“ For somebody to come up with the concept of putting such a quality golf course on a piece of land, just on a farmer’s block, the first thought was, ‘you’ve got to be crazy, you’ve got to be mad!’,” says Peter Busch, General Manager of Barnbougle Dunes Golf Course about Greg Ramsay, son of a farmer from Bridport. Ramsay had approached land owner and local farmer Richard Sattler about an idea he had for a golf course, and he thought Richard’s farm would be perfect. 

 

Ramsay had already seen some of the best ‘links’ courses in the world. He had spent time in Europe and even worked at the most famous of them all, St.Andrews in Scotland, where he poured beers in the clubhouse bar, dreaming of perhaps one day linking Scotland to Bridport.

 

Ramsay was at first denied the chance by Sattler to build the dream course but he persisted and after a year of ’gentle persuasion’, he finally got the go ahead to build what could only be described as one of the world’s great links courses.

 

Barnbougle Dunes is one hour’s drive from Launceston, the second largest city in Tasmania and just five minutes from the main street of Bridport.

 

Built on farmland that covers 13,000 acres and eight kilometres of coastline, the name Barnbougle originates from a castle in Scotland of the same name. The farm currently holds in excess of 5000 sheep for wool production and 4000 cattle that are exported to Japan. Ranger and Russet Burbank potatoes are also grown on the farm and nearly 10,000 tonnes are harvested annually.

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Sattler bought the property in 1989 and not even he would have envisaged how his marrum covered dunes would be transformed into a golf course.

 

When the dunes of Barnbougle farm was home only to snakes, wallabies, blue-tongue lizards and the marram grass, Richard Sattler’s knowledge of golf was non-existent.

 

“I didn’t like Golf and certainly didn’t play it”, he says, settling back into one of the clubhouse’s leather lounge chairs overlooking the dunes and Anderson Bay.

 

Four years on and his knowledge of the game has risen slightly but who cares when you look around and see the result of his trust in others and willingness to take a gamble?

 

Sattler would leave no stone unturned—or is that no dune unturned—to eventually get Barnbougle Dunes up and running.

 

“I don’t want to go to my grave wondering whether it could have been so I said I would underwrite it and that’s really how it happened,” said Sattler as the afternoon sun beamed through the windows of the clubhouse.

 

Sattler might well have been talked into letting the development of Barnbougle Dunes begin, but he took ‘a huge risk’ and trusted others with the project right from the beginning.

 

He was flown to America where he spent time with Mike Kieser, an amateur golfer whose dream of building golf courses became a reality. Kieser convinced Sattler of the economical and regional benefits such a project would bring to an area like Bridport.

 

Greg Ramsay engaged former Australian professional golfer Mike Clayton and his design and construction team along with well known American course designer Tom Doak to transform the dunes of Barnbougle farm into a serious golfing challenge.

 

When the final seed was sown and the pins put in place, Sattler was pleasantly surprised—for a non-golfer.

 

“It doesn’t have the same affect on you—for me it’s still just someone (who) has planted a bit of lawn grass in the middle of the sand dunes.”

 

The course was officially opened on the 10th of December 2004 and has risen quickly in the world golfing ranks to 49 in the top 100.

 

Within the first three months of operation it was rated number one public access golf course in Australia.

 

“We pride ourselves on not having big egos so we don’t let that sort of thing take on too much importance,” Sattler adds.

 

Pro-tour golfer Brett Partridge is one of two local professionals on the course. Partridge grew up in Scottsdale, a fifteen minute drive away, and he knows the land well. He says he is ‘a mad keen fisherman’ and as a child trampled the marram dunes on Barnboulge farm many times, never thinking that one day the land would become one of the world’s finest golf courses.

 

Partridge rates the course highly, and excuses himself for being ‘a little biased’. He is quickly excused as I make my way towards the ninth green approaching the club-house overlooking Anderson Bay. A wayward approach shot to the green can be forgiven, as it provides you with an opportunity to examine the stunning views.

 

A variety of fescue grass was used on the course with the greens laid with bent grass. Obviously being a ‘links’ course there are plenty of bunkers; many of them natural but also some added to the design, hopefully to help players find a stray ball. The bunker at the foreground to the fourth green is, to say the least, imposing. With enough room to hold a house-warming party and reaching for the sky, it demands respect well before you even think about grabbing your putter.

 

Anderson Bay is viewable from almost every hole, and on the front nine a majority of the tees are elevated which has you driving down into a valley between the dunes. The greens can vary in speed; some sit high above their fairways exposed to the weather whilst others hide nestled deep between the dunes.

 

The fairways are as humpy as kids under a doona-cover when lightning strikes—finding a cosy lie for your next shot is tough. Tom Doak and Mike Clayton have given golfers a little respite here however…they are wide, which goes some way in making up for the other obstacles that can jeopardise a good score.

 

If your game plan is stepping up to the tee and smacking one long and hard then think again. The course is not the longest you will play and strategy and sharp thinking is critical.

 

“It makes you think about what you’re doing”, Partridge says. “You’ve got to plan your way through each hole”.

 

“The most important thing around here is not to fly the ball too high in the air.

 

“Try to run it along the ground” Partridge advises when approaching the firm and bouncy greens.

 

There is no greater indication of the part the weather plays in a round at Barnbougle than on the 112 metre par 3 seventh.

 

“I have hit a flat-out four iron into that hole” Partridge says of the hazards of driving into a howling gale. However, on a calm day a wedge will be sufficient to place your ball beside the pin, such is the influence of the changeable weather.

 

Partridge has his own names for the front and back nine holes either side of the clubhouse, labelling the front nine the ‘Irish course’ thanks to emphasis of club selection, and the back nine the ‘Scottish course due to its slightly flatter and more open layout where you can strive for a little extra distance off the tee.

 

“Building Barnbougle has certainly boosted the economy in Bridport”, explains General Manager Peter Busch.

 

“We probably put around $11 million into the community since we’ve opened. We employ all local people and anybody who has been here for the past three or five years knows what’s happened with the property side of things.

 

“Because we have used all local workforce in the development all the way through there is that local feel straight away.” 

 

Stan Smythe is a good example of this. Not only will Stan pick you up from the Launceston airport in his role as the Barnbougle bus driver, he could also be your senior caddy the next day when you grace the fairways.

 

The accommodation at Barnbougle was modelled on the beach bathing boxes found on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. There are currently 22 two bedroom suites with a four bedroom self-contained villa the course’s premier accommodation site perched high above the course with magnificent views of the bay and surrounds.

 

Course development required construction to incorporate the natural surrounds and this has not been lost in the clubhouse. The bar and fireplace have both been fashioned from an old truck-tray which was recovered from Richard’s farm.

 

Dining in the clubhouse restaurant or a barbeque on the decking with relaxing views out over Anderson Bay will make it even harder to leave Barnbougle. If you’re lucky you may even be able to sample some of the home grown Angus-Beef from the farm in a tasty Barnbougle-Beef burger, and perhaps some of those chips on your plate could be from a field just a nine-iron away where Sattler harvests his potatoes.

 

Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served throughout the day with a menu sourcing local produce and a wine list featuring around 80 percent Tasmanian wines.

 

Around 70 percent of Barnbougle’s business comes from the Eastern states of Australia. Brad from New South Wales was an early starter on the course on a frosty morning and quickly had Barnbougle in his top ten courses he had played before even reaching the ninth green.

 

“I’ve played over 300 courses around the world,” he said while placing his ball on the tee at the fifth hole. “This one is outstanding!”

 

After waking up to breathtaking views from the balcony of his two-bedroom cabin, Brad was soon on the phone demanding to his wife that they come here for a holiday.

 

The region around Bridport has many vineyards and fishing is a major exporter. Scallop fishing in particular is world-class. Scuba-diving and chartered boats for deep-sea fishing can be arranged at the golf club, as well as fishing rods for in-house players who are looking at casting a line into Anderson Bay between drives off the tee.

 

On a global scale Barnbougle Dunes has placed Bridport on the golfing map, a map that until now was void of a Tasmanian course. To Bridport it hasn’t always been that way.

 

“The scallop fishing here in Bridport is probably the best in Tasmania”, reports Busch. “That’s also put it on the map from a global point of view from fishing. From a tourism perspective, Barnbougles’ definitely put Bridport on the map.

 

“Before Barnbougle was built it was definitely a Tasmanian tourism industry; now it’s an Australian and International tourism industry”.

 

More golfers are heading to Australia each year to tick off some of the world’s finest courses.

 

“We are finding people from Ireland and Scotland now coming over to play the courses over here because they are finding they can play such good quality courses,” says Busch looking out from his office towards Anderson Bay.

 

In the space of a few hours by plane you can be teeing off at Cape Kidnap in New Zealand; head over the Tasman Sea into Australia and the fairways of Royal Melbourne, and then follow that up with putting alongside the dunes at Barnbougle in Tasmania—Golf courses right out of the top-draw. In fact, they are among the world’s top one hundred courses.

 

It may take some time to find a stray ball from a wild tee shot here; finding a needle in a hay-stack might just be a little easier than searching for a golf ball in marram-grass! However, the happy marriage of the natural surrounds and the course is still a major attraction for golfers.

 

Blending the two together was an important facet of the development, but it wasn’t that easy.

 

“It was really hard in fact,” explains Richard Sattler. “It was quite challenging; you always had to keep in mind the natural look and we were really conscious of that all the way through,” he adds.

 

There could be no better feeling than walking down the fairway of the 18th hole with the sound of waves from Anderson Bay crashing in beside you; the sun slowly sinking behind the village of Bridport in the background like your eleven foot putt on the green before and your drive from the tee perching itself on top of a small mound along the fairway where your panoramic view of the bay compensates for any frustrations you have had with prior ball placement.

 

The aroma of freshly cooked fish’n’chips eminate from the nearby club-house decking; a cold local beer from an icy bar-tap has you frothing at the mouth and for a moment you’re distracted from your fairway dream.

 

Barnbougle Dunes will not be the last links course built along Tasmania’s coastlines. Plans have already been approved for a Greg Norman designed course at Orford on the beautiful East Coast and another is waiting for approval at Musselroe Bay not far from Barnbougle in the North-East.

 

Top quality courses in remote areas are becoming more viable for all concerned—they are away from the urban hustle and bustle, incorporate top quality on-course accommodation and come with the added bonus of some beautiful, untouched landscapes.

 

The coastlines of Victoria are prime examples with golfing getaways dotted along the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas. Bridport has similarities to these other regions including water activities, fresh local produce, a mild climate and of course, an exquisite golf course.

 

There are, however, no signs of the beach-goers that converge on Victoria’s coastlines during the summer months. Bridport does inflate above its permanent residency of 1900 over the summer but nowhere near the numbers that populate areas like Lorne and Apollo Bay on the Bellarine Peninsula or Portsea and Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula.

 

Over the past ten years Bridport has seen a population increase of around 500. Indeed, Barnbougle Dunes has put Bridport on the world golfing map and will continue to entice golfers and holiday-makers alike to the region.

 

The vision and persistence of Greg Ramsay and Richard Sattler have made a lasting impression on the seaside village and on Australian golf.

 

Not bad for a farmer and a farmer’s son… ‘with a three wood here and a nine iron there, ee aye ee aye oh’.

 

Published in International Golf Leisure and Lifestyle magazine, Classic edition 2006.

Copyright 2006 The Licorice Gallery