That place looks phenomenal!
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Thought the M50 was the bus for a second. Oh boy The Doon is looking juicy atm.
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Holy shit I legitimately just got on the M50 and read this haha
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@soly this was the other Sydney course I said we could play if you had the time for a second round!
If Bonnie Doon were in the USA, it would be @thefriedeggās favourite course. The architecture is superb and it has a sensational story to tell.
I joined in December 2010 when it was a healthy but not thriving club 20min from Central Sydney with an Aus #150 course on an Aus Top 50 site ā generously undulating, windswept and with 8-16 metres of pure sand beneath it.
They punted their consulting architect who was mid-way through brutalising the place and hired Clayts, Mike Cocking & Ashley Mead to fix it. It was the first job the firm got after recruiting Geoff Ogilvy and rebranding to āOgilvy Claytonā from āMichael Clayton Golf Designā.
The club wasnāt flushed with cash, so couldnāt afford to reno the whole place at once, nor was it comfortable enough to borrow the coin to do so, and the members couldnāt afford to be levied. So we embarked on a four-stage, eight-year process where the place was done up a handful of holes every second year.
As Bryn mentioned, the final four holes open next month and the course is unrecognisable from the tree farm OCCM (Cocking & Mead now as co-principals with Geoff & Clayts) inherited when they started work.
Two new holes on an old tip site, other holes reversed in direction, greensites from one hole paired with the fairway corridor of another, masses of shared fairway where the land gets tight.
As an example:
12th hole before
12th hole after
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Ah thatās right, Iām remembering this now. Gotta get back there.
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Does anyone have any experience with the Fuji X-T100? Iām leaning towards one of those as an entry level camera over the X-T20. Any thoughts?
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This thread is bad for my wallet. After doing some thinking I decided I really would like to downsize my gear so I could take a camera along in my golf bag with me if I wanted to.
After tallying up everything and listing it on eBay, Iām thinking about going with the Sony RX100 Mark V. That thing does it all, 4k video, ridiculous pictures, you name it.
Would love to hear others suggestions if any of you have bought anything or have any other recommendations.
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I think Iāve actually changed course. After a little research and a weekend with my buddy who has an A6300 I think Iām leaning towards Sonyās A6000. Hoping to score a decent deal on ebay to help the wallet prior to the second weekend in April.
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I have an a6000 and it does a good job, even though I havenāt taken the time to really play with it in great depth. Sony makes a wide angle pancake lens for it, but the reviews are shit so Iām afraid to spend the money on it. That would be ideal for lugging around a course though.
I have an a5100, essentially just an a6000 packed into a smaller frame, and while the pancake lens has super shit reviews you can find them used on eBay for $100 or lessā¦which really limits the downside. Worst case scenario you just keep it to take with you on the golf course so it fits in your bag when you want a small setup. I donāt have one but I have to imagine the pictures are half decent anyways
Alright so the A5100 and the A6000 dilemma is killing me. Unless I can find the A5100 SUPER cheap Iām just not sure that the cost difference warrants purchasing an āinferiorā camera.
Edit: Literally the one thing that I think turns me off to the A5100 is not having a viewfinder. That and all of the reviews that say āthis is literally such a great vlogging camera omgā.
Yeah, I use mine to film my hunts so the flip up screen was a big reason why I chose the a5100. If you think youāll need that itās a great choice, otherwise the a6000 will give you more capability and is a newer model.
This thread is also bad for my wallet. My wife found a used A6000 at a camera store here in town for $400 with the kit lense/extra battery/charger included, so Iām now $400 poorer.
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This would be a big one for me. To each their own, but I need to be looking through the view finder in order to be 100% sure I have the focus nailed, (especially on action shots) and it also helps me with my composition.
Thanks for the eBay tip. Hadnāt thought of that.
Going to be at The Players for the Thursday and Friday rounds. Super bummed I canāt even bring a point and shoot on the grounds for those days. Was hoping to create some #content for all of you.
I use a Sony RX100 for all my golf course pictures. Itās so small that I can even put it into my back pocket while I hit a shot. You can shoot in RAW and JPEG format. For videos I mostly use my phone and a GoPro.
In general I think the most important thing with golf course photography is weather and light. No DLSR on a rainy day can beat a decent compact camera on a nice day at sunrise/sunset.
Hereās an example pic:
Does anyone recognize the course? 
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Hey Byrn, Iām thinking of becoming a member at BD. Would love to know your thoughts on the place (in particular the course, practise facilities and vibe)
Like most things, what seems to be a lot of money is really just the entry level. $400 point and shoot turns into $1400 APC with a lens which turns into $4000 FF with 2 lenses. There is always more money to be spent for ābetterā results.
I started out with an X100T and am now almost convinced I need a full frame. Hell, Iāve even started to justify a Leica Q2 which is really absurd. I will probably stick with Fuji as I love how well the JPEGās come out, just really really want a 28mm focal length not 35mm for street photography and the only fixed lens that length is the Q2.
I have a hard time bringing my camera to the course though. I just snap pics with an iPhone which look pretty good. I think itās really hard to get a good picture as well. Most photos are half sky, half ground, with the middle being an interesting feature and some trees. The composition of the photo is just all off because there is rarely a large area of focus. Golf is wide and flat. An ocean certainly helps things (7/18 at Pebble). Good bunkering helps as well.
Every now and then a ground level, non-ocean picture is good and Iām really jealous. there are a few in the photo gallery thread (this is my favorite non water shot in the first 100 posts although itās more a landscape shot than golf). I think if you got up like 50 feet with a drone it gets a lot easier to get a better photo.
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The course is legitimately top 35 in the country now the final three holes are done. And so much fun. Always plays differently day to day based on wind and pins etc.
Practice facilities probably the best in Sydney if you donāt need Trackman bays etc. full length grass range (syntho in winter), awesome shortgame area next to it where you can hit shots up to about 75m and as part of the newest stage of work thereās an enormous putting course next to Banks Ave with another pitching/chipping green next to it.
Vibe ā unpretentious, lots of good players, some of the old guard are hard work, but only a small contingent and one thing the massive work over the past decade has achieved is a lot of new blood who are new and fresh and enthusiastic. The pro shop staff are great, but the clubhouse scene could do with some improvement.
If you are under 40, the reduced joining fees make it superb value, and if youāre under 30 that discount becomes almost criminal.
Thereās a reason why I couldnāt bear to leave the place when I got into NSWGC and have kept membership at the Doon - itās just that damn good and getting even better by the year.
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