Golfing holidays don’t always have to mean long-haul flights and jet-lag. Australia is home to some of the best courses in the world. With our fantastically reliable weather, acres of unspoiled countryside and miles of beautiful coastline, an Australian golf tour is a great option for players who want to enjoy their game on brand new greens without leaving behind the comforts of home.
North, south, east, west: Teed Up has toured the continent’s greens to select the best courses for our clients to enjoy.
1. Royal Melbourne
A bit of a two-for-the-price-of-one decision here, as Royal Melbourne features two great golf courses, East and West. The founding member of Melbourne’s Sandbelt, Royal Melbourne West was designed in the late 1920s. It’s famous for generous greens and a very even standard across its holes. The East course is often seen as the poorer cousin, but the narrower greens and shallower bunkers belie its real charm; the way it incorporates the natural heathland into its shape.
2. Barnbougle Dunes
Arguably the nearest Australia has to a true links course; Barnbougle Dunes weaves along the unspoiled coastline to the north of Launceston. The course appears to have been carved out of the surrounding dunes and offers a challenging round with 100 foot sand dunes and a steady sea breeze to contend with. Not for the faint-hearted, it’s a course designed by golf obsessives for golf obsessives. If you have made the effort to get to Tasmania, you should also check out the newer Barnbougle Lost Farm.
3. Royal Adelaide
The Royal Adelaide is another regal course deserving of the distinction and another course partially designed, like Royal Melbourne, by Dr Mackenzie. Established more than a century ago, Adelaideans are rightly proud of this delightful course. Less than 20 minutes from the city centre, the course is now hemmed in by suburban sprawl and, perhaps uniquely, has an active train line running through the middle of it. Despite these distractions, it has the aura of an inland links course and offers a technical challenge on fast, arid greens.
4. National (Moonah)
The National offers three glorious, undulating courses. The largest private golf club in the country, it makes the most of its stunning setting on Cape Schanck with the most famous course, Greg Norman’s Moonah. Featuring fierce par 4s and a notoriously brutal breeze, the pay-off for a tough round has to be the gorgeous scenery and clever planning and design of the course, which makes the most of the naturally rolling landscape.
This championship course is highly rated by those who tackle it. Designed in two loops of nine, the Magenta course is notorious for its daunting bunkers and diverse landscaping. Squeezed between the Pacific and inland lakes, the course boasts native forest, rainforest and arid sand. A private golf course, this might explain why it’s one of Australian golf’s best-kept secrets.
If these options have whetted your appetite, get in touch today to find out more about Teed Up’s amazing range of golf tours and packages.