It’s three years since we last updated our Top 100 for Down Under rankings so it’s high time we remedied that situation. With an all-new panel on board, we’ve taken a fresh look at what’s been happening in Australia since the start of 2021 and this latest chart revision hopefully provides an accurate picture of what we found.
There are twelve new entries so the same number of courses drop out, of course. Thirty-one layouts move up, forty-seven drop down and ten remain in the same position, including the top three tracks (which have been in the exact same order since the third edition of these Antipodean listings was published back in 2012).
We’ll take a look now at the more notable upward moves, along with a mention of our highest new entry, arriving comfortably inside the top half of the revised standings.
Royal Melbourne
But first, the most prominent of the non-movers is the West course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, which still stands tall as the #1 course in the country. Designed by Alister MacKenzie in the mid-1920s, with subsequent input from both Mick Morcom and Alex Russell, this fabulous layout also occupies the #6 spot in our World Top 100 so you know it’s one of the very best on the planet.
Review comments last year included: “a special place… from start to finish there’s not a weak hole… golf the way it’s meant to be played… what a MacKenzie treat this was… a masterpiece that more than lived up to expectations… simply a world class golf course that keeps you on your toes the whole way round.”
The two non-movers at #2 and #3 are Kingston Heath and Barnbougle Dunes, respectively.
Barnbougle Lost Farm
The other 18-hole layout at Barnbougle in Tasmania, Lost Farm, rises two places to #5, reversing a fall of one position during the last Australian re-ranking exercise. Designed by the Coore & Crenshaw design company and opened for play more than a decade ago now, this course is actually preferred to the Dunes course by quite a few of the golfers who make the trip to play here.
And now that there’s another new kid on the golfing block at Barnbougle after the unveiling last year of Bill Coore’s stunning 14-hole Bougle Run short course, this resort has now transitioned into a 50-hole must play destination.
Peninsula Kingswood
Another 2-place climber in the Top 10 is the North course at the Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club in Frankston (now at #8) which underwent an extensive renovation just a few short years ago. Along with the South course (up four to #20), this layout forms a formidable 36-hole offering at a very progressive club that was only founded eleven years ago following the amalgamation of Peninsula Country GC and Kingswood GC.
Yarra Yarra
The course at Yarra Yarra Golf Club in Bentley (rising five to #26) was Alex Russell’s first solo design effort back in 1929. Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design firm was brought in a few years ago to restore the course across several planned phases, with Brian Slawnik primarily overseeing the alteration of greens and reconstruction of bunkers.
Portsea
Also progressing five places (to #44) the course at Portsea Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula dates back exactly 100 years to when it started out as a 9-hole layout in 1924.Holes wind their way through, over and around rolling sand dunes, where lush Santa Ana couch fairways are bordered by native vegetation of moonah trees and coastal grasses.
Ogilvy Cocking Mead have been consulting here for a while, reinstating a 19th hole, as well as assisting with smaller projects and bunker reshaping. OCM will continue to work with the club this year on mowing lines and native vegetation issues.
Port Fairy
One step in the ladder above Portsea at #43, the links layout at Port Fairy Golf Club advances an impressive eight positions. The club moved to its present location in the mid-1960s, with members playing on a 9-hole layout that was extended to eighteen holes in 1985. Kevin Hartley remodelled the course in the early 1990s and Mike Clayton has carried out further improvements in the new millennium.
Three courses all move forward nine places in the new listings.
Pelican Waters
The first of these tracks is the 18-hole layout at Pelican Waters Golf Club (at #59) in the Golden Beach area of Queensland, near Caloundra. This Greg Norman-designed course has just undergone a significant upgrade with the introduction of distinctive new holes (at the 10th 17th and 18th) and a short game practice area to complement a new, open-plan clubhouse.
Links Lady Bay
Also climbing nine rungs on the national ladder is the course at the Links Lady Bay Golf Resort (now at #65) which lies an hour’s drive out of Adelaide. Set out by Jack Newton, Graeme Grant and John Spencer at the start of the new millennium, this course provides players with a lovely links-like golf experience, offering wonderful views along the Fleurieu coastline. In the regional tables, Links Lady Bay also moves up to #6 in South Australia, swapping places with Mount Compass.
13th Beach
The third course heading up the chart by nine points is the Creek at 13th Beach Golf Links outside Barwon Heads (now at #67). Co-designed by Tony Cashmore and Nick Faldo more than twenty years ago, this 18-hole layout is the perfect foil to the more highly acclaimed Beach course (ranked #29) at the same golf complex. On any given day, members play one course with guests accommodated on the other.
Curlewis
The biggest upward move in our new standings is made by the course at Curlewis Golf Club on the Bellarine Peninsula, which soars an incredible twenty-one places up to #70. Originally planned by Vern Morcom in the late 1940s, the course didn’t actually get going until 1970. A couple of local businessmen took over the business in 2015, investing heavily in the layout and off-course infrastructure since then.
Lonsdale Links
Drive 20 minutes south of Curlewis and you will arrive at Point Lonsdale, where the highest newcomer to our new national chart resides, namely Lonsdale Links (new at #34). The club can trace its roots back to 1921 when a 9-hole course was originally set out then, as more land became available, the layout was gradually expanded to eighteen holes by 1954.
A lot has changed since then (with routing changes, holes added and taken away) but it wasn’t until the extensive re-design by OCM in 2020 that the course really arrived on the golfing map. Adhering to many of the Golden Age of golf course architecture principles, the design firm has created what amounts to Australia’s equivalent of NGLA in the United States, featuring a host of classic template holes such as Redan, Biarritz and Double Plateau.
The other eleven new entries in our chart are:
Barnbougle Bougle Run [#57], Sandy Golf Links [#74], Capricorn [#76], Horizons [#82], RACV Cape Schanck [#83], Cypress Lakes [#86], Kooralbyn Valley [#90], Gold Creek [#95], Rosebud (North) [#97], Federal [#98] and Horsham [#100].
And the dozen layouts making way for these newcomers are:
Lakelands [#83], Sanctuary Cove (Palms) [#86], Secret Harbour [#87], Murray Downs [#88], RACV Royal Pines (Gold & Green) [#92], Twin Creeks [#93], Mollymook (Hilltop) [#94], Arundel Hills [#96], Brisbane [#97], Eynesbury [#98], Twin Waters [#99] and Royal Fremantle [#100].
Postscript
The new Clayton Devries & Pont-designed 7 Mile Beach course near Hobart is due to open at the end of this year, with the much-delayed golf project at nearby Arm End still at an early stage of development. Ogilvy Cocking Mead told us the installation of a 7-km recycled water supply pipe should be finished this summer, allowing work on golf course infrastructure to commence thereafter.
We understand construction work has started on a new Darius Oliver development atop the cliffs on Kangaroo Island in South Australia with a target opening date for the end of next year.
Don’t be surprised if all three developments were to appear in the next edition of the Australia Top 100 chart.
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Jim McCann
Editor
Top 100 Golf Courses
