~~The big difference between a trip across Europe the Atlantic and the Pacific is Melbourne itself. The incredibly cosmopolitan city of four million is known as both the nation’s enjoyment and sporting capital. It is this combination of urban appeal, a loaded cultural calendar and fantastic golf that makes the area so appealing. Melbourne is home to the Australian Open Tennis Championship, the Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Melbourne Cup horse race. The State Victoria also boasts some of the world’s finest golf courses, headlined by the renowned Royal Melbourne as well as Kingston Heath, Metropolitan and Victoria, all located within a few miles of each other in the famous Sandbelt area.
For sheer quality of golf courses in and around a major city, only New York and San Francisco are serious rivals, but their showcase courses are almost all ultra-private, so most golfers will never play them. Melbourne’s best courses are not only world class, but convenient and welcoming.Melbourne offers—along with as many World Top 100 courses as in all of Ireland. If that is not enough, there are optional excursions to wineries, to see penguins and to the wild island of Tasmania. Call it golf with benefits. Lots of them.
A natural oddity just south of the city center, the Sandbelt is home to seven historic clubs, with eight courses between them.Any course located in the area has some of the best bunkering you will ever see.The sand is hundreds of feet deep in places, it drains well, grows great grass, and the courses typically play fast and firm.
“The Seven Sisters” of the Sandbelt are: Royal Melbourne, Metropolitan, Victoria, Commonwealth, Huntingdale, Yarra Yarra and Kingston Heath, where in 2009 Tiger Woods put on the gold jacket of the Australian Masters champion— the last time he won any official tournament. Between them, “the seven sisters” have hosted every major tournament in the nation’s history, including the Australian Masters and Opens, the President’s Cup and the World Match Play Championship. All seven are ranked in the Top 40 of Australia’s more than 1,500 courses. Four are in the Top 10.
The star of the Sandbelt is Royal Melbourne, with two courses, the West and the East, both in the World Top 100. The site of the 2011 President Cup matches, it is the only venue outside the U.S. where that event has been held more than once. The tournament is played on a composite of the two courses to facilitate walking and crowd management and to avoid the four road crossings that are part of the marquee West layout. The work of the revered Dr. Alister MacKenzie, the West course is the best in Australia. Excluding the U.S., Scotland and Ireland, it’s also the highest-ranked course on earth.
You could easily make the argument that MacKenzie is the greatest designer in the history of the game, and after Cypress Point, this is probably his best work—and certainly the best one the traveling golfer can play. Another of his very finest designs, Kingston Heath,which is also in the World’s Top 50, and is few minutes down the road.That is the beauty of Melbourne’s Sandbelt region: so much great golf in so little space.
Even the two courses at Royal Melbourne are radically different. MacKenzie was a huge fan and student of St Andrews, and like the Old Course, his West opens with a fairway so big it is far harder to miss it than put the ball in play. In sharp contrast, the opening tee shot at Royal Melbourne East is blind, over a ridge to a valley fairway with a huge, deep, rough encrusted bunker hidden in the middle of the landing area.
There is simply no weak golf here, but if time constraints on visiting golfers necessitates sorting the courses into “must-plays” and “if you have times,” the former includes both layouts at Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, Victoria and Metropolitan.
Metropolitan was widely considered Australia’s marquee course until the 1950s when the government claimed the land under half a dozen holes for a new school. The club’s fortunes and reputation suffered accordingly as a 12-hole course, until the members brought in architect Dick Wilson, of Doral’s Blue Monster and Cog Hill/Dubsdread fame, to restore its glory. Today the course has 19-holes, including an extra par-3 used in rotation for maintenance purposes, and not surprisingly, Metropolitan is known today for its always excellent conditioning.
Victoria is the only one of “The Seven Sisters” with lodging on-site, a true bargain that includes golf, meals and an unforgettable classic experience. These are simple upstairs rooms for golfers, not honeymooners, and cater to both members and visitors. The staff will happily make all your bookings at the other “Sister” clubs. Victoria also has one of the most impressive clubhouses in the game, and since Peter Thomson, the five-time British Open champion turned Australia’s most renowned golf course designer, has been a member here since 1946, the building is festooned with his memorabilia and trophies. Among the random highlights you will find scattered around the building are an original relay torch from both the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and the more recent Sydney games. Another notable Victoria member is Australian golf journalist Don Lawrence, who famously gave Jack Nicklaus his nickname, “the Golden Bear”, and an engraved silver tray Nicklaus sent him as a thank you hangs on a pillar.It is more than likely you will enjoy your post-round cocktails al fresco in an area named for another successful member, out on the Ogilvy Terrace.
With some of Victoria’s best beaches and wineries and only an hour from the city, the peninsula is Melbourne’s answer to the Hamptons or Cape Cod and makes for great vacation variety. And since the Sandbelt courses are generally off limits on Saturdays and Sundays, it is a good weekend destination.
To double up and take full advantage of the long trip, many international visitors time their golf vacations to coincide with a high-profile sporting event. Whenever we have a major event, the Australian Open tennis, the F1 race, the Australian Rules Football final or the Melbourne Cup, we get a lot of visitors. Melbourne doesn’t have an Opera House or a Harbour bridge. What they have is an events calendar.
As for a golf trip to Melbourne, I couldn’t agree more. It is a long way to go, and to be honest, you can be skeptical. There are a lot of places to play golf. It is worth skipping Scotland or Ireland or even Hawaii ? The answer is YES. So in 2016 lets move “The Marbella Swing” to “The Melbourne Swing”.Demis Papillon Golf Academy will organize all the visas needed for Australia and if we go during the Spring racing meet, which in Australia is in November, we are able to attend the Melbourne Cup, tickets will be organized by Papillon Golf Academy for the “Race That Stops a Nation”, and it is spectacular,over 110,000 people will be at the race that day and the winning horse gets 3,6 million dollars.Our only regret would be that we will not have enough time to see beautiful Australia.
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