Day 11: Stay at Riverside Oaks Golf Resort & Play Bungool Course

The Riverside Oaks Golf Resort was the first resort I stayed at in Australia and I could not have picked a better one! The golf was outstanding with the Bob Harrison designed Bungool Course opened just a week earlier and the refurbished Gargurra Course hosting the New South Wales PGA Championship, an event on the Australasia Tour, in a few weeks. The accommodations, only a year old, are first-class, very comfortable and so close to the golf you can drop a golf ball and it will roll down the hill to the first tee of the Gargurra Course. Proclaimed as Sydney’s only 36 hole championship golf resort, this is the one for Australians to revisit again and for International golf travelers to visit for sure if anywhere near Sydney.

The ‘staying and playing’ experience at any resort is only as good as its owners and investors and their plans for the future. In late 2009 it was announced that China’s Nanshan Group was buying the Riverside Oaks property. They are one of China’s top 500 companies and also own Mission Hills, the world’s largest golf facility with twelve golf courses that has hosted World Cup competitions. Their plans to invest in accommodations and a second golf course have all come to fruition. Riverside Oaks is their Australian flagship property and is the training base for the Chinese National Squad (whose Olympic Team is being coached by Australian Greg Norman). Kenneth Chan is the General Manager. After meeting and conversing with Ken there is no doubt in my mind that even bigger and better days are ahead for the Riverside Oaks Golf Resort. The three days and two nights I spent there were big and better already and I now know that golf resorts in Australia are on par or better than their famous golf courses and other resorts around the world!

CLICK here for VIDEO INTERVIEW with David Scott, Deputy Manager of the Riverside Oaks Golf Resort.

More specifically, the ‘staying and playing’ experience at any resort is only as good as its day-to-day management team and support staff. David Scott is no Deputy Barney Fife! Here’s a young buck, former professional golfer with a passion and all the energy in the world to make your stay at Riverside Oaks memorable, engaging and fun or whatever you want it to be. I loved the part  of the interview where he says his wife gave him a nudge. Yes, this is a remote resort (it’s 60 km from the heart of the Sydney CBD), an hour from Sydney in the middle of nowhere but that is the point. Their is a peacefulness aside a lazy, though powerful, and magnificent Hawkesbury River. A quietness where you can hear yourself exhale and say “this is good’ and hear the putt drop and clink into the cup. It is all about the golf and a relaxing resort experience with friends and family!

Being one of the first to play the new Bungool course was exciting and invigorating. The course is in great condition for being one week old, sort of like that newborn baby getting quickly cleaned up and placed on a mother’s bosom. This baby is perfect and will grow into being a perfect adult golf course someday soon. I sort of laughed as I arrived to find a member sharing his challenging experience of playing Bungool for the first time—difficult lies, deep rough in places (baby needs first hair cut but don’t you dare cut that beautiful hair), and new putting lines that need more expertise than perhaps even some of the pros that will be playing her sister course in the NSW PGA have the ability to read. I felt like I was at home at The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. No one said life or golf was suppose to be easy all the time!

I love how Harrison takes you out and around over the first three holes and then back within that outline for holes 4 and 5 before taking you to the far end of the layout on the tenth green before bringing you back home. Sort of a links design with a twist to bring you to your senses in a secure, safe enclave early on in your round.

The kangaroos, my God, the kangaroos! So many, yet quite well behaved and as mindful of any gallery of patrons I have see at the Masters. Though it took me a few holes to get comfortable playing in front of a gallery and not being fearful of an errant shot hitting poor little Joey or his sibling or mom or dad. No worries, it is a beautiful experience playing alongside the Hawkesbury River and in front of countless interested marsupials!

I scored high on the Bungool but went low (for me) on the Gargurra Course sinking a 30-footer for birdie at the last and posting a 78. No worries, no thoughts of sticking around for Stage 1 of Q-School that begins at Riverside Oaks on December 17th. Though I do think that would be the ultimate story—to be fitted with the best technology, coached by the best instructors and see what the best can be for my golf game.

CLICK here for A VIDEO INTERVIEW with Golf Course Superintendent Glenn Gibson-Smith.

It is always exciting to play on a golf course that professional golfers play and compete on for important titles, especially immediately before and after those competitions. Glenn came out to say hello to me on the second green. Here’s another person at Riverside Oaks with game. I liked his comment of “being stuck in the game ever since (my dad put a club in my hands at age 9). I wish I could one day say what he said, “playing off scratch at the moment.” Here’s a superintendent that knows what needs to be done course wise even before the golfers do. Only a recent addition to the Riverside Oaks team, with a plan in place for both the new (Bungool) and the old (Gargurra) there is no doubt in my mind that theses two golf courses will become the best conditioned in the Sydney area within a year or too. From my amateurish perspective I think they are pretty much there already. Kangaroos and a 78 I tell you!

As I mentioned above I welcome golf instruction at any time but did not realize on the way out to Riverside Oaks I would find some there. I met Chris Fox, a PGA Professional, upon arrival to Riverside Oaks. In fact, it was he that was so gracefully and sympathetically listening to a member’s woes after playing Bungool. He is a putting coach and has developed the PLANEPUTT system and trainer. He has worked with Sydneysider Matt Jones who won the the 2014 Shell Houston Open with a chip in to defeat Matt Kuchar in a playoff. I guess if you have confidence in your putting you can be aggressive with your chipping.

Chris came back in the next day, his day off, to explain the PLANEPUTT system to me and to play the latest new nine on Bungool. In reality, putting is all about angles, planes and the inherent deception our eyes see and our brains translate for us. Chris’s system is a way to separate the facts from the myths while actually putting and getting a feel for the correct putting stroke. Not only did he give me some great putting advice (maybe I should stay for Q-School? NOT!) but gave me a tip on my grip that will change my golf game for the rest of my life. In a nice way, sincerely and honestly he told me not one professional golfer has a grip like mine with an exposed left thumb. He showed me the proper position for my hands to be in. It felt funny at first and still does occasionally but the results are there. A simple and correct grip leads to a simpler swing which leads to solid contact and straight ball flight. Hey maybe 78 is not my best score. THANK YOU Chris Fox, a consummate golf professional, who loves golf, people and sharing his knowledge and exuberance of the game! You can tell that by playing golf with his 7-year old son Ty, what a joy!

Reminiscing a bit, back to Day 11, staying at my first golf resort in Australia. Riverside Oaks Golf Resort is impressive with the new Bungool Course and the Gargurra Course, which is hosting the NSW PGA Championship this week.   (Facebook Link, Andy Reistetter, 12/1/14)

Here are a few more pictures that tell the story of my memorable ‘stay and play’ time at Riverside Oaks Golf Resort: