Royal Melbourne Golf Club
(West is #1, East is #6 on AusGolf’s Top 100 & #6 in Golf Digest’s 2016World rankings)
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| #18 Green - East Course (#16 Composite Course) |
What was originally started in 1891, the Melbourne Golf Club
is one of Australia’s oldest golf courses.
It became the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in 1895 when Queen Victoria
granted the right to add “Royal” to the name.
Looking for room to grow lead to the Club moving out to Sandringham in
1901. While there, it grew some more and
expanded until it finally purchased land in Black Rock where Dr. Alister
MacKenzie laid out the West course. The land for the East course was purchased in 1929.
As stated, Royal Melbourne is a 36-hole facility featuring
the East and West courses. Of the two
courses, the West is known as the better.
However, when Royal Melbourne hosts a major event (Presidents’ Cup,
Aussie Open), the course used is a “composite” course, made up of twelve holes
from the West and six from the East. In
particular, there is a stretch of holes in the middle of the East course that
are not as conducive to high-level professional play, but the East does feature
some very strong holes. For the composite
course, Holes 1-7, 10-12 and 17-18 of the West are used along with the
East's 1-3 and 16-18.
Regardless the course, the greens are large
… and not flat. Unless you are within
five feet of the hole, it is likely you will not get a flat putt. This makes chipping and pitching, as well as
lag putting, difficult. Yet, they are
very smooth and true, so if you can get the ball online, you will make
putts. As one might expect, the greens
at Royal Melbourne can be groomed to be very quick, but fortunately that is not
the case on a daily basis. If that were
the case, any player with a rather shaky putting stroke could be in for a long
day.
In general, the
fairways are firm and fast but give you plenty of room to miss; however, if you
do miss, you will have that infamous sandy lie, often with some native vegetation playing
havoc with your intention of getting a good strike on your next shot. The trees do a great job of framing, or
defining, the holes as opposed to providing an obstacle. They are not an issue if you are just off the
fairway but will create problems for the ball that goes slicing or hooking
severely.
As its reputation
suggests, the real challenges are the bunkers and green complexes. Known for his mastery in bunkering, MacKenzie’s
masterpiece boasts 89 bunkers on the West, 105 on the East and 96 on the
Composite course. Avoiding bunkers
should be the player’s intention when he starts his round, but he had best be
prepared for when his ball ends up in one … as it inevitably will. As with the other courses, playing from the
greenside bunkers is not the player’s biggest problem. The ball generally ends up on the flat bottom
as opposed to burying in the face. But,
the fairway bunkers are another story.
Seemingly every bunker has a lip high enough that requires a shorter
iron to escape it unless you happened to be far enough from the front of the
bunker.
After the round,
spend time looking through the clubhouse at many of the fascinating and
historical pieces of memorabilia. It has
hosted countless of events such as the Australian Open (16 times!), Women’s Australian
Open, Australian Masters and the President’s Cup, with a list of champions that
include Gary Player, Tom Watson, Adam Scott and Greg Norman. The Club is so rich with history and makes
for a complete day. You also should check out the website as it beautifully portrays all of what is Royal Melbourne. This is a definite
to have on your “bucket list” of courses to play if you will be in Melbourne.
