It takes a long time to get to Australia—more than 14 hours
by air from Los Angeles—but today’s trip is hardly as taxing as the six weeks’
ocean voyage that Dr. Alister MacKenzie had to endure to make his landmark
consulting visit to Royal Melbourne Golf Club in 1926. Because he went, so do
you have to, if you are really intent on seeing all of the best courses in the
world sometime in your life.
The sandy suburbs on the southeast side of Melbourne are home to a
tremendous concentration of courses. Royal Melbourne’s 36 holes touch boundaries
with Victoria Golf Club and the public Sandringham; Commonwealth and Yarra Yarra
share a boundary about three miles away; and within five miles lie Kingston
Heath, Metropolitan, Woodlands and several other good layouts.
Farther south along the bay, there is a batch of newer
courses, including Peninsula, and an even newer grouping of courses all the way
to the tip of the Mornington Peninsula, including the public Dunes Golf
Links, three 18s at the National, the Australian Golf Union’s Moonah Links and
the older Portsea Golf Club.
Altogether there are more than a dozen top-flight courses to
play, and at least one you could play for the rest of your life. To help you
sort out which ones to play, here are my opinions on the best of Australian
golf. Following each profile is a rating on my Doak Scale.
Amstel Golf Club
The Australian Golf Club
Barnbougle Dunes
Commonwealth Golf Club
The Dunes Golf Links
The Golf Club at St. Andrews Beach
Huntingdale Golf Club
Kingston Heath Golf Club
Kooyonga Golf Club
Metropolitan Golf Club
Moonah Links
The National Golf Club
New South Wales Golf Club
Portsea Golf Club
Royal Adelaide Golf Club
Royal Melbourne Golf Club
Royal Sydney Golf Club
Sandringham Golf Club
Victoria Golf Club
Woodlands Golf Club
Yarra Yarra Golf Club
