Ponting’s push to turn home city into new ‘golfing destination’

AFL champion Jack Riewoldt remembers the two-hour drive from Hobart to Launceston for junior football tournaments.

And he recalls the football fields adjacent to the golf course where he played as a primary school kid.

“We used to kick the soccer ball out on the fairways, much to the dismay of the golfers going around,” the three-time Richmond premiership winner laughs.

But things have changed quite a bit since those days.

While Riewoldt moved to Melbourne and carved out one of the great modern AFL careers, the Tasmanian sporting landscape underwent its own glow-up.

The JackJumpers entered the national basketball league. The BBL and WBBL are represented in the state by the Hurricanes. The AFL announced the looming introduction of the Tassie Devils, and a new stadium is on its way.

And now, Country Club Tasmania is in the middle of a facelift that will make Australia’s southernmost state a destination for golfers around the country.

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Nine.com.au was invited to play the revamped back nine earlier this year. The front nine is almost ready now, too, and public tee times went live earlier this month ahead of the course’s grand reopening in December.

Cricket icon Ricky Ponting is one of the state’s most famous exports, and he is as keen a golfer as they come.

He believes Tasmania is fast becoming the country’s new must-see destination, for golfers as well as the wider public.

“It’s got better. The attention to detail... has gone to another level again,” he said of the Launceston golf course.

“It will be interesting to see how it's viewed by people from interstate.

“I think everyone in Tasmania, everyone around the north of the state will be keen to get out and give it a go. They’ve known about it being there but no one has been able to get on there just yet.

“I think there will be great interest, certainly from the north of the state. I don’t think it will take long... for word to get around, people to start talking about it.”

Ponting, who grew up in Launceston, says Aussies will start to view Tasmania as a genuine powerhouse of the country’s sporting landscape.

“Think about what the JackJumpers have done as well, right, they have had a huge impact on Australian sport in the last couple of years,” the former Test captain told nine.com.au.

“(An) AFL team in a couple of years, brand new stadium down there (in Hobart), the cricket programs are going terrifically well.

“You put two courses at King Island, two at Barnbougle, Country Club, Seven Mile - golfing destination wise it’s probably on par with anywhere in Australia.

“It’s really exciting for the north of the state to have another high-quality golf course that has its own point of difference to the others.”

Riewoldt, having retired from the AFL, is helping Ponting spread the word about Launceston’s new championship course.

He admits shock at seeing the difference to the one he remembers kicking footballs onto as a youngster.

“It’s funny how much Country Club has changed over the years,” Riewoldt tells nine.com.au.

“Even just driving there the other day... it was exciting, how much it's changed. Launceston and Tasmania in general over the last 20 years since I've been in Melbourne playing sport.

“There are a lot of good golf courses in the northern part of the state, and obviously the southern part of the state is flourishing as well, so this just adds another jewel to the crown in what is becoming a golf mecca.”

Golfers have often flown into Launceston but then driven the hour-and-a-bit out of the city to play at the famed Barnbougle.

Ponting says golfers, and their families, can now drive 10 minutes from the airport to Country Club Tasmania instead, with the championship course lying around a five-star hotel that includes restaurants and bars.

The new-look course will open to the public on December 12.