Get your kit on and head out into the sunshine for some fresh air and to take a swing on Australia’s best golf course. The 18-hole West Course at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club has been ranked as the number one golf course in Australia by Australian Golf Digest, Australian Golf, Golf Australia and Golf Select. Golf Digest also ranked the course number 5 in the ‘World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses’, making it an international golf pro hot spot.
The naturally rugged course is located just south of Sandringham in Melbourne at Black Rock. A flawless design and immaculately constructed, this quality course consists of fertile sandy soil and pristine greens. Native grasses frame each hole providing great definition and contrast. The beautiful holes are large and contoured so that players can approach the tee from several angles, challenging themselves the further they stray from the perfect line.
The leading golf club dates back to 1821 when on leased land near an inner-city railway station, a group of prominent Melbournians introduced the ancient and royal game to the city. Urban encroachment pressured the course to move to south Sandringham, where housing engulfed the course. The club moved it to its current permanent position in the early 1920s, where the undulating sand dunes proved ideal. Scottish golf course architect Dr Alister MacKenzie was recommended to the club and accepted their invitation to advise on the new course, starting in 1926.
A Golf Digest article describes McKenzie’s design as “His greens are miniature versions of the surrounding topography. His crisp bunkering, with vertical edges a foot or taller, chew into fairways and putting surfaces. Most holes dogleg, so distance means nothing and angle into the pin is everything.”
Australia’s most exclusive, oldest and celebrated golf club has a $10,000 joining fee and an annual $3500 membership fee. The prestigious club has a minimum ten-year wait and requires you to know current members to join.
The club has a strict dress and etiquette code that members and visitors alike need to follow. The regulations state that players must be wearing proper golfing attire, tattoos covered, mobile phones are off, and no hats/caps worn inside the clubhouse.
This leading Melbourne based golf course is among the finest in the world. It is definitely worth the visit and would make a great reason to have a week away. Unaccompanied visitors can play the course in three one hour windows – Monday, Tuesday and Friday mornings between 10:30 and 11:30 am. This venerated course demands A$750 for the West Course plus a compulsory caddy at $140. The Royal Melbourne Golf Club’s West Course is the most expensive tee time of the top 100 courses, making this luxury experience all that more appealing.
