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Kingston Heath Golf Club
Heatherton, Victoria
Established in 1909, Kinston Heath is one of the top golf clubs in Australia, having hosted national and international professional tournaments. The course will be the site of the 2028 Presidents' Cup. Tournament champions on this course include Tiger Woods, Gary Player and Adam Scott.
The relatively flat course is protected by abundant bunkering, tall mature trees, long grass in the rough and several blind tee shots and approaches.
Getting there:
Kingston Heath is located in the South Eastern Suburb of Heatherton, on the famous Sand Belt of Victoria where most of the best golf courses are built.
The beautiful club house has a lovely restaurant and a corridor lined with pictures of the club's long history.
Golf tips:
Most holes are littered with bunkers all bunkers but thankfully, most of them are shallow. You would rather be in a bunker then in the long rough on this course. My suggestion is instead of making fairways narrower than they already are by avoiding bunkers, just imagine that the bunkers are part of the fairway and make the full fairway in play!
There is a natural turf practice range on site, plus several practice bunkers for you to put in last minute practice prior to a round.
Public access to the club is difficult unless you are invited by a member or has reciprocal rights from a club outside Victoria.
Tip: SGA Victoria hosts a competition at Kingston Heath once a year. Sign up with them and join their competition to play this prestigious course.
Moonah Links Golf Club
Fingal, Victoria
There are two championship 18-hole courses at Moonah Links Resort - The Open Course and Legends Course.
The Open Course is so named as it is the first and only championship course designed for the Australian Open Championship, playing as one of the longest courses in Australia at 6,783 metres.
The younger Legends course plays much shorter at 6,315 metres. Each hole is named after a legendary golfer - mainly Australian although Arnold Palmer and Jack Nichlaus also have their names on a couple of holes.
Getting there:
Moonah Links Resort is located in Fingal in the Mornington Peninsula, 90 minutes' drive from the Melbourne CBD. There is ample parking on site. The modern club house includes a Pro Shop, Spike Bar for casual dining and a more formal restaurant - Pebbles.
There is numerous on site accommodation - apartment units that are individually rented via websites like booking.com
Golf tips:
Open Course Hole 1 Par 4 339 metres
This is my favourite hole in the Open course, perhaps because I got lucky several times playing this hole. A large fairway bunker on the right causes golfers to aim to the left of the fairway. This leaves them a difficult second shot to the dogleg left green which is protected by trees from that angle. A good drive that carries 175 metres from the white tees gets you over the bunker to a down slope which kicks the ball further down to the top right corner of the dogleg left, opening up the green for a shot approach. My course management on this hole is to aim to carry the left edge of the right bunker. Even if you end up in the shallow bunker, you still have a good angle to the green which is a much better option then messing another bunker on the left at 200 metres from the tee from where you need to deal with the rough and trees to the left for your approach.
Open Course Hole 3 Par 4 378 metres
This is a beast of a long Par 4 for the every day golfer. Again golfers are intimidated by the bunker on the right of the fairway, but shots aimed at the middle of the fairway mostly will fall short of the plateau, catching the slope back down the fairway, losing distance, leaving a blind second shot without visibility of the green nor a sense of the distance. My course management on this hole is to aim to carry the right bunker onto the plateau which requires a carry of 180 metres from the white tees. I much prefer to be in that shallow bunker with 120 metres to a visible green than to have a 150-metre blind uphill blind shot to the green which opens up a lot of risks.
Open Course Hole 1
Open Course Hole 1
Open Course Hole 3
Victoria Golf Club
Cheltenham, Victoria
Victoria Golf Club is one of the most prestigious golf clubs on Victoria's Sand Belt and was home to the Australian Open 2022.
The course is an example of great architecture with a wonderful test of golf, enabling it to host the world's best players including Jack Nichlaus, Tiger Woods and Karrie Webb. Following a greens replacement program in 2019, the greens roll pure and fast.
I was fortunate to have been invited to play on this exclusive course at the E.J. Whitten Charity Golf event a couple of times in 2022 and 2023.
Getting there:
The club is located on the Sand Belt in the South Eastern Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham, just 30 minutes' drive from the CBD.
Golf tips:
The club has a beautiful restaurant with elevated terrace over looking the course, natural turf driving range and practice greens.
As with all great courses, playing well on this course requires sensible decision making and good course management.
St Andrews Beach Golf Course
Fingal, Victoria
St Andrews Beach Gunnamatta Course is consistently ranked in the top ten of Australia's public access golf courses.
Located in the South West corner of the Mornington Peninsula, this sand belt course has a rather challenging links layout with long par 4's and several blind holes.
Getting there:
St Andrews Beach Golf Course is an easy 75-minutes' drive from Melbourne CBD.
They recently built a new club house and improved their parking facilities making it much more welcoming than the previous tiny club house.
Golf tips:
1. The signature Hole 1 Par 5 tees off from an elevated green, before an approach to an elevated green which essentially is a blind shot.
From the elevated tees, note the pin location on the elevated green.
On google maps (if you do not have a good golf app on your phone or smart watch), not the location and depth of the green relative to location of the bunkers below the green as you will not be able to see the green or the pin standing over your approach shot.
2. The Index 1 Hole 13 is a brutal 457-metre Par4. You have to hit a blind tee shot to an elevated fairway. Shot aimed to the middle of the fairway will roll right into a hollow where your next shot is a again a blind shot. The green is located in a punchbowl hollow and partially concealed by elevated greens. Saving grace is that errant shots landing around the green have a good chance of bouncing or rolling on.
The Sands Golf Club
Torque, Victoria
The Sands Golf Club in Torque, Victoria is a links style 18-hole layout offering wide fairways and coastal views.
Watch out for the iconic 'blue tree' between the first and 18th fairways.
Getting there:
The Sands is located in Torque, a town noted for its surf culture, just 90-minutes' drive from Melbourne. Its location at the start of the Great Ocean Road makes it a great over-night stay and golf break when making a road trip to the Otways National Park on Victoria's beautiful South Coast.
Golf tips:
Located in a quite part of Torque, The Sands also offers on-site accommodation with newly refurbished hotel rooms or 2-bedroom apartments. There is also an on-site practice range and a popular restaurant and alfresco bar in the club house.
Yarra Bend Golf Course
Fairfield, Victoria
Yarra Bend Golf Course is nestled in the Yarra Bend National Park, its lush, picturesque layout winds its way around the Yarra River.
Situated just a short drive from the Melbourne CBD, it is probably the best public golf course easily accessible from the city.
The 18 hole layout is a good test of driving accuracy with a couple of challenging par 3's too.
Getting there:
Situated on Yarra Bend Road, off Heidelberg Road, the course is easily accessible from the city or Eastern suburbs. There is also plenty of free parking at the course. At the Pro Shop there is also a small kiosk serving coffee and what many golfers tout as the best sausage rolls in Melbourne!
Golf tips:
The course starts with an easy 100m Par 3 which gives you a chance to warm up your swing, followed by a short Par 4 with a wide fairway. But it gets tougher from there as fairways get narrower with some of them having a side slope, punishing even good drives to the centre.
There is a very good driving range equipped with a shot tracer that tracks every shot and provides stats to help you find your perfect swing.
Tip: While Yarra Bend is a delightful course to play in the warmer months, its poor drainage makes it rather muddy during the cold and wet months in Winter.
Ringwood Golf Course
Ringwood, Victoria
Ringwood Golf Course is one of the best maintained public courses in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The course crew is constantly working to keep it in top playing condition, and the course is enjoyable year round even through the wet and cold months of Winter.
Getting there:
Located on Canterbury Road in Ringwood, the course is just a 30-minuite drive from Melbourne CBD. There is ample parking at the course.
The club house has a decent Pro Shop, an indoor range and a nice cafe called Mr Foxx.
Golf tips:
The course offers a good mix of long and short holes. The Par 4 Holes 1 and 10 play very similarly downhill and are drivable if you have the wind behind you. Then you have the uphill Hole 12 Par 5, followed by a long Hole 13 400m downhill Par4. This is my favourite driving hole - if you stripe one can catch a down slope, you could end up with a 285-metre drive leaving you with a wedge for your approach.
Holes 14 and 18 - uphill dogleg left Par 4's play very similarly - requiring an aggressive draw over mature trees. Any 'safe' drive to the middle of the fairway will catch a left to right slope and you end up in the right rough under the trees.
The Coast Golf Course
Little Bay, NSW
The Coast Golf Club in Little Bay south of Sydney is a very picturesque golf course with spectacular views over the rugged Pacific coast of NSW. Located just 30 minutes' drive South of Sydney CBD, the course offers coastal views from practically every hole.
On our hiking road trip from Victoria to NSW, we made it a point to bring our golf sets just to play at this course! We had some rain at the start of the round, but it was an absolute cracker playing this course!
Getting there:
The Sands is located just 30 minutes' drive South of Sydney CBD at 1 Coast Hospital Road in Little Bay. There is ample parking on site and a restaurant. However, when we were there one week day afternoon, the only food available was a couple of pie selections.
Golf tips:
There are very many spectacular views that will distract you from your golf game. Have your camera as always ready!
Watch out for the signature 180-metre Par 3 Hole 4 which requires an accurate tee shot across a coastal ravine.
Watch out also for Hole 10, a short but tricky 274-metre Par 4 which appears to play at an awkward oblique angle. The fairway also crosses the path of the 11th fairway, so before you approach you ball for your approach shot, be wary of golfers teeing off from the 11th tee.
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