The floods that devastated Queensland last December and January affected the state’s golfing life in ways widespread and unpredictable. Maps of the disaster areas in Brisbane would show a golf course almost entirely under water, while a nearby layout only a few streets away escaped relatively untouched.
Brookwater was among the fortunate. Two weeks of prime playing season were lost, but the course wasn’t damaged in any major way. The aftermath of the floods did bring one significant change – Drift, the riverside café in Brisbane that became one of the symbols of the disaster, captured in the pictures of the rising waters engulfing the award-winning restaurant, chose to relocate and rebuild in the clubhouse at Brookwater. It became part of a wider program of activity that also saw the opening of golf and tennis academies headlined respectively by Tour pro guru Ian Triggs and former Wimbledon champ Pat Cash.
Brookwater’s proactive spirit is a neat counterpoint to the if-you-build-it, they-will-come mentality that seeps into golf clubs over time. The course is among the undisputed must-plays of Australian golf, rated consistently by this magazine in the nation’s top 30 courses and the highest in Queensland. However, lying just beyond the comfortable orbit of the Gold Coast’s many and varied golfing attractions an hour’s drive, Brookwater probably hasn’t drawn the number of players that the quality of the course deserves.
The club opened in 2002 to great fanfare, the first championship layout to be opened in the Brisbane area in three decades and a key piece of the multi-billion dollar Greater Springfield Development, a satellite in the city’s west that is expected to quadruple in population over the next two decades. Conceived as a country club-style hub for the community, the course covers remarkably good golfing ground. Designers Greg Norman and Bob Harrison were able to take full advantage of the terrain, creating their characteristically bold test of golf in a highly distinctive bushland setting.
It’s not excessive to describe the high points of a round at Brookwater as awesome. Awe and fear can sometimes feel much the same, though, and the course developed an early reputation as a supremely tough day out, with the challenging driving lines and encroaching mass of trees claiming golf balls by the bagful.
