 |
green light for magenta
Golf Vacations editor Paul Myers visits the highest-rated golf resort in NSW and discovers why it has earned a formidable reputation in just three years.
Upmarket stay-and-play resorts with residential facilities are emerging as the future of successful golf course developments in Australia. This is especially so near major population centres, where a pool of affluent retirees, semi-retirees, business executives and investors is demanding more than just great golf.
Mirvac Hotels and Resorts’ Quay West Magenta Shores Golf and Country Club on the NSW Central Coast ticks all the boxes: a five-star hotel with matching high-end accommodation, a residential development catering for both owners and investors, facilities for conferences and non-golfers, an excellent coastal location within 90 minutes’ drive of almost six million people, and a world-class golf course.
Even so, as many golf developers have found in recent years, success doesn’t come easily in a challenging economic climate. With less than half its 500-villa residential entitlement built, it could be another five or ten years before the development is completed.
But what has been developed on the narrow strip of sandbelt land that separates the Pacific Ocean from Tuggerah Lakes is truly outstanding, even if it has passed under the radar of many prospective customers since opening three years ago.
Indeed, Magenta Shores has had its challenges: a long and sometimes difficult period of negotiation with the traditional indigenous owners to buy the land; obtaining development approval on a politically and environmentally sensitive section of the coast; the need to design a large complex that is visually appealing as well as being practical; achieving sufficient scale to justify the infrastructure and labour force; and last, but not least, developing a great golf course that discerning golfers would want to play.
To achieve all this in three years, half of that time during the worst economic downturn in 80 years, speaks volumes. Already, the complex has been rated several times as the number one golf resort in NSW, and the course is ranked fifth by The Golf Course Guide of all public access courses in Australia.
Ask members at your club who knows about Magenta Shores – or has played there – and the chances are you’ll receive only a moderate affirmative response, even in Sydney, an hour and a half down the Pacific Highway.
Which is strange. For a course that has won such widespread acclaim since it opened in August 2006, it should be far more on the radar of serious golfers.
But three years is a short time, and undoubtedly this gem of a links layout, designed by Ross Watson – the one-time business partner of Graham Marsh – whose new courses include nearby Kooindah Waters and Bribie Island’s Pacific Harbour, will undoubtedly grow in public acknowledgement and stature.
Magenta Shores is a true links layout, defined by its location on sandbelt land separating the coast from more productive agricultural land, undulating topography and plentiful deep bunkering that makes ready use of the sandy soil. Accordingly, it isn’t easy and, until you’ve played the layout a few times, it isn’t always readily apparent where to aim your shots.
This is despite an excellent course guide, which explains and illustrates every hole. But until you’ve hit your drive or second shot in the wrong place, or taken the wrong club, it’s hard to get the right decision in your head. Even so, a slight slip-up – especially on approach shots to many tight and well-protected greens – can place your ball in sand or treacherous rough.
The par-5, 523-metre second hole is a perfect example. After a benign opening hole, the easiest on the course, a blind tee shot has you guessing whether to hit driver, iron or fairway wood. Unless you’re Tiger, driver is fine – but hitting parallel to the ocean (about 100 metres away) on this testing wind-blown hole makes you wonder. Then there are two strategically-placed bunkers in the centre of the fairway at 220-250 metres from the tee, and another 120 metres further beyond. On for three and down for another two on a long undulating green is quite an achievement.
Everything else on the front nine is there to see – including plenty of large natural bunkers which often have only one entry and exit point – and numerous tightly placed greens.
The eighth, a 474-metre par-5 is perhaps the signature hole of the front nine. An elevated tee provides a great view of the hole and the northern coastline to the right. Heavy bunkering and deep rough to both left and right demands a precision tee shot. The fairway opens up for the second shot, with more deep bunkers and rough adjacent to the green. Despite the lack of length, par here is also no mean feat.
The back nine is tighter and tougher than the front. Blind tee shots await on the par-4 13th and 14th, while the tiny but exposed 124-metre par-3 15th, surrounded by disaster, is a beauty.
All the while, and even though you can’t see the ocean throughout the back nine, there’s the sound of the crashing surf from several holes, before – thankfully – the layout opens up with three majestic south-facing finishing holes back to the clubhouse.
Without doubt, Magenta plays several shots more than most handicaps. A 10-marker who can play to 14 or 15 here is doing well, while most 15 markers should be happy to walk off with a score in the low 90s. If the wind is blowing, just add a few more strokes!
While carts are available, this is a course to walk, a practice being encouraged by Magenta Shore’s golf general manager, Michael Rose. He points out that it’s a relatively flat course, cooled by nor-easters in summer, and not especially physically demanding.
Head pro, Peter Mayson, likens the course to Scottish links layouts. “It isn’t long, but it certainly requires you to think,” he says. “People who come here for the first time always want to come back, and play it differently. It just has huge appeal.”
As soon as you enter the Quay West Magenta Shores complex from the main road linking The Entrance with Toukley you realise that this is a resort of quality and substance. Investors seem to agree, with more than 80 percent of the first 130 villas having been sold soon after their release. Most have been placed in the hotel pool, an arrangement whereby owners have access for 42 days a year and the properties are rented to Quay West guests at other times.
The four classes of residences – studio apartments, three-bedroom villas, beachfront houses and golf terraces – sell for between $A595,000 and $A3.6 million.
The strata title 2-3 bedroom villas range from $A595,000 to $A900,000; golf terraces, located immediately opposite the hotel, are attached Torrens title properties that sell from $A800,000 to $A1.2 million; unattached 3-4 bedroom, single and two-storey golf homes are priced from $A900,000 to $1.7m; while luxury beachfront homes range from $A1.8m to $A3.6m.
While prices have dropped slightly from the peak two years ago, demand has remained high. The big test now will be how quickly a new release of 2-3 bedroom villas and four-bedroom terrace homes will sell. Their completion has increased the total residential build of the complex to 230, just over 40 percent of the total approved capacity of 502 dwellings.
Mirvac development director Toby Long says the keys to success of golf developments like this are proximity to major population centres, an appealing layout of the entire complex, quality residences, a sense of community and a top-shelf golf course.
Some of the properties are community title, which gives owners a say in management and other issues. “This type of title hasn’t been well understood up until now, but is ideal for the leisure industry,” Toby says.
Magenta Shores’ hotel facilities – including Barretts restaurant overlooking the first hole, day spa, three bars and substantial conference facilities – are all five-star hotel standard.
at a glance
Getting there: Magenta Shores is 100km north of Sydney and 55km south of Newcastle, between The Entrance and Toukley.
Accommodation: Spring/Summer accommodation packages - one-bedroom studios from $A185/room/night, three-bedroom villas from $A350/room/night (winter rates from $A155 and $A305).
Play and stay: Packages from $199/person/ night based on minimum of three people sharing a villa. Club stay and play packages include 4 nights in studio room plus 20 rounds of golf OR 6 nights plus 16 rounds of golf, $2430/year; family – 8 nights studio accomm. plus 30 rounds of golf OR 10 nights plus 26 rounds of golf, $3970/year.
Golf Membership: No joining fee for residential owners; annual membership $2430/year; joining fee for non-residential members, $4950. Golf is restricted to members and their guests and hotel guests. Open days when visitors can play the course plus lunch for $105/person are scheduled for Nov 2 (men) and Nov 12 (ladies).
Contact: Magenta Shores, phone (02) 4352 8111 www.magentagolf.com.au
Magenta Shores residential sales
visit www.magentashores.com.au
|
Comments
|
|
|
|
|
