Golfing in Willoughby City Council
Willoughby packs three public courses into 22 square kilometres of Sydney's Lower North Shore, each with a different appeal. Castle Cove is the historic one: Walter Burley Griffin, the designer of Canberra, planned the nine-hole parkland as the centrepiece of his Castlecove Estate, and it has been in play since 1932. Fourteen tee positions turn it into a full 18-hole round among bushland and birdlife, and its relaxed pace suits newcomers and learners. Northbridge is an 18-hole, par-63 course in heritage-listed Northbridge Park, tumbling from the ridgetop down to the Middle Harbour foreshores; its steep terrain and quick, heavily contoured greens make course management more important than length. Newgreens at Chatswood West, recently renovated, offers a short 12-hole round in a leafy valley above the Lane Cove River.