Design Notebook: A Gem on the Mornington Peninsula Eyes Improvements

Greetings, Fried Egg Golf Club members, and welcome to your June edition of Design Notebook, which aspires to be pure *fuel pump emoji*. (Was that usage correct, Gen Z readers? Do you find me cool now?)

In this DN, I discuss the potential of Clayton, DeVries & Pont’s renovation work at Portsea Golf Club in Australia. I also touch on some upcoming golf course openings (and reopenings). Let’s get to it.

Portsea Hires CDP

Last Friday, the firm Clayton, DeVries & Pont announced that it had been appointed to oversee updates to Portsea Golf Club in Victoria, Australia. Portsea is a sporty 18-hole course set on a lovely, rolling piece of land on the Mornington Peninsula. CDP partner Mike Clayton, who lives about 20 minutes from the club, will head up the work, with the help of Sydney-based golf architect Harley Kruse and CDP associate Lukas Michel.

“I’m delighted to be back advising Portsea,” Clayton wrote in a press release, “which was one of my first clients in the late 1990s when I was in partnership with Bruce Grant and John Sloan. To be working with John again, who advises the club on its agronomy, is exciting.”

“Part of the project will be for John and [superintendent] Kyle [Wilson] to introduce fescue into the fairways,” Clayton added. “The back nine is one of the best in the state and, by definition, the country. Our task is to bring the opening nine up to the same standard. There’s also a big space by the new clubhouse to make a great short game area, something which members have never had.”

Clayton previously consulted with Portsea through OCCM Golf, his partnership with Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking, and Ashley Mead. After Clayton split with that firm in 2019 and joined forces with Mike DeVries and Frank Pont, OCM Golf assisted the club with a series of small projects in 2020. Now reunited with Portsea, Clayton plans to carry out a variety of agronomic and architectural improvements in the coming decade.

The golf course dates back to the mid-1920s, when Melbourne golf professional Jock Young laid out an initial nine holes on the property near the western tip of the Mornington Peninsula. In 1929, Alex Russell, the architect behind Sandbelt classics Royal Melbourne East and Yarra Yarra, recommended a set of design changes. Finally, in the 1960s, amateur champion Sloan Morpeth advised the club in rerouting and expanding the course to 18 holes.

Last December, I walked Portsea with Clayton and the club’s general manager John Burbergs. The course’s biggest strengths are its setting and topography. Embedded in the dense coastal scrub of Point Nepean National Park, Portsea’s property feels separate from the rest of the peninsula — more secluded and raw. The terrain is hilly without being severe, and the course uses the slopes to great effect. Each hole has a distinct topographical character.

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Admittedly, the greens are a touch bland. Most of them are simple, ovular, and pushed up from the grade. They hint at ideal lines of play without putting much actual pressure on players to find advantageous positions in the fairways. Recoveries after inaccurate approach shots are not especially varied or interesting. So I’d like to see CDP introduce more variety and nuance to the contouring on and around the greens.

As Clayton stated in the press release, Portsea’s back nine is stellar, with standout par 4s like the grand, swooping 12th and 17th, and the short, fiddly 10th and 15th. The course’s weakest holes are concentrated on the front nine. According to a set of preliminary hole-by-hole notes that Clayton let me review, CDP may suggest substantial modifications to Nos. 5, 6, and 9, including potentially relocating tees and greens.

CDP will also look into overseeding Portsea’s Bermudagrass fairways (and possibly its greens) with fescue, attempting to create a mixture of the two turf types. This change, Clayton writes in his notes, could “transform” Portsea’s conditioning. “The mix of couch [i.e., Bermuda] and fescue is a superior surface and the quality of the strike (the club, ball, ground impact) is unmatched. It also reduces the amount of grain around the greens.”

Still, by the standards of today’s top-dollar renovations, the alterations Clayton hopes to carry out at Portsea are relatively modest. The course is already very good; it could just be a bit better.

Some 2025 Course Openings I’m Excited About

Since we’re approaching the halfway point of the year (July 2, for those counting), let’s talk about what’s going on in golf course construction. Which projects have recently finished up? Which ones are almost done?

The most interesting debuts in the first half of the year have been the multi-course complex at Cabot Citrus Farms (January), Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s North Course at Corica Park (March), Kris Spence’s restoration of Dunedin (March), Gil Hanse’s makeover of Royal Sydney (March), Mackenzie & Ebert’s overhaul of New South Wales (March), Love Golf Design’s new-build Third at Watersound Club (April), Dan Hixson’s redesign of Lake Oswego (April), Jay Blasi’s rework of Poppy Ridge (May), Blake Conant’s renovation of Shorehaven (May), and Coore & Crenshaw’s reimagining of the Pines course at The International (June).

As for the third and fourth quarters of 2025, here are six course openings I’m keeping an eye on:

Old Petty at Cabot Highlands (Inverness, Scotland)

This Tom Doak design plays over and alongside a tidal estuary southwest of Gil Hanse’s Castle Stuart Golf Links, which the Cabot Collection purchased in 2022. Early photos suggest that Old Petty is a low-profile, naturalistic course, with less flash (and perhaps more substance) than many recent new builds. It will host preview play between August 1 and September 30 this year. 

Scarecrow at Gamble Sands (Brewster, WA)

David McLay Kidd’s second 18 at the northeastern Washington resort will stage a “soft opening” in August. As Kidd recently told Golf Course Architecture, he and lead associate Nick Schaan worked to distinguish Scarecrow from Gamble Sands’ renowned Sands course: “[T]he bunker style is quite different, the greens are more contoured, the lines of play are tighter, and the greens are smaller. We’re still in the same type of restaurant; we’re just offering a different dish.” I visited the Scarecrow construction site in October 2023 and came away impressed by the property’s beauty, if slightly concerned about its walkability.

7 Mile Beach (Hobart, Tasmania)

Mat Goggin and Mike Clayton’s passion project in the dunes adjacent to the Hobart International Airport has gone through a long gestation period. Growing strong turf on pure sand isn’t as easy as you’d think! Recently, the course stabilized enough to host a month-long run of 14-hole preview play. Goggin and Clayton have not announced an official opening date, but they are roughly targeting the beginning of the Tassie summer in November. Photos of the maturing holes at 7 Mile Beach are tantalizing.

‍Renovation of Harbour Town Golf Links (Hilton Head Island, SC)

As detailed in the April edition of Design Notebook, Love Golf Design is working on a historical renovation of the RBC Heritage venue. Davis Love III and lead architect Scot Sherman plan to restore many elements of Pete Dye’s 1969 design, including the sizes and shapes of the bunkers and greens. The course is expected to be available to resort guests in November.

New 18-Hole Course at Palmetto Bluff (Bluffton, SC)

This Coore & Crenshaw design in the private, upscale residential community of Palmetto Bluff is growing in and will debut either late this year or early next year. “From upland pine and maritime forests to groves of live oaks and stands of salt palmettos,” read some recent copy from Palmetto Bluff’s marketing operation, “every element has been carefully considered to create a golfing experience that is both immersive and challenging.”

High Grove (Venus, FL)

A 150-member destination golf club situated on the southern edge of the sandy Lake Wales Ridge, High Grove will feature an 18-hole course and a par-3 layout, both designed by Gil Hanse. Construction started late last year and is scheduled to conclude this summer, with a full opening to follow in December.

Which ongoing golf course projects have piqued your interest? Tell me about them in the comments below.

‍Chocolate Drops

→ Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club and Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, a pair of venerable golf resorts in the North Carolina Sandhills, have partnered with Marine & Lawn Hotels & Resorts (let me take a quick break to recover from typing that many ampersands) to upgrade their aging hotel facilities and food-and-beverage operations. This is a smart move. Mid Pines and Pine Needles have long been among the best courses in the region, but their lodging, bar, and restaurant options have consistently lagged behind those of nearby Pinehurst Resort. It seems that the ownership group behind the two clubs, led by Kelly Miller, is trying to catch up.

→ Gil Hanse’s Fields Ranch East at Omni PGA Frisco defended itself well at last week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, but it took a beating in other ways. LPGA pro Angel Yin called the course “quite boring.” Throughout the tournament, players and TV analysts criticized the supposed tendency of some holes not to “reward good shots.” On social media, viewers complained about Fields Ranch East’s drab appearance… which is fair. The course is not pretty. But it does have a number of good, challenging holes, and I hope the PGA of America doesn’t water those down in the coming years.

→ The legendary Bradley Klein joined me on the Designing Golf podcast to discuss the history and future of tree management. I enjoyed the conversation and hope you do, too.

In case you missed it…

• Gil Hanse presented plans for renovations of the Old and New courses at Sunningdale Golf Club.
• Brian Schneider and Blake Conant will begin construction on the Gilroy, the second 18-hole course at Old Barnwell, this fall.
• Dave Axland and Dan Proctor are building a short course at Wild Horse Golf Club in Gothenburg, Nebraska.
• Proving Grounds Golf Club in the Detroit area is raising funds for a redesign of Dunham Hills Country Club by Mike DeVries. 
• The long-term, community-driven renovation of Buffalo Dunes Golf Course in Garden City, Kansas, is complete.
• The Country Club in Salt Lake City has hired OCM Golf to create a master plan.

A Course We Photographed Recently

Allegheny Country Club (Sewickley, PA) — designed by Tom Bendelow in 1902, redesigned by Donald Ross in 1922 and 1933, renovation work overseen by Gil Hanse since 2004

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Underlined and Starred

“Blindness is the one type of hazard in golf which contains the element of mystery. If we were not all so concerned with our scores, and instead played golf for the pleasure in playing the strokes, blindness would not be so abhorrent to us as it is today.” -Max Behr

(Header photo courtesy of Brendan James / Golf Australia)