COURSES
WORDS: BRETT ROBINSON WITH JEREMY PARRY. PHOTOS: JEREMY PARRY
COURSES
Kooralbyn When Kooralbyn Valley Golf Resort closed its doors in 2008, a unique slice of Australia’s golfing landscape was seemingly lost. However, as ATM discovers, a new owner has helped to breathe new life into the country’s first true golfing resort.
Above: After sitting idle since 2008, on 1 June 2016 Kooralbyn Valley Golf Resort, rebadged as Ramada Resort Kooralbyn Valley, reopened to golfers following a substantial refurbishment 22
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reborn
hen Kooralbyn Valley Golf Resort opened its doors to the world in October 1979, it provided the catalyst for what would become one of the most significant chapters in Australian golf. The first true resort style golf course in Australia, Kooralbyn was the brainchild of two Sydney businessmen, Peter Abeles and Arthur George, and its development helped spark the golf course construction boom on the Gold Coast in the 1980s. Kooralbyn was different. Located in the Gold Coast hinterland, the Desmond Muirhead-designed course was routed through spectacular Australian bushland with dramatic changes in topography. Muirhead would later write that the site upon which Kooralbyn was built was one of the best he had ever worked with. Reputedly the first golf course in the country to solely mandate the use of golf carts, Kooralbyn quickly became a haven for the wealthy and famous, as well as a training ground for the likes of golfing prodigies Jason Day and Adam Scott. The course rated highly in the annual golf magazine rankings lists, debuting inside the top 30, and it soon developed a reputation for being among one of the hardest layouts in the country. Just two years after opening it played host to the 1981 Queensland Open with Garry Doolan carding what is still today one of the highest winning totals (290) in the tournament’s history (you have to go all the way back to 1956 to find a higher score). Off the back markers, Kooralbyn was a brute and
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 18.6
it spawned the Copperhead Challenge whereby if a player could beat their handicap off the tips they scored a dozen golf balls. Over the years the equivalent of $300 million in today’s money was spent by the resort’s four different owners but as time passed the resort lost its appeal, particularly as the Gold Coast golf boom took off. The final nail in the coffin came when the Global Financial Crisis hit and when the resort’s financiers MFS went into receivership Kooralbyn was forced to close its doors in 2008 owing more than $50 million. Receivers initially kept the course maintained for the benefit of the local community, but that eventually lapsed and the course was only mown every now and then with slashers. After a couple of failed attempts to sell the resort, it was eventually snapped up in September 2013 by Yong Group and JHC Holding founder Peter Huang. He proceeded to invest around $2.2 million dollars into the refurbishment of the golf course as well as over $10 million on the resort. Starting in November 2015, works began to transform the golf course back to its former glory and on 1 June 2016 it finally reopened to the golfing public.
BACK TO LIFE When ex-pat New Zealander Jeremy Parry arrived as Kooralbyn’s new course superintendent last November, the prospect facing him was challenging to say the least. The golf course was there, but the greens were sand and weeds, the fairways and roughs were overgrown and the bunkers were forests of eight-foot tall weeds. Parry arrived at Kooralbyn after a short stint as superintendent at nearby Boonah Golf Club, as well as previous roles at Elanora Country Club (foreman) and Cammeray Golf Club (superintendent) in Sydney. Prior to that he had worked at Kingswood in Melbourne.