CITY LIGHTS: MELBOURNE
The Victorian capital is one of the world’s great golfing destinations. Do you need any more proof other than knowing all 12 courses showcased here have cemented a place in the ranking of the nation’s Top-100 Courses and can be found within a 45-minute dr
The Victorian capital is one of the world’s great golfing destinations. Here are 12 of the best courses that can be found within a 45-minute drive of Melbourne’s GPO.
1ROYAL MELBOURNE GOLF CLUB (WEST COURSE)
Golf is a truly unique sport in that it allows its devoted followers – no matter how good or bad their swing is – the opportunity to try and emulate the champions of the sport on the fi nest arenas the game has to o er.
The finest arena we have in Australia is Royal Melbourne’s West course. It set the benchmark for golf course design in this country when it opened for play in 1931 and, to this day, it still inspires the modern course designers to try and emulate the strength of its simple strategies and bold bunkering into their own creations.
The West course was created by the best design team ever assembled in this country. The Royal Melbourne club paid Scottish architect Dr Alister MacKenzie 1,000 guineas to travel to Australia in 1926 and suggest major changes to their existing course at Black Rock.
MacKenzie was joined on site at Royal Melbourne by Alex Russell – a member of the club and a former Australian Open champion, who was well read on MacKenzie’s design principles. Completing the team was Mick Morcom, Royal Melbourne’s head greenkeeper. Morcom, who was also well read on course architecture, was described by MacKenzie as the best greenkeeper he had ever encountered.
Having finished his design work on paper, MacKenzie left Melbourne having only seen the par-3 5th hole completed. The Scot had the utmost confidence that Russell and Morcom would be able to correctly interpret his notes and sketches. The fact that Royal Melbourne’s West course remains entrenched among the top-10 courses in the world suggests Russell and Morcom did a brilliant job.
Green fee: $300 (Interstate guests). Must have a Golflink handicap less than 27 for men and 36 for women.
2KINGSTON HEATH GOLF CLUB Kingston Heath is well-established among the best courses in Australia and is Melbourne’s second-highest ranked course in the World’s Top-100.
The ‘Heath’ has been squeezed into a small area and across relatively flat terrain, yet its design is so impressive despite covering almost half the amount of land of most modern layouts.
Sydney-based professional and course designer Dan Soutar routed the original layout in 1925 and created the entire course starting from the outstanding 130-metre par-3 10th hole that lies right at the heart of the property. The genius of Soutar’s routing is that seven other holes surround this diminutive oering, a factor which has undoubtedly led Kingston Heath to become a popular tournament venue for spectators.
The creativity and strength of Soutar’s routing in such a confined space is only outdone by the bunkering, which was added to the layout by Dr Alister MacKenzie and masterfully constructed by Mick Morcom, the course superintendent who brought MacKenzie’s Royal Melbourne sketches and masterplan to life.
MacKenzie thought Soutar’s layout, although long for the time at 6,200 metres, was excellent but suggested one important change – that the then blind par-4 15th be turned into an uphill par-3 with bunkers covering 75 percent of the route to the green. MacKenzie’s addition is today regarded as one of the finest, if not the finest, one-shot holes in Australia. Green fee: Upon application.
3ROYAL MELBOURNE GOLF CLUB (EAST COURSE) Dr Alister MacKenzie had long gone from the Royal Melbourne site and construction of his design was in full swing when the idea of a second course wad first mooted. The concept was raised when two plots of land east of the main Black Rock site became available. The membership decided to go ahead with the second layout, to become known as the East course, and Alex Russell was given the task of designing the layout.
Covering three parcels of land, the East course is played in a single loop away from the clubhouse and demands that golfers cross several roads during the round. This is one factor that led to the formation of the first Composite course in 1956, combining 12 West course holes and six from the East. All 18 holes of the original, and subsequent incarnations of the Composite, are played within the boundaries of the ‘home paddock’.
The East course doesn’t have the beautiful rolling terrain that is a highlight of the West course and over the years the encroaching of suburbia to the edges of the eastern property have marginally detracted from the visual pleasure of Russell’s design. The simplicity of the risk-and-reward options is text book MacKenzie
but the routing and use of the land is first class and stamps this as one of Russell’s finest works. In recent years, American course designer Tom Doak has advised the club on changes to the East Course and these have generally been really well received.
The seven East layout holes contained within Royal Melbourne’s main property are the highlights of the round. They cover the best terrain and Russell’s creative touches here have produced some world class holes. These holes, combined with the remainder of the East course, would be far more acclaimed if it was the only layout here. As is the case with the New course at St Andrews in Scotland, which sits alongside the famed Old course, the East is not rated as highly as it possibly should be simply because the layout next door is so damn good. Green fee: Green fee: $300 (Interstate guests). Must have a Golflink handicap less than 27 for men and 36 for women.
4VICTORIA GOLF CLUB Victoria is acclaimed worldwide as a fantastic shot-makers course where strategy always wins out over brute strength.
This is probably why the club has produced so many fine players over the years including Peter Thomson, Doug Bachl and Geo Ogilvy.
Who actually designed the course was a mystery for many years. For decades it was thought the driving force behind the formation of the club, William Meader, and the founding captain, Oscar Damman, were solely responsible for the creation of the course, which opened for play in 1927. They did lay out the holes across the beautifully undulating terrain but the bunkering plan was undertaken by a third party – one Dr Alister MacKenzie.
MacKenzie was working on the design of Royal Melbourne’s West course across the road when approached by Meader to have a look at the Victoria layout. Impressed by what he saw he recommended a few hole changes and drafted a plan for the bunkering. An aerial photograph of the layout taken in 1934 shows the magnificence of MacKenzie’s bunkering work, which sadly became obscured or lost over the decades because of overplanting, the extensive spread of Ti-tree and growth of huge Cypress Pines.
In 1995, the club recognised the course had lost some of its star quality because of overgrown areas across the layout and Mike Clayton was commissioned to consult the club on recapturing the essence of the original layout.
Today, much of the original design that was lost after World War II, was recaptured with the Clayton redesign. There are now classic, memorable holes scattered right across the layout but the greatest concentration of exciting golf is on the back nine where the undulating terrain gives rise to a fantastic variety of shots and strategies. Green fee: Upon application for interstate and overseas guests.
5METROPOLITAN GOLF CLUB Metropolitan is the second-oldest golf club in the Melbourne Sandbelt having been established in 1908. While the course has changed dramatically during the past 110 years, the layout, in all its incarnations, has never been short of plaudits from here and abroad.
J.B Mackenzie was one of the founding members of the club, most of which came from Royal Melbourne, and he laid out the original course across relatively flat farmland. Thousands of native Australian trees and shrubs were planted beside the fairways in those early years and many of those first plantings remain, adding to the undeniable character of Metropolitan.
Dr Alister MacKenzie made improvements to the bunkering and some of the greens during a visit in 1926 but the biggest alterations came in 1960 when the state government forced the club to sell part of its land for the construction of a school next door. American designer Dick Wilson was then commissioned to create seven new holes and over the years they have easily blended with the original mix of holes.
Further alterations were made to the layout in 2006 with Mike Clayton rebuilding the 12th, 13th and 14th holes as well as making modifications to a further six holes. More recently, Neil Crafter and Paul Mogford (Golf Course Strategies) oversaw work on the par-4 10th hole and had involvement in upgrades to various holes and their surrounds.
Today, the design is revered and is only outdone by the global reputation Metropolitan has for having arguably Australia’s best playing surfaces, which will be on display to the world later this year when the club hosts the World Cup of Golf. Green fee: Upon application for interstate and overseas guests.
6WOODLANDS GOLF CLUB Since 1917, Woodlands has had a reputation as one of the finest courses in the Melbourne Sandbelt.
This reputation is starting to spread as Woodlands emerges from the shadows of its more famous neighbours.
Just before the outbreak of World War I, the then named and newly formed Mordialloc Golf Club commissioned Royal Melbourne’s greenkeeper, Mick Morcom, to consult on the construction of its greens. Three years later, professional golfer, Sam Bennett, laid down the remaining nine holes to complete the course. The original course did not have any bunkering and few trees but all this changed in 1921. The club’s secretary at the time, Hunter Rogers, took an aerial survey of the layout noting all the topographical features and approaches to each green – a first in Australian golf. The bunkers were then constructed and hundreds of native trees, most of which were Flowering Gums and Wattles, were also planted.
By Sandbelt standards, the greens are small. However, they are generally hard and fast as well as being surrounded by sand, hollows and humps. While most of the fairways are generous in width, it is not hard to feel you have to work your ball around the layout to avoid fairway bunkers or an encroaching tongue of rough. This is certainly not a layout where you can just simply bang away with your driver all day. Green fee: $150 (manager introduced guest from Interstate); $80 (member’s guest).
7COMMONWEALTH GOLF CLUB There have been significant upgrades to the Commonwealth layout during the past decade, all of which have lifted the quality of the layout to become one of the nation’s best.
The removal of excess trees and the conversion of all the fairways and greens surrounds to Legend Couch grass are just some of the measures undertaken to improve the course, which is fast approaching its centenary year.
Risk-and-reward is a strong aspect of the Commonwealth design and there is no greater example of it than on the 364-metre 16th hole,
one of the most photographed holes on the course. The fairway doglegs left around a lake and some players might be tempted to blast their drives over the water to chase a simple approach and possible birdie. The conservative play can also reap a birdie but the longer approach must be left below the hole on what is a steep sloping putting surface from back to front. Green fee: $250 (Interstate guests).
8YARRA YARRA GOLF CLUB Yarra Yarra Golf Club is arguably one of the least celebrated layouts of Melbourne’s famed Sandbelt region, but not for much longer.
Wisely, the club plans to embrace its glorious rich history to build the foundations of an exciting future. And the major focus of this plan is an extensive renovation of its course to return it to the design concepts of its acclaimed original designer, Alex Russell.
The club has appointed the Tom Doakled firm, Renaissance Golf Design (RGD), to oversee the extensive changes to the East Bentleigh course, which Russell created in 1928. Russell, the 1924 Australian Open Champion, was the Australian design partner of the legendary Dr Alister MacKenzie and had worked with him at Royal Melbourne during the doctor’s famed 1926 visit.
A significant number of changes have already been made to the layout this year, including the decluttering of many holes on the front nine, the removal of superfluous bunkers and the adjustment of mowing lines to create more playing lines.
This embracing of its past glory is sure to produce something special when the restoration is complete. Green fee: Upon application for interstate and overseas guests.
9SPRING VALLEY GOLF CLUB The early days of the Spring Valley Golf Club are not dissimilar to many clubs that now call the Melbourne Sandbelt home.
Spring Valley began its existence outside the Sandbelt and, like the founding members of several nearby courses, the fledgling Spring Valley turned to Vern Morcom to create its course, which opened for play in 1951.
While the routing has remained the same over the past 67 years, all of the holes have undergone some form of modification under the guidance of Mike Clayton,
In the 18hole redesign, Clayton revamped Morcom’s bunkering, new greens were built and tees repositioned to maximise the strategy of each hole.
The changes went a long way to raising Spring Valley’s profile and reputation as one of the finest courses of the Sandbelt.
It is an easywalking course where the terrain doesn’t fluctuate much during the round. The 377metre opening hole is a good medium length par4 turning from lefttoright. The tee shot must follow the left side of the fairway. The Morcom bunkering becomes immediately apparent as you head towards the green that features a large and dramatic bunker guarding the front left of the green.
One of the best short par3s in the Sandbelt opens the back nine. The 134metre 10th has been criticised by some as being too severe because of
the shape and size of the putting surface as well as the severity of the deep bunkers that ring the green. But there are far more penal par-3s to be found elsewhere and this o ering, for such a short hole, simply rewards the player, who hits a good tee shot, with a birdie chance. The bad tee shot makes bogey more than likely. Green fee: $70 (member’s guest); $100 (visitors).
10HUNTINGDALE GOLF CLUB Huntingdale – Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath aside – is arguably the most famous of Melbourne’s Sandbelt courses due to it being the home of the Australian Masters for three decades.
A parade of the best players in the game through that time including Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros all trod Huntingdale’s fairways in pursuit of the Masters’ gold jacket. Norman, the unocial King of Huntingdale, proved the most successful in winning the event six times.
As a result of its Australian Masters history, there is more to a round at Huntingdale than simply pitting your skill against the course, which has been remodelled by a host of course designers during the past 20 years, with Englishman Martin Hawtree consulting to the club in more recent times.
Hawtree was an ideal choice for that job as he is well-read in the design theories and practices of Huntingdale’s original designer, Charles H. Alison, and has advised on some positive changes to the course including the clearing of Ti-tree and overgrown trees encroaching on playing lines. The clearing of some areas has exposed some typical sandy wasteland found throughout the Sandbelt.
There are plenty of memorable holes to experience at Huntingdale but the first par-3 on the back nine, the 161-metre 12th, is one you will never forget. Lined by tall trees along both sides for the first 100 metres to the green, getting a read on the breeze can be tough here, making club selection very important. The subtle undulations of the putting surface are an oasis compared with what awaits when missing the green as there are seven bunkers surrounding the putting surface. Green fee: Upon application. Limited tee times are available for Interstate guests who are members of a registered golf club.
11SANCTUARY LAKES CLUB To gaze out upon the links-style layout at Sanctuary Lakes is to witness a
modern marvel of golf course design.
Back in the mid-90s, a visionary developer purchased 445-hectares of land at Point Cook, most of which had been home to the Cheetham salt works for more than 100 years.
The design pairing of Greg Norman and Bob Harrison might have thought better about the commission to design a world class golf course on the salty plain. But they took up the challenge anyway and the result, nearly two decades after opening, is a layout the sits comfortably in the Top-100 in Australia. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, it is the only Melbourne course showcased here that is not in the famed Sandbelt.
Green rolling fairways defined by long, wispy golden rough grasses and big, sloping greens surrounded by equally large cavernous bunkers now cover the landscape.
At 6,456 metres from the championship markers, Norman and Harrison created a lengthy excursion that also places demands on your ability to plot a route around trouble and deal with the consequences when you stray from the ideal playing line. Green fee: $69 (weekdays), $89 (weekends).
12 CRANBOURNE GOLF CLUB
A decade after curator and course designer Sam Berriman oversaw the construction and completion of Huntingdale, he was commissioned to design a new course near the expanding housing estates of Dandenong.
It is nearly 65 years since Cranbourne Golf Club opened for play and chances are, if Berriman was alive today, he might not recognise his layout. Over its first two decades, course superintendent Gordon Black transformed the landscape by planting thousands of trees, which now frame every hole. He also established Cranbourne as a beautifully maintained layout, a legacy that still stands today.
Cranbourne might lie on the outskirts of the Sandbelt (and is the furthest course from the GPO showcased here) but it presents many of the same attributes of those courses found in the nearby Sandbelt. Rolling couch fairways, punctuated by creative and strategic fairway bunkering and large, subtly sloped greens generally surrounded by sand are the order of the day here.
Complementing Berriman’s evolved design is a high standard of conditioning throughout. Of note is the set-up of the layout with the well-manicured couch fairways and bent greens being trimmed to the edges of the many bunkers throughout. Green fee: Upon application.