Royal Melbourne Golf Club (West)

Australian Open winners at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club:

Wayne Riley (Aus) 1991,

Greg Norman (Aus) 1987,

Greg Norman (Aus) 1985,

Tom Watson (USA) 1984,

Gary Player (SA) 1963,

Norman von Nida (Aus) 1953,

Jim Ferrier (Aus) 1939,

Lou Kelly (Aus) 1933,

Rufus Stewart (SA) 1927,

Alex Russell (Aus) 1924,

Arthur Le Fevre (Aus) 1921,

Ivo Whitton (Aus) 1913,

Ivo Whitton (Aus) 1912,

Claude Felstead (Aus) 1909,

Michael Scott (Aus) 1907,

Dan Soutar (Aus) 1905.

The West golf course of Royal Melbourne Golf Club is widely regarded as one of the best golf courses in Australia and is designed by Alister MacKenzie in 1926, and was finally completed in 1931.

Melbourne Golf Club was first founded in 1891, and in 1895 the club was granted Royal status by Queen Victoria. In 1901 the club relocated to Sandringham, where it hosted 28 national championships, both amateur and professional, for both men and women. MacKenzie was brought in to consult the location of a new course at Black Rock, and in 1926 he produced his orginal layout and design. This design became the West course, one of MacKenzie's most iconic designs, notable others include Augusta National, Crystal Downs and Cypress Point, all of which feature in our World Top 100.

The Royal Melbourne's West course is considered to be the epitomization in the Sandbelt. It was one of these golf courses Tom Doak was thinking about when the course was mentioned in his essay: "If only Melbourne were not that far from America The standards of American golf course design could be better. If the two countries were close but it's very likely that America could have dragged Australian standards to a lower standard."

The passage above is a short edited excerpt of The Finest Golf Courses of Asia and Australasia by James Spence. Reprinted with kind permission.