Melbourne Golf

[CDM]

Family and I are planning on going to Melbourne / Tasmania for a few weeks In March of 2020. The main focal point of the trip is for the wife to see her sister. Currently we are looking at a 6-7 days in Melbourne and 6-7 days in Tasmania.

I can probably get in 3 rounds (prefer early morning) maybe 4 while in Melbourne. In Tasmania I plan on spending a day or two at Barnbougle. Helps they have the spa so the wife has something to do LOL.

I researched a lot online and it appears the best public access courses are in the southern belt area? I have some thoughts on the courses but I figured I would ask real players since you never really know.

Secondary is it hard to play the better private courses? Some look like the have a few day a week for allowed outside play? (could be reading it wrong) I not currently a member at a private course but probably play 70% of my rounds in the summer at private courses oddly.

Appreciate any input.

[Chanceman]

The Sandbelt is about 10 miles SE of Melbourne CBD and most courses there like Royal Melbourne, Victoria and Kingston Heath are private. Suggest you contact them and ask for a tee time, overseas visitors are usually accommodated, but I am not sure if they require you to be a club member, you will have find that out yourself.

Further out of Melbourne is a group of courses like Ranfurlie, Sandhurst and Settlers Run whch are all public access and pretty solid tracks.

About 40/50 miles out are the peninsula courses - St Andrews Beach, the Dunes and Cape Schanck and all are really good and open to the public but you would need to be staying in the area because there is a bit of travel time from the city - if I am playing one of those it takes well over an hour so an early start!

There are other cheaper options closer in such as Ivanhoe, Freeway and Sandringham (across the road from Royal and built on similar land).

Good luck!

[Malvern]

Try and arrange to play the better sand belt courses (RM/KH/Metro) outside of weekends. You will want to avoid driving, where does your SIL live, might make it easier to figure out an itinerary.

[CDM]

Thank you gentlemen. I read up on St Andrews Beach, the Dunes and Cape Schanck and others listed in that area and of them look great. I will check on getting on the top ones, but some other ones listed I was not familiar with and they look good too. Seems like you guys are spoiled with great golf in the area.

As to location, right now we are thinking of staying in the Mornington/Franskton area to split up some drive time based on plans. Any thoughts on those areas? Good area ? Bad area?

The SIL lives in Perth actually and it was her (or husbands?) Idea to meet up in Mebourne or Sydney for the week. We are picking MEL becuase of going over to Tas for a the extra days too.

So have to ask, if ....big if.... I could swing a day or two to hit up Kings Island for Dunes/Wickam is is worth it? I saby big IF as I have not tried to sneak that in on the wife LOL

[Chanceman]

Cape Wickham/Ocean Dunes is definitely worth the trip. Some operators will do a King Island/Barnbougle package if thats what you want.

Staying on the Mornington peninsula is great for the likes of St Andrews Beach and co. There's a great hotel on-course at Cape Schanck.

Frankston is about half way between the sandbelt and the peninsula. It has a somewhat dodgy reputation though!

[Malvern]

Frankston, no.
If its two families, I would rent a big house in Sorrento, kids are back at school in February so there should be plenty of places available on Airbnb. Play St Andrews, The Dunes and also write a letter to The National, 3 great courses, albeit I haven't played the new Doak course. I really like Portsea as well, old school course, just up the road from Sorrento.
Another option is to play Peninsula Kingswood (55kms from Sorrento) its getting some great reviews.
If you want to do King Island, you can get a flight out of Morabbin airport (75kms) http://www.kingislandair.com.au/index.htm. I've only flown there commercial from Tullamarine (the main Melbourne airport. I'm not sure on tee time availability in February, if possible I would leave it late to book, its out in the middle of the ocean and if its blowing a gale its better to save your cash and play the myriad of other options down the peninsula.
Pick one of the great sandbelt courses, RM, KH,Metro or Vic, maybe do one day in Melbourne, try and avoid the freeways in peak hour.

GL, hope this helps, @Chanceman I'm a Sydneysider so pick me up if anything above doesn't ring true.

[CDM]

Peninsula Kingswood looks aweseome... ! Have to look into that.

Reviewed Sorrento, looks excellent also but based on our plans adds a lot of driving. The golf I dont mind driving as I will try and get out as early as I can so we can do the family planned items after.

Thanks for input on Fankston...glad I asked LOL. Based on the responses I am open to recommendations of areas that we should look at staying. Want a place that is safe for the family that we can go out for food morning/night plus any good place to relax with loccals after a long day. Is the micro brew scene big?

A few of the items we plan on doing besides site seeing is an AFL game, Grand Prix (we would land at 6am that Sunday), beaches, Zoo/Sanctuary.

I will have to kick it around if King Island is worth it as noted. I guess I should ask, is Branbougle worth it as I do have that planned for the last few days on TAS.

 

[CDM]

I keep trying to figure out how to pull on King Island but its not easy in the schedule. Going to have work the schedule to pull it off. I checked Cape Schanck and they have no rooms available the dates we are would be there.

[Malvern]

Sounds like you want to be closer to Melbourne, I would suggest Brighton, you can nip down the peninsula against the traffic and will be close to the sandbelt and city.

Would encourage Airbnb vs hotels, if you like hotels just stay in the centre of Melbourne/Southbank. You can stay anywhere 10kms from the centre of Melbourne and everywhere will be safe and have different local options.

Craft beer is everywhere, just follow some punter with a beard and some Polynesian tattoos and they will lead you to hipster heaven

[Chanceman]

I would say that you need to work out where you are going to play first, then find your accomm.

Travelling to the sandbelt can be a pain if you are downtown so like Malvern says it could better to find somewhere to stay in say Brighton which is lets say upmarket or further south in Mentone/Mordialloc - both are on the beachfront so good for the family.

One thing for sure you will have no trouble fnding good golf. Re Peninsula/Kingswood I have heard mixed reports on the recent redevelopments. I think you would aim for RM/KH/Vic/Metro as top priority. Happy to advise you more once you firm things up.

[CDM]

Thanks for recommendation on the location(s). Hipster I am not LOL. I do enjoy a good beer though. We are looking at Airbnb as it does seem much better and as noted closer to the beach.

[CDM]

Working on that currently. Sent off emails / request yesterday and this morning. Once we have it locked down more I will chime back in. Appreciate the info from everyone.

[Pykie]

Depends if you are planning on getting two cars?

 

I'd definitely recommend staying down the Penninsula over suburban Melbourne with your family. I live in suburban Melbourne (right on RMGC actually), however you will get more fun out of spending time down there.

Lots to do, great beaches, wineries (Red Hill is beautiful and very comparable to Margaret River in WA), the hot springs have just had millions pumped into them, great restaurants, St andrews Beach brewery is right around the corner from the golf course and converted out of a famous Victorian horse racing trainers beach stables.

Maybe potentially break it up? Stay for 3 days in the burbs then do 3 days down the Penninsula? The Penninsula can't be missed, honestly, I spend my entire summers down there and Portsea/Sorrento are Melbournes version of the Hamptons.

 

Penninsula Hot Springs - https://www.peninsulahotsprings.com/

St Andrews Beach Brewery - https://standrewsbeachbrewery.com.au/

Portsea Hotel (just been redeveloped) - https://portseahotel.com.au/

Rare Hare Winery and Hotel - https://www.rarehare.com.au/about/

Arthurs Seat Chairlift - https://aseagle.com.au/

 

I stayed in this air bnb recently for a wedding with 4 other couples and a heap of kids, the place is amazing. Fairytale type farmstay. Pool, tennis court, winery next door and very short driving distance to most places you will want to go. May be booked out for March though! https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/33864428?source_impression_id=p3_1570395515_dOAlbp0ThHi2Gl%2Bz

 

 

Drop the National Golf Course an email as well, it would be well worth trying to get on it. They have 3 x courses, so if staying nearby can knock off a few. Let me know if you have any issues as I can potentially assist with some of these courses.

 

Courses you should reach out to,I would rank in priority if you were accepted and on the condition the green fee's will be within budget. (Some won't be cheap!) *Sandbelt courses

 

These clubs are restricted to the Southeast Sanbelt region and then down to the Penninsula.

 

Royal Melbourne*Kingston Heath*Metropolitan*The National GCVictoria*St Andrews BeachThe DunesWoodlands*Yarra Yarra*Penninsula KingswoodMoonah LinksHuntingdale*PortseaCape SchankSouthern Golf Club (Not sandbelt but very close)Spring Valley (Not sandbelt but very close)Commonwealth*Settlers RunRanfurlieBayviews Golf Course (Great little cheap public track on the side of Arthurs Seat on the penninsula overlooking the water)

[CDM]

WOW Pykie thank you very very much. Gave me a ton of additional information to review. Knew of some of the courses on the list but decent number that I did not. The other locations provided the better half really liked and more then likely will have to get one or two added in to activities.... not sure I should thank you for that or not LOL (JK)

The place you stayed at looks awesome, just as you noted it is not available for our planned dates.

Related to the comment "Some wont be cheap". I have always been 70/30 on "you pay for what you get" except when related to golf courses. 98% of the time there is reason you are paying the price you are and its becauase golfers are pretty honestly on quality of a course when it comes to pricing, any negatives is typically becuase it does not fit the players "eye" or their game.

[Pykie]

 

The Sandbelt courses are all private, you are fortunately able to play these courses, as long as you fork out the green fee's for a non-member guest (Unlike the Cypress Points, Augusta's etc, which you can't actually get on at all). That's where the cost will come into it. Most will range from $200-$350 USD a round to play as a non-member, but you will get a game on RMGC and Kingston Heath, as you said, I've paid similar $$$ in Europe, as it may be the only opportunity you get to play them in your life.

As some have said, aim to play these on weekdays, and the following courses, (as these are 'public', and will be more affordable on the weekends) These are all Penninsula courses, so if you plan to split up the week, stay Metro weekday, then Penninsula on the weekend to save on green fee's. When I say public, I don't mean poor at all, they are just public by nature because of their location and are in the famous golf strip on the peninsula and enjoyable and accessible to all.

 

St Andrews Beach

The Dunes

Moonah Links

Cape Schanck

 

The National and St Andrews Beach are my two favourite courses down there

 

If you can't get onto RMGC or Kingston Heath, try Metropolitan, the bunkering was designed by Alister MacKenzie and is considered to have the best fairways in Australia ~ "Metro" as we call it, hosted the WGC Dell Matchplay in 2001 and is on the major tournament rotation with RMGC, Kingston Heath & Victoria for major golf tournaments.

 

I'm playing Barnbougle in Feb as well, Tasmania is certainly a lot more low key than Melbourne, so be prepared for something very rural and rugged when looking for activities for the family. Hobart is a very pretty city, very historic as it was one of the first convict settlements of Australia. Note that Barnbougle is near Launceston, Launceston is not a very pretty city! It's pretty basic and "city" is definately a stretch, it's more akin to an Australian country town.

 

Note that you can get direct charter flights onto one of the fairways from Moorrabin airport, which is right in the Sandbelt region in SE Melbourne (5 mins from RMGC) and may save you some time, be more convenient than flying into Launceston from Tullamarine (Melbourne's major airport, about 60-90 mins from RMGC). These are on smaller private airplanes charter airplanes though and have weight restrictions.

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