Royal Melbourne Golf Club reciprocal clubs

There are three one hour windows where unaccompanied visitors can play the course - Monday, Tuesday and Friday mornings between 10:30 and 11:30am. There is a form on the website you can fill in to check availability. This is a course that doesn’t want too many visitors! It is a real shame that it isn’t possible, as a visitor, to play the West and East courses on the same day. So many people say that playing both courses is the best day in golf, but it’s one that visitors don’t get to experience.

You will need to email the club and await their response regarding tee times, which may take a little time. There is nothing on the website about green fees, this will follow in the email. Hold on to your hat though as it is a pretty breath-taking expense! As an overseas visitor you will play A$750 for the West Course or $550 for the East and then you MUST take a caddy at another $140. So you are looking at A$890 (roughly £500) to play this course. That is quite something - it’s the most expensive tee time of the top 100 courses (of those you are allowed to book as a visitor).

TOUR TIPS

We chose to stay in the centre of Melbourne and travel out to the courses every day. It wasn’t much over 30 minutes and a very easy drive. Melbourne itself has a lot to offer and while we could have stayed closer to the courses it feels like it was a good decision. Melbourne has some amazing restaurants, and phenomenal golf. The other must-play course is the nearby Kingston Heath but, beyond that, there are so many sandbelt options. You are so spoiled, with so much amazing golf to choose from, that you could easily stay here for 2 weeks and play a different course every day.

We also headed just over an hour south to Cape Schanck where the National and St Andrew’s Beach offer something really interesting too.

One other thing I would say is, if possible, make sure you have some spare cash for the pro shop at Royal Melbourne. They have a really good range of swag and this will be one golf course logo you will want to flash around!

Accommodation at Hong Kong Golf Club must be arranged directly with Hong Kong Golf Club. Please visit their website to view the rooms and rates.  Members are encouraged to contact the Hong Kong Golf Club for for reciprocal member room rates.

Due to the annual hosting of The Hong Kong Open Championships, access for reciprocal members may be effected from year to year. 

For more than 600 years St Andrews Links, much like the game of golf itself, has evolved. Today more than 230,000 rounds are played over our seven public courses. St Andrews Links Trust also manages a number of additional facilities including a golf academy, three clubhouses and four shops.

St Andrews Links is a very diverse business and the team work hard to deliver an exceptional experience for everyone. We employ around 400 people in the peak season, making us one of the largest employers in St Andrews.

The Royal Melbourne Golf Club is recognised as one of the leading golf clubs in Australia with two of the pre-eminent golf courses in the world.

The Club was founded in 1891 and has been host to numerous national and international tournaments including being the host of the 2019 Presidents Cup.  We have a proud reputation of providing Members and guests with a friendly, welcoming and inclusive experience.

Royal Melbourne’s West Course was ranked No. 1 in Australia and No. 5 in Golf Digest’s 200 Greatest International Courses 2018

Much has been written on the qualities of The Royal Melbourne Golf Club but put simply it’s a combination of great design and construction. It is full of dramatic undulation, fertile sandy soil and a natural rugged appearance.

Highlights include bold bunkering while the rough areas around the tees and bunkers are a mix of native grasses which naturally frame each hole, providing great definition and contrast. The greens are brilliant and for decades have consistently provided the finest putting surfaces in Australia.

They are large and beautifully contoured they are built to accommodate approaches from a number of angles with each progressively more difficult the further the tee shot strays from the perfect line.

Dr. Alister MacKenzie (30 August 1870 – 6 January 1934) was a British golf course architect whose course designs span four continents. Originally trained as a surgeon, MacKenzie served as a civilian doctor with the British army during the Boer War where he first became aware of the principles of camouflage. During World War I, MacKenzie made his own significant contributions to military camouflage, which he saw as closely related to golf course design.

He is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. He designed more than 50 golf courses including 3 that remain in the 2018 top 10 golf courses in the world Augusta National Golf Club and Cypress Point Club in the USA, and Royal Melbourne Golf Club (West Course) in Australia.

Signature Holes

5th Hole West – Par 3
161m Men / 130m Women

The fifth is the first one-shotter on the West Course. It is one of the best par threes in Melbourne, which makes it one of the best in the world.  The hole plays down from the tee, across a valley and up to a green sitting on the opposite hill.

The key aim in playing the fifth is to get the ball up onto the putting surface; anything short is swept back down the bank fronting the green. Anything too long leaves a treacherous downhill putt.

6th Hole West – Par 4
391m Men / 337m Women

The sixth hole is one of the great two-shot holes, a wonderful example of how to perfectly position a ground hazard on the inside corner of a dogleg.  The tee shot is played over a magnificent expanse of heath and sand. The player must then make a decision whether to attempt to carry over the bunkers at the corner of the dogleg, or to opt for discretion and hit further to the left.

A long drive over the bunkers to the far edge of the fairway leaves a difficult second shot over one of the most awkward greenside bunkers on the course

The green slopes sharply from front to back and the rule is a simple one: never hit the ball above the flag when it is cut in the right half of the green.

10th Hole West – Par 4
285m Men / 235m Women

Off the tee, players are confronted by a multitude of choices of both club and line. The most obvious hazard to avoid is the huge bunker – known to Members as hell’s half-acre – embedded in the left hillside.  From the tee the land drops sharply down, then rises up around the bunker and turns towards a small green at the highest point of the hill.

The green is protected by deep bunkers to the right and a swale at the front of the green, which gathers up any pitch shot landing short of the putting surface.

The Royal Melbourne Golf Club is a private Members’ club.  Members may invite guests to play on most days.

Members of our reciprocal clubs are extended playing rights aligned to their club’s reciprocity agreement with Royal Melbourne.

International and interstate visitors, who are members of a golf club, are welcome to inquire about visitor tee times which are available on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays (subject to availability and excluding public holidays)

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