A successful golf development and housing estate a few short kilometres from the popular Queensland beach town of Noosa, the Noosa Springs Country Club was designed by architect Graham Papworth and rests partly alongside the picturesque Lake Weyba.

While there are some good parts here, such as the conditioning and the occasional fun pond hole, mostly this is fairly standard resort fare and a course that displays little design sophistication or quality. The bunkering is bland, shallow and often poorly arranged, and the use of water on the mid-length and longer holes is both inefficient and unexciting. There is lots of water here, too much for a site with space issues, and most of it is used in a decorative rather than a strategic manner. On the positive side, while the greens are far from outstanding, a few of the putting targets are well shaped and angled to make recovery play somewhat interesting.

In recent years there has been an expansion of the housing estate here, and holes 11 and 18 have been re-bunkered by Papworth to protect future home sites. Sadly, neither hole is particularly effective and the newer traps are as impotent and unattractive as the older ones.

Noosa is a great town to visit for sun seeking southerners, and Noosa Springs is the only high-end golf option available in the immediate vicinity. It’s not a bad course, and is good fun for beginner and intermediate golfers. Those a little more serious about the game, however, are better advised to head south to Coolum or Pelican Waters.