Royal Melbourne Golf Club is a 36-hole golf club in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, located in Black Rock,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, a suburb southeast of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. Its West and East courses are respectively ranked number 1 and 6 in Australia. The West course is ranked in the top-five courses in the world. Founded in 1891, it is Australia's oldest extant and continually existing golf club. Unlike many metropolitan golf venues, The Royal Melbourne Golf Club has a capacity for 15,000 spectators. Royal Melbourne has hosted numerous national and international events. Its 16

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

s are surpassed by only the 17 hosted by

The Australian Golf Club The Australian Golf Club is a golf club located in Rosebery, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Although it survived numerous course location changes, it is arguably the oldest golf club in Australia. To date the course has held 20 Australian Open ...

. It hosted the 1959 Canada Cup (now Mission Hills World Cup), and the 1972 World Cup. Royal Melbourne hosted the

Bicentennial Classic The Johnnie Walker Australian Classic was a golf tournament held in Australia from 1988 to 1992. It was first played as the Bicentennial Classic to celebrate the Australian Bicentenary. From 1989 it was sponsored by United Distillers, using their ...

, a tournament to celebrate the

Australian Bicentenary The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1988. It marked 200 years since the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788. History The bicentennial year marked Captain Arthur Phillip's arrival with the 11 ships ...

in 1988. It was selected by the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

to hold the

Presidents Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

, for the first time outside the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, in December

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. The match was convincingly won by the International team, captained by

Peter Thomson Peter Thomson may refer to: * Peter Thomson (golfer) (1929–2018), Australian golfer * Peter Thomson (diplomat) (born 1948), Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations * Peter Thomson (footballer) (born 1977), English footballer * Peter ...

, an honorary member of Royal Melbourne. The course hosted the Presidents Cup again in November

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, won by the

and December

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. It was the site of the

Women's Australian Open The Women's Australian Open is a women's professional golf tournament played in Australia, operated by Golf Australia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia, long co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). Beginning with the 2012 event, it is ...

for the first time in February

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, now an

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekl ...

event, and it returned three years later in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

History

Founded in 1891 as the Melbourne Golf Club ("Royal" prefix given in 1895), the founding president was politician Sir

James MacBain Sir James MacBain (19 April 1828 – 4 November 1892) was a politician in colonial Victoria (Australia), President of the Victorian Legislative Council. MacBain was the youngest son of Smith MacBain, of Invergordon, Ross-shire, Scotland, and ...

, and the founding captain was businessman

John Munro Bruce John Munro Bruce (10 October 1840 – 4 May 1901) was an Australian businessman. He was born in Ireland to Scottish parents and arrived in the colony of Victoria at the age of 18. He became the managing director and eventual majority shareholder ...

(father of Australian prime minister

Stanley Bruce Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, (15 April 1883 – 25 August 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929, as leader of the Nationalist Party. Born ...

). The principal founding members included P.K. (Patrick Kinney) McCaughan, a New Zealand pastoralist, parliamentarian, businessman and developer and proprietor of the Old Rialto Hotel building in Collins Street. The club had to give up its original site at Caulfield, much nearer the city centre, because of increasing urbanization. A new links, the "West course", was started at

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places * Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia * Sandringham, Queensland, Australia * Sandringham, Victoria, Australia **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station **Electoral district of Sandringham * Sand ...

in 1898. It planned a move to its present location in the mid-1920s. Royal Melbourne's two current courses are known as the "West" and "East" courses. The West course was designed under the strict standards of famous course architect

Alister MacKenzie Alister MacKenzie (30 August 1870 – 6 January 1934) was a golf course architect whose course designs span four continents. Originally trained as a surgeon, MacKenzie served as a civilian physician with the British Army during the Boer War ...

. He visited the eventual site, located on the renowned

Melbourne Sandbelt The Melbourne Sandbelt is a region in southeastern Melbourne, Australia, known for its sandy soil. Several significant golf courses are located in the region. Location The Melbourne Sandbelt is a rough triangle extending from Brighton, Victoria ...

, south of the city, in 1926. The actual building of the West course was overseen by the famed Australian golfer Alex Russell, as well as the head greenkeeper Mick Morcom; it was completed for play in 1931. The East course was designed by Russell, and was completed in 1932.''

The World Atlas of Golf ''The World Atlas of Golf: The Greatest Courses and How They Are Played'' is a golf reference book. First released in 1976, it was reprinted in 1988, 1991, 1998, 2003, and 2008. The book describes 75 course with illustrations, history, archite ...

'', second, revised edition, by

Herbert Warren Wind Herbert Warren Wind (August 11, 1916 – May 30, 2005) was an American sportswriter noted for his writings on golf. Early years Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Wind began golf at age seven at the Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton, and played w ...

, Charles Price, and

, London 1988, Mitchell Beazley publishers.

Features

A combination comprising 18 holes from both the East and West courses that are limited to the main property ("paddock") is known as the "Composite" course. There have been 21 holes used in the history of the "Composite" course, from 1959 to 2011, depending on the event being held. The East course is less known compared to its world-renowned sister course, but it has still been held in very high regard since its completion. The West course has several holes that are celebrated internationally, but they are not long compared to the current standards for championship par 4s and 5s. The course is strictly landlocked by existing boundaries, which is why these holes have not been greatly extended in recent decades. Significant restoration of the West course (and East course Composite holes), as well as minor lengthening, took place leading up to the 2011 Presidents Cup. As a secondary measure to lengthening, fairway grasses were changed to Legend Couch. This was in order to restrict the progress of the golf ball along the ground. However the Legend Couch was ultimately considered to be an inferior playing surface and has been oversown with Wintergreen Couch.

Tournaments hosted

* 1896 Australian Amateur *1897 Australian Amateur *1898 Australian Amateur *1902 Australian Amateur *1905

*1905 Australian Amateur *1905

Australian PGA Championship The Australian PGA Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia. It is the home tournament of the Australian PGA. Since 2000 it has been held in the South East Queensland region. The tournament was part of the OneAsia Tour fro ...

* 1907 Australian Open *1907 Australian Amateur *1907 Australian PGA Championship * 1909 Australian Open *1909 Australian Amateur * 1912 Australian Open *1912 Australian Amateur * 1913 Australian Open *1913 Australian Amateur * 1921 Australian Open *1921 Australian Amateur * 1924 Australian Open *1924 Australian PGA Championship *1924 Australian Amateur * 1927 Australian Open *1927 Australian Amateur *1927 Australian PGA Championship * 1933 Australian Open *1933 Australian Amateur *1933 Australian PGA Championship * 1939 Australian Open *1939 Australian Amateur *1939 Australian PGA Championship *1947 Australian PGA Championship *1951 Australian Amateur * 1953 Australian Open *1953 Australian PGA Championship *1961 Australian Amateur * 1963 Australian Open *1965

Victorian Open The Vic Open is an annual golf tournament held in Australia. It was founded in 1957 and is the Victoria state open championship for men. It is run by Golf Victoria and is a Golf Australia national ranking event. The event is held concurrently ...

*1965 Australian Amateur *1978 Australian PGA Championship *1979 Australian PGA Championship *1980 Australian PGA Championship *1981 Australian PGA Championship *1982 Australian PGA Championship *1983 Australian PGA Championship * 1984 Australian Open * 1985 Australian Open * 1987 Australian Open * 1991 Australian Open *2005 Australian Amateur *2012

*2013 Australian Masters *2015 Women's Australian Open *2019 President's Cup

References

External links

*
Course Profile on Golf AustraliaGreat Golf Australia
– Royal Melbourne Golf Club * {{Authority control Golf clubs and courses in Victoria (Australia) Golf clubs and courses designed by Alister MacKenzie Sporting clubs in Melbourne Sports venues in Melbourne 1891 establishments in Australia Sports venues completed in 1891 Presidents Cup venues Organisations based in Australia with royal patronage Sport in the City of Bayside Buildings and structures in the City of Bayside

History

Features

Tournaments hosted

See also

References

External links