Moonah Links (Legends) - Victoria - Australia

Just a fun course to play

Scenic, playable yet testing; the Legends course is a great track on exceptional golf land. The course has a number of great moments, especially when passing through the tree-lined sections beginning and ending the round. The holes in the middle of the course, while being spectacular, didn't leave me as impressed.

The strength of the Legends course is as a logical partner to the accompanying Open course. The two courses compliment each other well, with the Legends course being a relatively fun and relaxed affair. Risk is rewarded, yet safer options generally are obvious. The conditioning of the course was also excellent when I played.

Moonah Links Resort is located in the heart of The Mornington Peninsula an hour south of Melbourne. It boasts luxury accommodation and sporting facilties including 36 holes of championship links golf. The two courses are known as The Open, and The Legends courses.

The Legends Course is the younger of the two, and was designed by Ross Perrett from Thomson, Wolveridge & Perrett and opened for play in 2003. Perrett did a terrific job providing a second course with an entirely different feel to it's big sister.

The terrain is more varied and Perrett has used it to great advantage and produced a course that is testing, but fun to play. It is shorter (6315 metres from the back markers) and the perfect partner to The Open Course. Each hole on the course is named after a golfing legend- it's a nice touch!

Whilst The Open Course is set in a vast dunescape of epic proportions, The Legends has a more intimate feel with delightful short par 4's setting the tone, rather than epic par 4's. In this regard holes 2, 4, 11 & 15 are memorable, and fun to play.

I love the start at The Legends- the first hole sets the scene for a grand adventure with an impressively bunkered rolling par 5. Turn the corner and you face a short par 4 which will test your accuracy- it's a tight, shallow green in a lovely setting. And in the background you can see a sea of sand waiting for you on the par 3, third.. Welcome to The Legends!

Notable holes include:

- the epic par 5 opening hole (Aaron Baddeley), a beautfully bunkered adventure from tee to green
- the short par 4 second hole (Steve Elkington) which requires a deadly accurate approach to a small tightly bunkered green
- the mid length par 3 third hole (Tom Watson) plays from elevated tee to an elevated green with a sea of sand in the valley between
- the short dogleg 4th hole (Greg Norman) which has an elevated tee shot, down to a valley and then up again to an elevated green
- the nicely bunkered par 5 ninth hole (Gary Player), which has a lovely green setting surrounded by trouble
- the driveable par 4 eleventh (Bobby Locke) demands a decision on the tee- lay up or take it on?
- the dogleg par 4 fifteenth hole (Jim Ferrier) with a truly scary approach over a minefield of bunkers to an elevated green

The Legends course has proved the more popular of the two courses with both members and public over nearly twenty years, and has always been my favourite of the two. It is just a fun course to play

Peter Wood is the founder of The Travelling Golfer – click the link to read his full review.

Played the course on a windy day and thought the layout was outstanding. Some really challenging holes from the opening par 5 which was extremely difficult and some beautiful short par 3, I can remember that playing the last hole into a gale I hit driver 3 wood and wedge into a par 4 and made a nice 5. Play it on a sunny day with little wind and you will really enjoy playing there, great fairways, nice bunkering, and good fast greens to put on. Also the club house is pretty impressive

It was a total blast playing The Legends course Moonah links. Mark, Luke and I were meant to play here and I'll definitely have to bring them back to complete the other magical 18 holes at the Home of Golf. The Legends Course. Names like Thompson, Norman and Baddley are who the holes are named after just to name a few. Stunning track and well worth the effort to play here

This course is on another planet of golf, to give 6 balls the course needs to be truly outstanding amongst the best in the world and this course is. The care taken to make this course outstanding is phenomenal. I don’t think I have played on better fairways or on smoother greens.

The Greens run fast and true, giant green after green leave you wondering what you can do to make par with regulation golf. The fairways are firm, well kept and fast, any drawn ball will run on and and fade will end up in a bunker. The bunkers are on another planet, stay well clear to play to your handicap.

This place is truly a golfing challenge and adventure, the precision needed off the tee is only matched by the delicate touch needed on the greens. No golfing visit to Melbourne is complete without a trip the Moonah!

I have to disagree with the ratings. The Legends course at Moonah is a great golf course. Far better than most if not all the much more famed sandbelt courses in Melbourne. I've played nearly all of them and The Legends was better. I haven't played the open course at Moonah, (yet), but I have walked around it a few times. Just on viewing I'd prefer The Legends. Of course it is all subjective and perhaps it matters that I was playing well on the day but I play a lot of golf across a lot of courses. I'm telling you .... you must play The Legends.