Royal Melbourne’s west course remains on top of the pile, but four Tasmanian courses are in the top 10 in the latest edition of the Golf Digest rankings of Australia’s top 100 courses.
‘Royal’ pipped another Melbourne sandbelt classic, Kingston Heath, for the top spot, with the King Island course Cape Wickham in third.
Cape Wickham, Ocean Dunes, Barnbougle Dunes and Lost Farm are the four Tasmanian courses which made the top 10.
Golf Digest’s rankings this year took in seven criteria for the first time.
“The impact of these additional criteria for Australian courses was interesting to observe during the ‘number crunching’ process,” said Australian Golf Digest Top 100 editor Steve Keipert.
“Generally speaking, courses in amazing settings received a small boost, while those layouts wedged within claustrophobic residential estates suffered.
"Some critics might ask, ‘Are the surroundings of a course an essential element of a course’s architectural merit?’, but there’s little question scenic values add to golfers’ enjoyment of a round. We’d prefer to think of these new measures as means of highlighting a golf course’s best assets.”
TOP 10
1. Royal Melbourne west
2. Kingston Heath
3. Cape Wickham
4. Barnbougle Dunes
5. New South Wales
6. Lost Farm
7. Ellerston
8. Royal Melbourne east
9. Royal Adelaide
10. Ocean Dunes
CREAM OF THE CROP
VICTORIA
1. Royal Melbourne [West] (No.1 in Australia)
2. Kingston Heath (2)
3. Royal Melbourne [East] (8)
4. Victoria (11)
5. The National [Moonah] (12)
NEW SOUTH WALES
1. New South Wales Golf Club (5)
2. Ellerston (7)
3. The Australian (14)
4. The Lakes (18)
5. Newcastle (20)
QUEENSLAND
1. Brookwater (24)
2. Hamilton Island (31)
3. Royal Queensland (33)
4. The Grand (39)
5. Links Hope Island (43)
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
1. Lake Karrinyup (17)
2. Joondalup [Quarry/Dune] (21)
3. Links Kennedy Bay (28)
4. The Cut (37)
5. The Western Australian (55)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
1. Royal Adelaide (9)
2. Kooyonga (25)
3. Glenelg (36)
4. Grange [West] (44)
5. Grange [East] (48)
TASMANIA
1. Cape Wickham (3)
2. Barnbougle Dunes (4)
3. Barnbougle Lost Farm (6)
4. Ocean Dunes (10)