The National Golf Club (Gunnamatta Course)

Overview: The Gunnamatta Course is the most recent of The National Golf Club's Cape Schanck routings, shaped by Tom Doak across sandy ground beside Gunnamatta Beach. Its broad fairways give the wind room to work, while the strategic questions arrive at the approach: the side of the fairway changes the angle, the greens have distinct shapes, and bunkers punish a careless line. The setting is open and coastal, but the course does not rely on scenery alone. Firm running surfaces, natural cup and bowl undulations, and the rhythm of holes across the dunes create a round in which imagination matters as much as distance. At 18 holes and par 72, Gunnamatta asks players to read the land before choosing the shot.

History: The National was established at Cape Schanck in 1984, and the club's original private routing was in place by 1988. Gunnamatta grew from the earlier Ocean Course, which occupied the same broad site. Doak's redevelopment retained some of the former routing and bunkering while changing the sequence and moving green sites. The club presents Gunnamatta as a 2019 Tom Doak course, with the new work giving the property a different architectural voice from the older Jones and Norman courses nearby.

Did You Know? Doak's official project account notes that the redevelopment produced seven new greens on ground that had not previously been used for golf. The second hole also received a new green site while retaining much of the former bunkering, a small example of how Gunnamatta combines continuity with a new strategic identity.