Royal Sydney - New South Wales - Australia
Kent Road,
Rose Bay,
New South Wales,
2029,
Australia
+61 (0) 2 9371 4333
3 miles E of Sydney
Members and their guests only
Colin Hunt
Irving Kent
Colin Hunt
Royal Sydney Golf Club is more than just a golf club. With a membership of well over five thousand, it caters for the tennis, bowling and croquet fraternity as well as the golfing community and the majestic harbour-side clubhouse, lawn tennis courts, bowling greens, croquet lawns and championship golf course all give Royal Sydney the well earned reputation of a centre for sporting excellence in New South Wales. Royal Sydney celebrated its centenary in 1993 and the championship course has evolved over one hundred years into one of the finest in the country. The original 9-hole layout was situated in Concord but within five years, members decamped to Bondi, where the course has remained ever since. The Australian Open was held here five times in the latter half of the twentieth century, producing a handful of home grown and international champions – Bruce Crampton (1956), Gary Player (1969), Mark Calcaveccia (1988), Rober Allenby (1994) and Aaron Baddeley (1999). Into the new millennium, and John Senden lifted the prized Stonehaven Cup in 2006, Tim Clark won in 2008 and Rory McIlroy prevailed in 2013. Measuring a cricket pitch short of 7,000 yards, Royal Sydney once had more than 350 bunkers on the property – that’s an average of one every 20 yards! Is it any wonder the bunkering was considered to be more penal than strategic? Only one in three sand hazards remain so the course is truly a fairer test these days. Greens were refurbished in the mid 1980s, again between 2001 and 2003 and in 2016 Gil Hanse was called in to perform a thorough overhaul, so the club has certainly tried to move with the times and adapt the course to the modern game. One old-fashioned design element has remained though – short par fours at the 1st and 8th holes which often flummox those not used to the finer points of course management. The toughest hole on the card is considered by many to be the 462-yard par four 11th, where the tee shot must find a landing area between a pond on the left and sand on the right of the fairway. Two bunkers protect the putting surface on the right hand side and a swale runs the length of the shelf green to the left – not many will have the luxury of two putts for par at this hole! |
Australian Open winners at Royal Sydney Golf Club: Reviews for Royal Sydney
Royal Sydney is one of Australia's great sporting complexes with Tennis, bowls, croquet, squash, a fitness centre and swimming pool all available to members!
Accommodation is available for guests of members as well, 
with some fine views to be had.
The Championship course is famous for hosting Men's and Women's Australian Open's throughout it's time in the beautiful and leafy surrounds of Rose Bay, one of Sydney's premier suburbs.
The day I was to play the course the heavens opened sadly, the course itself held up very well in these conditions, and as it's exceptionally hard to get on here (it took this writer 3 years) you don't pack up and head back to the clubhouse.
The course has one of the more interesting opening holes in Australia, a short par 4 that has an elevated tee box and has bunkers everywhere posing a problem straight away, lay up is the best option!
Speaking of bunkers the course has significantly reduced it's bunkering from yester year, but it still poses a 
threat all day and definitely makes the golfer think before their next shot.
The course runs fairly up and back with not too much directional change, or elevation, but what it lacks in these departments in more than makes up for in design of the current holes. You can see why major tournaments are held there.
Greens are a challenge and having local knowledge on the day certainly helped!
The Club is in the midst of a potential change to the course design with the great Gil Hanse reportedly undertaking the redevelop of the Championship course, for myself this could certainly see a rise in the ranking for this mighty course, and I'd certainly enjoy playing here once this change is completed.
Tyson.
I would agree very much with the below reviews. The course starts on a high with a lovely short par 4 with strategic bunkering and a tricky green with the front 9 certainly being the stronger of the two. The other short par 4 8th is a very nice hole that again requires a solid strategy. The back 9 is a bit of a slog over less interesting land. the facilities are glorious and makes me think of what an elite country club in the U.S. may appear like. Unfortunately the quality of the course does not match and although enjoyable, is well below the best in the state at NSW.
It will be interesting to see how the work at bonnie doon goes. If the original work by occm is replicated then it may well elevate itself above its more illustrious neigbours in the city.
The location of the course is remarkable, located in the bucolic eastern harbourside suburb of Rose Bay, a mere 15 minutes from the CBD and 5 minutes from Bondi Beach. That is certainly worth some consideration in terms of the overall experience of playing the course. However, because of apparent land constraints (worsened by the Club’s short course) there is not enough room to plot out the most optimal routing in order to get all the holes up towards a global elite standard. Also, there is a sense that the layout would be a much better course without trees (which might have been the case since the trees on the course don’t look like old growth original – especially the rows of what look to be a type of coniferous tree planted to create separation between some of the holes). Definitely fun to play because of the location. But void of any tee shots or approach shots that are capable of heightening anticipation with the exception of the drivable 1st hole. Still, very much worth playing.