Paradise Palms Resort & Country Club
A feature from the IAGTO Directory 2013
Paradise Palms Resort & Country Club
Paradise Palms Resort & Country Club A world of its own… Tropical North Queensland is the world’s leading reef and rainforest destination, where two pristine world heritage wonders meet along the tropical coastline of North Eastern Australia. The region has become a quality golf destination, offering modern resort-style courses built to accommodate an increasing number of golf loving tourists. Paradise Palms Resort and Country Club is by far the standout course in the area with the highest ranking in Australia’s top 100 golf courses. With modern golfers seeking a holiday that offers a range of activities on top of quality golf, the attractions of Tropical North Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef are second to none. Home to one of Australia’s most picturesque 18-hole championship golf courses, a grand Queenslanderstyle clubhouse that incorporates the Fifty Nine Restaurant and Bar, as well as a modern 96 room resort and a range of recreation facilities, Paradise Palms is a getaway destination with it all. The resort development was opened in 2009, with 96 rooms offering a range of lodging types from resortstyle accommodation to fully self-contained apartments.
Fifty Nine Restaurant & Bar
The club’s signature restaurant, Fifty Nine Restaurant & Bar, allows visitors to experience delicious food or a refreshing drink on the golfers’ deck overlooking the course. Visitors can expect to feast on an ever-changing, seasonal menu showcasing the region’s best produce through a combination of contemporary dishes with traditional favorites.
The Great Barrier Reef is a major attraction
For golfing quality, Paradise Palms stands out with a tough and uncompromising course built on a former sugar cane plantation nestling between UNESCO World Heritage rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef. The beautiful mountains of the Great Dividing Range provide an ideal backdrop to the majority of holes, with fairways lined by dense native eucalypts and lush, tropical rainforest. The course has six main lakes as well as a number of meandering creeks throughout waiting to snare an errant shot.
The clubhouse was built by Japanese company Daikyo. Opened in 1990, course designers Graham Marsh and Ross Watson were aiming to create Australia’s most difficult tournament venue.
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Daikyo-designed clubhouse
Paradise Palms Resort & Country Club
Paradise Palm’s back nine
In November 2004, Paradise Palms was purchased by the experienced North Queensland development company, H & S Vision Group, which subsequently developed the award-winning Paradise Palms Resort.
Paradise Palms golf course The greens are predominately long and narrow and play tighter than their size suggests. The steep slopes make chipping and bunker play tough with plenty of subtle humps and hollows to negotiate. Wildlife is a feature on the course
The course is instantly testing from the first hole. A long doubledogleg, this hole is certainly not an easy opener as it’s protected on both sides by thick foliage all the way to the green.
The feature hole on the course is the 182-metre par-3 7th and is the most spectacular of any golf hole in Far North Queensland. From the elevated Taipan Tee, it provides panoramic views of the dividing ranges, local beaches and out onto the Great Barrier Reef. The tee shot on this hole needs to be extremely accurate as the long green is protected front to back on the right-hand side by a pond, and by thick rough and bunkers on the left. On the back nine, the largest lake on the course dominates the daunting 10th hole, which measures 540m from the blue tees. Water runs down the right side of the fairway; the second shot is played blind over a rise and needs to be well positioned as the fairway slopes towards the hazard. The closing hole is extremely picturesque, again boasting views of the Great Dividing Range but is a hole that that can win or lose a tournament. It runs parallel to the 10th and is a relatively short par 5 by modern standards - but trouble lurks around the green when going for it in two as the approach shot is to a blind target over a creek and lake on the right.
The front nine
Tournaments Paradise Palms has held numerous major events, highlighted by the course’s opening event in January 1990: the Daikyo Skins Tournament featuring Greg Norman, Bernard Langer, Curtis Strange and Isao Aoki. Paradise Palms has also played host to the PGA Tour of Australasia’s Von Nida Tour events. In addition, the course holds annual amateur and professional events including XXXX Gold Super Skins, TORO North QLD Cup, PGA Pro Am, Holden Scramble and the LDI Constructions Blue Tee Challenge. 103
Paradise Palms Resort & Country Club
Golf academy & clinics Paradise Palms runs an international golf academy, inviting students from overseas to participate in programmes run and hosted by legends of Australian professional golf. The club is also heavily involved in promoting the game locally, through clinics and individual lessons to resort guests and the local community.
Golf packages Paradise Palms hosts international groups each year for the four major in-house tournaments. It also organises international golfing tours from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and Korea. The Golf Sales Coordinator at Paradise Palms provides flexibility in creating personalised packages to suit each individual group. For keen golfers wanting a taste of adventure, Paradise Palms offers the ultimate day tour. Taking in three of North Queensland’s most stunning courses, golfers will travel by helicopter, experiencing breathtaking views and playing 27 holes of golf at Paradise Palms Resort and Country Club, Sea Temple Port Douglas and Cooktown Golf Links at Walker Bay. Taking flight in a state-of-the-art, five-seat R66 Robinson Helicopter, they will play nine holes of golf on three distinctly-different courses. This is a once-in-alifetime experience with every desire cared for.
Ranking In February 2012, an all-round improvement at Paradise Palms golf course saw it rise 10 spots in the latest Australian rankings to number 67, the biggest increase of any course already in the top 100. This well-deserved achievement was a direct result of the A$400,000 investment in all-new Toro equipment and the continued efforts of the stellar grounds and maintenance teams.
View from the clubhouse balcony
Paradise Palms has its sights firmly fixed on climbing the rankings even further over the next four years and changes to the course that have been proposed by its original designer, Graham Marsh, will provide further leverage to do this. Changes include a range of modifications to the greens, tees, bunkers and an overall lengthening of the course to better suit the challenges of modern golf equipment. Paradise Palms Resort & Country Club Paradise Palms Drive, Kewarra Beach, Queensland, 4879, Australia Tel: +61 7 4059 9999
Fax: +61 7 4059 1120
sales@paradisepalms.com.au www.paradisepalms.com.au Copy supplied by Paradise Palms Resort & Country Club 104
Course facts Par 72
6,593 metres
3 tees
98 bunkers
1.2 hectares of greens 18 hectares of fairways 20 hectares of rough Grasses: Greens - TifEagle Fairways & tees - Green Lees Park Grass height: Greens - 4mm Fairways - 12mm Rough - 50mm
Cover Photo: Terre Blanche Hotel Spa Golf Resort***** • www.terre-blanche.com
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