A SLICE OF GOLFING HEAVEN
A Slice of Golfing Heaven - Luxury Travel Magazine
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A Slice of Golfing Heaven | |||||
| By: Hilary Doling, Issue 25 – Summer 2006 | |||||
| (The Sebel Heritage Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia) | |||||
| WINE LOVERS HAVE ALWAYS HAD GOOD REASONS TO HEAD TO VICTORIA’S YARRA VALLEY; NOW THOSE WHO LOVE GOLF ARE DOING THE SAME. | |||||
| From the first tee of the St John course at the Heritage Golf & Country Club you get stunning views of the Yarra Valley and the distant Dandenongs. You also get an excellent picture of what lies ahead, down ahead; you are looking at the only Jack Nicklaus designed private golf course in Australia and it’s a beauty. The 96 room, 6 suite Sebel Heritage is 45 minutes from Melbourne at the gateway to the Yarra Valley. It sits in the middle of a universe of golf. With the emerald green of the St John course stretching away from the hotel down the hill, and on the other side a new course midway through being built. Around the lodge and country club, the spa building and a number of private villa complexes orbit like satellites. We checked into a one-bedroom suite, decorated in mellow tones of maroon and gold, but didn’t linger long, out of the wide windows the golf course beckoned. The St John course is named after the Order of St John of God that formerly owned the land – it seems that they left a slice of golfing heaven behind when they passed it on to the Sebel Heritage. The course celebrated its 5th birthday in November this year and the layout bears the hallmark of other Nicklaus courses – generous fairways typically greet your tee shot, but it is selecting your second shot which is the trick. On many of the holes it pays to work out carefully which side of the fairway you want to be for your approach shot as the greens are often protected by devilish looking bunkers. After a relatively easy start the second hole is a real wake up call, almost 400 metres off the yellow tees with water along the right hand side and a green well protected by bunkers. There are a number of candidates for best hole on the course. Many see the 11th as the signature hole and it is spectacular – around 160 metres from an elevated tee over a lake onto a narrow green with a cliff face behind it. The final four holes are all pretty tough, but the best is saved ‘til last. It’s a monster 440 metre par 4, but if you take on and clear the bunkers on the right you can shave valuable metres off the distance. Par this, the hardest hole on the course and you have truly earned yourself a refresher at the 19th. If you’re feeling really smug you could also treat yourself to dinner at the Bella restaurant in the lodge. Chef Marc Brown trained in some of London’s top Michelin starred restaurants and worked with the likes of Albert Roux so there’s a European influence on the food coupled with the freshness that the use of local products can bring. If you’re there on Saturday night choose the five-course degustation menu which is married with wine chosen especially for each course. Those who do want to leave the sanctuary of the Sebel and venture out can stop for lunch at the award winning Healsville Hotel. Close by the Healsville sanctuary will please children who have been complaining that mum and dad have been spending too long on the golf course. Coincide your visits with the bird of prey flight show and see a peregrine Falcon whiz past your nose at close on 300 kilometres an hour. The Sebel Heritage is all about ultimate experiences so it’s worth trying the ultimate high and taking a balloon flight organized by Global Ballooning in conjunction with the hotel. You only have to get up slightly before you would for an early tee-off time. The alarm went off at 4am but by six o’clock we were sailing serenely over the valley watching the five hot air balloons that had also drifted aloft that morning float in and out of the low cloud like a dream. At one point a shaft of sunshine through the cloud made the golden Chandon balloon glow – a fitting start to a morning in one of Australia’s best wine regions. After you land they serve you Domain Chandon champagne to celebrate your lofty experiences, followed by breakfast at Fergusson’s winery. No self respecting country retreat can truly say it caters for everyone these days with out a decent spa. The Sebel Heritage has one of the best. Housed in a separate lodge the spa embraces you with essential oils as soon as you step through the door. The ultimate indulgence here has to be The Dreaming – three hours of total pampering with Li’Tya produces made from native Australian ingredients. I was scrubbed with desert salt washed off by a Vichy shower. This was followed by a mud wrap, scalp massage and hair treatment. Still more was to come; a facial using fabulous ingredients such as wild rosella hydrating mist and Boronia eye serum, then a massage. By the time I was finished I felt refreshed, revived and so covered in natural ingredients I belonged in the Botanical Gardens. The Sebel Heritage has just started running a 3-day Wellness program (from midday Sunday until Wednesday). Run by the enthusiastic Dean Aitken with nutritional advice from Dr John Tickell it is by all accounts transforming the mind, spirit and waistlines of corporate types Australia wide.The next programs are 22 January and 26 February 2006. Golf-wise, a sister course to the St John is under construction. The Henley, designed by Tony Cashmore, is due to open late 2006. It is intended to be a little more ‘user friendly’ than St John, but looking at the model of it in the hotel lobby it’s clear that water comes in to play on all of the first nine holes at least. Between the golf and the state of the art spa, The Sebel Heritage Yarra Valley is an irresistible weekend destination. | |||||
| Details: | |||||
| The Sebel Heritage Yarra Valley, www.mirvachotels.com.au | |||||
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