Capricorn Resort

This is the last of three articles related to the re-ranking of our regional listings for Australia. We’ve already published updates for Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales in edition 1, followed by South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia in edition 2 so this last one deals with the states of Queensland and Victoria. We feature a QLD Top 40 and a VIC Top 100 so we now rank more than 300 courses in seven regions across the country. The only geographical area that we’ve not updated is Northern Territory because we only promote one course (Alice Springs) from the eleven that are located within that vast Outback desert landscape. Queensland Leapfrogging one place above Brookwater, the Royal Queensland Golf Club course at Eagle Farm (pictured above) is once again top of the Queensland chart (even though it slipped two places in the recent national chart update to #36). Originally set out by Carnegie Clark in the early 1920s, the layout was significantly remodelled by Mike Clayton early in the new millennium due to work being carried out on the construction of a new bridge across the Brisbane River. Capricorn The 18-hole layout at Capricorn Resort Golf in Yeppoon advances an impressive ten places to #9 in the state listings, a move that is also good enough to see it enter the national chart at #76. After quite a few years in the doldrums, the Karl Little-designed Championship course at this former 36-hole venue is obviously now benefitting from an increased level of investment by its new Chinese owners. Kooralbyn Valley Another big leap up the QLD chart (from #24 to #11) by the Kooralbyn Valley Golf Course sees this 18-layout also debut in the Australian Top 100 at #90. Like Capricorn, the golf facility has had severe financial difficulties to overcome in recent years but this Desmond Muirhead-designed track is now flourishing following substantial renovation work. Mirage Also climbing thirteen places in the regional chart [to #27], the course at Mirage Country Club in Port Douglas is a late 1980s Peter Thomson and Mike Wolveridge production that has been upgraded in recent years by Wolveridge, who retired to the area. It’s a game of two halves at Mirage, with the front nine set on the beach side of the main highway and the back nine on the clubhouse side of the road routed around the mangroves. Virginia The highest of three new entries arrives at #28 and it’s the Championship course at Virginia Golf Club in Banyo Brisbane which was founded in 1928 with a 9-hole course before another nine holes were added five years later. Another nine has since been added so the modern day set up at the club comprises the 18-hole Championship course and the 9-hole Heritage course. The other two new entries in the Queensland table are Coral Cove [at #29] and Hervey Bay [at #30] whilst the three courses that drop out and revert to GEM status are Arundel Hills (now closed) which was #14, Noosa [formerly #32] and Redcliffe [previously #36]. Victoria   The West course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club (pictured above) holds off a strong challenge by Kingston Heath to retain its #1 status in the Victoria listings. The eighteen holes in play nowadays originate from a 27-hole design produced by Alister MacKenzie in 1926 which eventually became the 18-hole West and East layouts after subsequent work from both Mick Morcom and Alex Russell. St Andrews Beach  The course at St Andrews Beach rises two places to #9 in the Victoria chart and this modest upward movement is reflected in the national listings, where it progresses four places to #16. This Tom Doak design has been as high as #12 in a previous edition of the Australian chart so it’s heading back in the right direction. A reviewer wrote about it a couple of months ago: “great fun holiday golf… it is also great value as well and well worth the drive down… it makes a great alternative to the Melbourne sandbelt courses… a new clubhouse is in the process of being built so the facilities are a bit rustic… if in the area I would highly recommend making the journey down to play here.” Lonsdale Links  Further down the chart, Lonsdale Links at Point Lonsdale soars eighteen places up to #18, having also made a big impact in the recent Australian Top 100 when it was the highest new entry at #34. The club has had an 18-hole layout in play since 1954 but it’s the extensive re-design by OCM in 2020 that’s really put the course on the golfing map, with the design company introducing a host of classic template holes such as Redan, Biarritz and Double Plateau. Sandy Golf Links  Another course rocketing up the Victoria chart is Sandy Golf Links in Cheltenham, up thirty-four to #30 – and new in the national chart at #74. It’s another recent OCM project that has seen the total revamp of the old Vern Morcom-designed Sandringham Golf Course, as it was originally called. The new facility also includes the Australian Golf Centre which is home to Golf Australia and the PGA of Australia. RACV Cape Schanck  Another big mover is the course at RACV Cape Schanck on the southernmost tip of the Mornington Peninsula, rising fourteen rungs on the Victoria ladder to #34 (and new at #83 in the national chart). Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jnr. and opened for play almost forty years ago, this tree-lined track is characterised by huge putting surfaces and enormous, open bunker complexes on holes which are routed around discreet residential clusters. Rosebud Another big move in the upper half on the Victoria table comes from the North course at the 36-hole Rosebud Country Club (up seventeen to #39 and new at #97 nationally). The North was the first 18-hole layout to appear at the club in 1965, with the South unveiled a decade later. The Australian PGA Championship was staged here in 1976, when Bill Dunk won his fifth and final PGA title in a playoff. Box Hill In the bottom half of the Victoria Top 100, the mightiest move of all is made by the course at Box Hill Golf Club, located half an hour’s drive east of Melbourne city centre, hurtling an astonishing forty places up to #54. The club dates back to 1913 but the course is of more recent vintage, with the land for the layout first leased from the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works in 1967. Four more courses make significant gains in their position by either 17 or 18 places. Anglesea The original 9-hole course at Anglesea Golf Club (up eighteen to #61) was laid out by Vern Morcom in 1951 then extended to eighteen holes a decade later. Gus Jackson and Jock Whilland then redesigned the layout when more land became available in 1968. Unusually, the club organizes “Kangaroo Tours” during peak season for people who would rather watch mobs of Eastern Grey marsupials in their natural habitat than play golf! Mildura The origins of the course at the Mildura Golf Resort (up seventeen to #70) can be traced as far back as 1912, when the Midura Golf Club moved from its former location. Vern Morcom made recommendations in the 1950s, Sloan Morpeth was involved in the 1960s and Kevin Hartley carried out some work in the 1970s. The David Shearer Design Group then carried out a major redesign which involved a residential element in 2011. Lang Lang Also improving its position by seventeen places to #81, the course at Lang Lang Golf Club has been in operation since the club relocated to its current position in 1960, though the club is thirty-five years older. Apparently, professionals George Naismith and Bill Walker designed the layout, charging the club nothing for their efforts! Mount Derrimut One place below Lang Lang at #82, Mount Derrimut Golf & Community Club (formerly known as the Sunshine Golf Club) climbs eighteen places from its previous position at #100. The club relocated to its current site in 2007, bringing in Craig Parry and Pacific Coast Design to set out the new course, and they retained many historic old walls and buildings on the property during construction. Centenary Park There’s only one new entry to the Victoria Top 100 and it’s the 18-hole layout at Centenary Park Golf Course at #86. Situated outside Frankton, the municipal golf facility was once positioned within this Melbourne suburb but the local authority decided to relocate it 1975, renaming it to its current appellation eleven years later. The course that drops out from the rankings (to become a GEM) is Kyneton [which was at #96]. View the Queensland ranking here View the Victoria ranking here If you have any comment to make on the above article then please use the “WRITE A RESPONSE” link at the bottom of this page. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

Queensland and Victoria Best in State Rankings 2017 We revise our listings for the final two Australian states in our biennial update process This is the third and final article associated with our Australian state revisions. Previously, we’ve looked at the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales, followed by Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. With this announcement covering Queensland and Victoria, it means that we’ve now revised seven of our regions Down Under. Northern Territory is the only Australian state or territory that we haven’t updated, simply because we feature only one course in that sparsely populated region. There are fewer than a dozen golf facilities registered with Golf NT, the local governing body, for a population that numbers around a quarter of a million so we’re happy for the time being to focus on just the one track, Alice Springs. We’ve increased the number of courses in our Queensland chart by 50% so we now have a Top 30 for this state. The Victoria chart has also had fifteen courses added to it so we maintain a Top 60 for a very strong golfing region where more than half the ranked courses are listed nationally, with the top three also occupying positions in our World Top 100. Queensland The topography of Queensland along its Pacific seaboard is reminiscent of Florida, with low lying areas, lagoons and wetlands strung out along the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast to the north and south of Brisbane. This has resulted in the construction of many modern, resort-style golf courses and these largely dominate the golfing landscape within the state. Royal Queensland is something of a shining light in the Sunshine State, retaining its place at the top of our newly extended chart. This 1920s Carnegie Clark design – which hosted the Australian Open three times between 1947 and 1973 – was extensively remodelled by Mike Clayton in 2007 when part of the course was used during the construction of the enormous Sir Leo Hielscher Bridge nearby. A couple of layouts make steady progress near the top of the listings: Hamilton Island (up two to number 3) is a very challenging Peter Thomson track with the reputation of a punishing layout due to its narrow fairways, and Grand (up six to number 5), where the course will celebrate twenty years of continuous operation next year, having spent the previous six years lying dormant within a failed business venture. The only other course to make a positive move up the chart is the Palms course at the 36-hole Sanctuary Cove complex (up three to number 10), which is available for public play. Unveiled in the late 1980s, the course complements the private Arnold Palmer-designed Pines course at the same facility, having undergone a costly renovation by Ross Watson six years ago. Further down the chart, the two highest of our ten new entries appear together. The first of these is Brisbane at number 15, another course that was laid out by the three-time Australian Open champion Carnegie Clark at the start of the twentieth century, and its greens have all recently been rebuilt after a three-year program to convert every putting surface to Champion Ultradwarf Bermuda Grass. One place lower at number 16, the Gold and Green nines at the 27-hole RACV Royal Pines Resort also make their first appearance in our regional chart. Originally designed by Tomojiro Maruyama in the late 1980s for a Japanese developer, the course has since been redesigned by Graham Marsh and it’s the current venue for the Australian PGA Championships, which we relocated here in 2013. Rank/ To view further details of the Top 30 Golf Courses in Queensland click the link. Victoria Many of the nation’s finest courses are concentrated on the Melbourne sandbelt, in the southern suburbs of the city. Alister MacKenzie travelled here at the end of 1926 to design Royal Melbourne’s new course and the club’s committee was astute enough to offset the architect’s fees by arranging advisory visits to other clubs in the area, ensuring a more widespread dissemination of his considerable architectural skills. MacKenzie worked on his design with Alex Russell, the 1924 Australian Open champion, and they brought Mick Morcom (the Royal Melbourne greenkeeper) into the process, entrusting him to translate their strategic plans from the drawing board into the desired natural-looking features on the ground. In particular, the style and placement of the bunker complexes is as demanding as you will find anywhere. It’s no real surprise then to find that our chart for the state of Victoria is headed by the West course at Royal Melbourne, MacKenzie’s original commission. Interestingly, despite its consistently high ranking in World Top 100 charts, a composite 18-hole layout (using holes from both the West and Alex Russel’s East course) is often employed for logistical reasons during major golf tournaments hosted by the club. Victoria rises two places to number 3 and this is one of the additional clubs that Alister MacKenzie gave guidance to ninety years ago during his Australian trip. It just so happened that founder Billy Mead and Club Captain Oscar Damon were in the process of constructing a new course at that time and the timely intervention of MacKenzie led to the redesign of at least half the holes on the layout. Also climbing two places to number 8, Woodlands is another sandbelt course that’s been in use for just over a hundred years. The club was originally founded as Mordialloc Golf Club in 1913 and a second nine was added to the club’s inaugural 9-hole course five years after its formation. Apart from the addition of the short 11th hole in 1936, today’s course is much the same as it was a century ago. Ten kilometres to the north of Woodlands, another couple of adjacent golf courses each advance an impressive four places in the new Victoria listings: Commonwealth (at number 11) owes much of its architectural significance to Sloan Morpeth, secretary/manager at the club between 1930 and 1962, and Huntingdale (at number 16) is where thirty editions of the Australian Masters tournament were hosted up until 2008, when a rotation system was introduced to stage the event at different Melbourne clubs annually. A little further down the chart, the National Golf Club’s Long Island course makes a significant jump up the Victoria standings, rising ten places to number 22. The layout’s a recent club acquisition, with the eighty-year-old course at Frankton North joining the more modern Moonah, Old and Ocean courses at Cape Schanck in a very impressive 72-hole Mornington Peninsula roster. With more than 3,200 members on its books, you can see why the club now needs four 18-hole courses to satisfy demand. The honour of highest new entry among the fifteen chart newcomers rests with Curlewis, which debuts at number 30. Located on the Bellarine Peninsula, the course is a 1970 Vern Morcom design that was recently upgraded by Mike Clayton, when he removed trees on some of the doglegged holes and installed new tee positions on others. A recent change of ownership might lead to further course modifications, which in turn could see the course improve its current position when we next re-rank the state chart. We should also mention that the in-state positioning of both Peninsula Kingswood's North and South courses are arbitrary. Since we defined our Australian Top 100, the North course (ranked #25 in Australia) went under the Ogilvy Clayton Cocking Mead knife and the club's members are currently playing a composite course at their Peninsula site. We anticipate that both courses will rise significantly in the Victoria state rankings next time round. To view further details of the Top 60 Golf Courses in Victoria click the link. We actively seek feedback when we conduct our regional re-rankings so why not get in touch to let us know what you think? If you’d like to correspond regarding either of these two Australian state chart updates then please click the “Respond to this article” link at the top or at the bottom of this page to share your opinion. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

Queensland and Victoria Best in State Rankings 2021 After publishing our Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales rankings last week, it’s now time to turn our attention to the updated state listings for Queensland and Victoria. We’re adding another ten tracks to our Queensland chart to create a new Top 40 and we’re pushing the boat out a tad further for Victoria by launching a Top 100 for this state, which is what we’ve just done for NSW. Casting the net further and deeper gives us more of a chance to promote places that might normally miss out. Of course, we’re all about highlighting the very best courses in any geographical area but it’s often nice to stray just a little bit away from the elite level to discover one or two lurkers – especially in the more remote regions – that fully deserve closer inspection. Let’s get cracking then with Queensland, where we start off with a new No.1… Queensland The course at Brookwater Golf & Country Club outside Brisbane rises one place from the runner-up slot to take over at the top of the Queensland standings. Designed by Bob Harrison when he was lead architect for Greg Norman Golf Course Design early in the new millennium, the course was softened somewhat by Norman’s firm a few years ago thanks to the removal of trees, grass plantings and rough. Greens were also upgraded with new playing surfaces which were reshaped and re-contoured, along with new drainage lines. Brookwater Golf & Country Club It’s still a tough track, but it’s one that recent reviewers really enjoyed playing: “the visuals are simply extraordinary, breath taking, the smells, the sounds, the scenery is all consuming… I’ll never forget the challenge and the experience; it was the best course I’ve played and that includes every good track in Melbourne… this course is not for the faint hearted and will clearly favour the player with a strong ball flight… Brookwater is a very impressive course, but it is tough!” Climbing three places to #3, the course at Hamilton Island Golf Club on Dent Island is a Peter Thomson/Ross Perrett co-design that’s strung out across spectacular ridges and steep valleys, presenting golfers with a challenging test from start to finish – and there’s plenty of fabulous views of the surrounding Whitsunday Islands and Coral Sea to enjoy along the way. The logistics of planning and constructing this island layout defy description but the concerted efforts to make it all happen on such a difficult site are to be greatly admired. Hamilton Island Golf Club The biggest upward move in our new Queensland rankings is made by the Robert Trent Jones Jr-designed course at the Palmer Coolum Resort next to Yarooma Beach (advancing nine places to #13), which is the chart position it held two revisions ago. It’s true to say the resort, owned by controversial billionaire Clive Palmer, has endured something of a torrid time in the last few years, but the golf course is definitely on the mend. Conditioning is still not perfect but the bones of this strong layout remain for all to enjoy. Palmer Coolum Resort The highest chart newcomer at #27 lies two hundred kilometres south of Coolum and it’s another Palmer-owned layout at the Palmer Colonial Resort in Robina. Originally opened as Paradise Springs in the early 1990s, at the height of the Australian golf boom, this 18-hole layout was designed by Mitsuaki Kobayashi for the Japanese development company that built the resort, with fairways routed around several lily-adorned lakes. Palmer Colonial Resort Incidentally, astute observers will note there are actually twelve new entries for Queensland in the table below (not ten as previously mentioned) because the closure of the North Lakes and Paradise Palms courses has resulted in those two dropping out of our state listings, replaced by another two. Rank/ Click the link to see full details of our latest Queensland Top 40 rankings. Victoria There are no surprises near the top of the Victoria state rankings where the leading three positions are occupied by World Top 100-ranked tracks. All three courses remain in the same place which means the West course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Blackrock retains its #1 status. Royal Melbourne West course Mark White, one of our regular contributors, wrote this in his course review for the West: “the bunkering throughout the course is superb… rarely can one get up and down from the greenside bunkers. The greens are excellent, they are well shaped, the appropriate size for the required shot into them… it is a gem of a course and clearly the best in Australia and one of the best in the world.” Rising nine places to #4, the North course at Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club in Frankston makes significant progress in our revised state standings. Since Peninsula Country Golf Club and Kingswood Golf Club merged in 2013, the combined club has gone from strength to strength, thanks mainly to the brilliant course makeover on both the North and South courses that was carried out by Ogilvy Clayton Cocking Mead between 2016 and 2018 (before Mile Clayton left to join forces with Mike DeVries and Frank Pont in a new design firm). Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club North course The Gunnamatta course at The National Golf Club soars an incredible fourteen places to #6 after the wonderful refurbishment of the club’s former Ocean course at Cape Schanck by Tom Doak and his team at Renaissance Golf Design. Greens were rebuilt and re-shaped, the routing altered and bunkers reduced in size and number, prompting one recent reviewer to write: “Doak took the old Ocean course, which was a bit soulless and, quite frankly, joyless, and built a course full of guile and charm, rather than brute strength and punishment.” The National Golf Club Gunnamatta course Further down the table, the course at Sorrento Golf Club reverses a four-place fall two years ago by moving seven spots in the opposite direction to #26. The club’s 18-hole layout was brought into play in 1929 and was then modified by Peter Thomson and Mike Wolveridge in the 1970s but it’s the improvement work currently undertaken by Crafter + Mogford Golf Strategies that is really capturing the attention of seasoned observers as the design firm strives to realize the full potential of this outstanding members’ course. Sorrento Golf Club The highest new entry in our Victoria Top 100, arriving at #37, is the course at Lonsdale Links in Point Lonsdale. The club’s original 9-hole layout was set by George Lowe Jr. – the professional at nearby Barwon Heads and son of George Lowe who designed Royal Lytham & St Annes – exactly 100 years ago in 1921. Vern Morcom expanded the layout in the mid-1950s before it was subsequently redesigned when additional lakeside land was acquired. Lonsdale Links - photo courtesy Airswing Media A variety of further modifications have taken place since the 1980s, but it’s the startling remodel by Ogilvy Cocking Mead that’s caught quite a few people by surprise. OCM has created a southern hemisphere version of C.B. Macdonald’s National Golf Links of America on Long Island – albeit on a more modest scale on the Bellarine Peninsula – which features classic template holes like the Redan and Biarritz, giving unsuspecting Australian golfers a flavour of some classic Golden Age design. Click the link to see full details of our latest Victoria Top 100 rankings. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses