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].
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Jim McCann
Editor
Top 100 Golf Courses
