waters was the company’s first design on the Sunshine Coast and in the years since has garnered a reputation for being a very challenging and unique layout. Indeed, as golf architecture aficionado Darius Oliver penned on his Planet Golf website, Pelican Waters rates as one of Queensland’s foremost modern constructions. “Though several kilometres inland from the famous coastline, the golf course retains a sense of the region’s beauty with its diverse landscapes
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 19.3
and crafted wetlands cleverly incorporated into the design. Holes initially weave around open areas of low-lying scrub and later through tall stands of native bush with the ever-present lake system a constant companion. “Although the design team has had better land to work with, this largely unheralded course deserves to be duly recognised as one of the state’s top modern tracks. The contrasting native bush and heath landscapes are complemented by the rugged nature of design, which gives the course a rough edge foreign throughout Queensland. “Far from your typical resort course, Pelican Waters is an original and one that would work just as well without the expectation of immaculate playing surfaces and the convenience of carts and red carpet resort service. Not that the perfect lush lies and lavish amenities are a problem, but the real pleasure at Pelican Waters is in combating the natural features of the site and mastering its constant unpredictability.”