The Glades

On Thursday we had the pleasure of playing the Glades. This course is often referred to as one of the top two on the Gold Coast. It is ranked 20th but maybe should be higher. On the Gold Coast we have Hope Island at 10, The Pines at 13 (Private), and Lakelands at 17.

The rack rate for green fees at the Glades is $160, discount book $130 but if you wanted to play it B&B can get it for $95.

This is a Greg Norman course and having only played this one of his I would have to say that fairway bunkers, generous fairways and good use of local water would define his style. The fairways with the white sand in the bunkers are very nice to look at and the ponds, creeks that come into play on a number of holes contain plenty of bird life.

This course if manicured so well that you do not want to miss the green if water is on that side or go over the back as there is nothing to stop the ball from rolling into the hazard.

This course is a real joy to play. I found myself taking a number of pictures and also just looking down the fairways. There is also a back drop of green rolling hills to the west.

The club house as seen on the left was very attractive with a nice outdoor bar overlooking a lake in front of the 10th tee. The setting and fixtures in the club house is top notch all the way.

The course is very long playing over 7000 yards from the blue tees and 6500 from the white tees.

In Australia they do not use slopes to rate the difficulty of the courses so it can be difficult at times to compare courses.

My ratings for this course are:

Club House 9,Fairways 9,Greens 9

Tees 9,Difficulty 8,Course Design 9

Staff 8,Other 8,Value 8 (When compared to the others in top 20)

Scenic 9,Total 86

We totally enjoyed the day we spent here and would go back at the drop of a hat. Once again we experienced a course where we had it almost to ourselves.

The weather remains the same so it gets a little boring always saying 28 or 29 so unless we get a change in the weather pattern you can assume the temperatures and humidity remain the same.