There’s something right – elemental, even, if you pardon the pun – to golf by the sea. It’s where the game started, and where it seems to make the most sense. A salty breeze and the sound of crashing waves are the game’s natural accompaniments.
It makes sense, then, that a golf course would tout its proximity to the coast. But for much of its history, the name of the Tuggerah Lakes Golf Club conjured visions of a different kind of water’s edge. For those unfamiliar with the geography of the NSW Central Coast, Tuggerah Lake is a coastal lagoon connected to the nearby sea through a tidal channel. It was on the southern edge of the lake, in Killarney Vale, that the golf club was established in 1930 as a nine-hole layout.
A quarter-century later, the club decided to make a move to a site long considered ideal in the area for an 18-hole course. Although only a couple of kilometres away, the club was now closer to the Tasman than to Tuggerah, perched above the sands of Shelly Beach.
