Kingston Heath Golf Club pushes Royal Melbourne – and in some opinions exceeds it – as the premier course in Australian golf.
Overall rating
5.5
Kingston Heath Golf Club pushes Royal Melbourne – and in some opinions exceeds it – as the premier course in Australian golf.
The West course at Royal Melbourne gets all the accolades, but Kingston Heath's pure 18-hole layout could be even better than its neighbour. We'll leave that debate to you.
Dan Soutar designed Kingston Heath in 1925 and the course is located in the famous sand belt region of Melbourne, Victoria. The famed Dr Alister MacKenzie was also brought in to offer bunker advice and guidance. In the view of many, he created the best natural bunkering one would ever wish to encounter. MacKenzie also suggested some minor alterations to the original Soutar layout, including turning the 15th from a short par four into a medium par three – and what a par three it is! The deep bunkers tend to overwhelm the small target and you should definitely try and avoid them by hitting the green at all costs.
The challenge begins with a demanding long par four, which is soon followed by Kingston Heath's shortest par four and the variation in length is compelling to say the least. Both can be equally damaging to the scorecard and the latter proves that a dual combination of tight bunkering and slick greens can be just as lethal as length. Modern course designers tend to forget about the strength of a tactical short par four, believing that length is necessary to combat modern-day equipment. When we encounter the 3rd at Kingston Heath, we realise that nothing can be further from the truth. It is the ultimate risk and reward hole and always leaves an indelible impression on those who try and overpower it – either successfully or unsuccessfully.
The same can be said for the rest of the course, as Kingston Heath is an ultimate example of strategic golf. The long par four 6th, which runs parallel to the 1st and heads back towards the clubhouse, is one of the best par fours in the country.
The last five finishing holes are probably, as a collection, the best in all Australian championship golf. The strategic par five 14th is followed by the mercurial par three 15th. You’re then faced with three long par fours, all around the 400-metre mark. The dogleg right par four 16th is followed by a blind par four 17th with no bunkers surrounding the green. A tough and long par four finishes off your round. These holes will ask questions of you and they require all facets of your game combined into three words: pinpoint accurate golf.
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
Kingston Heath is a classic design that has stood the test of time and it certainly rates among the best courses in Australia and the world. With nearby neighbours such as Royal Melbourne (West and East), Metropolitan, Victoria and Commonwealth to name a few, we think that you will find no better place in Australia to play golf than here on Melbourne's sand belt.
For 30 years, the Australian Masters was held at Huntingdale Golf Club in Victoria, but in 2009 the event was switched to Kingston Heath. The 2009 event saw world No.1, Tiger Woods, aiming to win his first ever stroke play title in Australia. After a final round 68, Woods lifted the 2009 Australian Masters title, and joked, “now I've won on every continent, except for Antarctica”. Woods went on to say: “All the guys have raved about this golf course and I understand why. I really enjoy playing on sandbelt courses because it brings back shot-making and we don't see enough of that.”
The World Cup of golf visited Kingston Heath in 2016 and the Danish duo, Søren Kjeldsen and Thorbjørn Olesen, dominated the event to claim Denmark’s first World Cup triumph. The Danes carded an astonishing 12-under par 60 in strong southwesterly winds on Friday, by which time Kjeldsen had fallen under Kingston Heath’s spell: “This is my favorite type of golf. You've got to control the ball and look at the angles. You don't just get up and whack it, you've got to think your way around.”
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Victoria, Australia
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