Destinations › 🇦🇺 Australia › Melbourne Sandbelt

World's Greatest Golf Neighbourhood

Melbourne Sandbelt

The Sandbelt south of Melbourne contains an unprecedented concentration of top-100 courses — all within 30 minutes of each other on the perfect sandy soil.

Key Courses

Plan a Trip to Melbourne Sandbelt

Melbourne Sandbelt — Course Map

Click a flag to see the course name and view full details.

Other Regions

New South Wales

Sydney & The Coast

2 courses

🇦🇺 Melbourne Sandbelt, Australia

Royal Melbourne — West

Location: Black Rock, Victoria
Opened: 1926
Designer: Alister Mackenzie & Alex Russel
Events: Australian Open (16 times), Australian PGA Championship (14 times), President’s Cup (1998, 2011, 2019), Women’s Australian Open (2 times)
Rankings: 7th best golf course in the world, Golf Magazine (2021), #1 golf course in Australia, Australian Golf Digest (2022)

Often included in the discussion for the world’s best golf course, Royal Melbourne’s West and Augusta National have two things in common: they were both built by Alister Mackenzie, and they both were to serve as their continent’s respective The Old Course at St. Andrew’s with similar design principals like width and varied green undulations. The golf course is sublime with subtlety, strategy, and design merit, providing one of the best pure-golf experiences in the world of golf.

Gallery

Enquire About Royal Melbourne

🇦🇺 Melbourne Sandbelt, Australia

Royal Melbourne — East

Location: Black Rock, Victoria
Opened: 1932
Designer: Alex Russel & Mick Morcom
Events: Often used as a composite course with the West to co-host events
Rankings: 94th best golf course in the world, Golf Magazine (2021), 8th best golf course in Australia, Australian Golf Digest (2022)

Often, courses fall shy of the leading act at a 36 hole club, but not the case at Royal Melbourne. In fact, the East also holds the honour of generally being included in world top 100 lists, and when Royal Melbourne hosts events, a composite course made up of both the West and East is generally what we see, such as the 2019 President’s Cup. The East features the same beautiful Sandbelt bunkering the West does, but built by two Australians in Alex Russel and Mick Morcom, this is as authentically down under as it gets.

Gallery

Enquire About Royal Melbourne

🇦🇺 Melbourne Sandbelt, Australia

Kingston Heath

Location: Cheltenham, Victoria
Opened: 1925
Designer: Des Soutar
Events: Australian Open (7 times), 2008 Women’s Australian Open, 2009 & 2012 Australian Masters, 2016 World Cup of Golf
Rankings: 22nd best golf course in the world, Golf Magazine (2021), 2nd best golf course in Australia, Australian Golf Digest (2022)

A flatter property, but that only showcases the ability to turn Kingston Heath into one of the best golf courses in the world, and to some, the best in Australia. Beautiful bunkers eat into the sides of greens, sandy soils lend way for the ball to bounce, and bounce, and bounce. Dr. Alister Mackenzie, notable for Augusta National and Cypress Point, did not contribute as much as he did to nearby Royal Melbourne to Kingston Heath, but his upgrades to the bunkering provide one of the most attractive sets of hazards in the world, as highlighted by Mackenzie’s par 3, 15th.

Gallery

Enquire About Kingston Heath

🇦🇺 Melbourne Sandbelt, Australia

Metropolitan Golf Club

Location: Oakleigh South, Victoria
Opened: 1908
Designer: John Duncan Dunn (with refinements by JD Scott)
Events: Australian Open (multiple), 2015 World Cup of Golf
Rankings: 16th best golf course in Australia, Australian Golf Digest

Metropolitan is often called the most immaculately conditioned golf course in the world — turf that plays firm and fast, greens that roll pure, and bunkers whose sand and edges have long been benchmarks for the Melbourne Sandbelt. Originally laid out in 1908 by John Duncan Dunn and refined over the years by JD Scott and other local greenkeepers, the routing winds through beautifully mature trees and heathland just minutes from Royal Melbourne. Metropolitan has hosted the Australian Open multiple times and the 2015 World Cup of Golf, and it remains a fixture of any serious Sandbelt itinerary.

Gallery

Enquire About Metropolitan Golf Club

🇦🇺 Melbourne Sandbelt, Australia

Yarra Yarra

Location: Bentleigh East, Victoria
Opened: 1929
Designer: Alex Russell (with restoration by Tom Doak, 2021)
Rankings: 22nd best golf course in Australia, Australian Golf Digest

Alex Russell — Alister Mackenzie's Australian apprentice and co-designer of Royal Melbourne's East course — laid out Yarra Yarra in 1929, and it has quietly held a place among Australia's elite Sandbelt courses ever since. Tom Doak led a full restoration completed in 2021, returning the course's spectacular Mackenzie-style bunkering to its original scale and clarity while preserving Russell's routing. The par-3 11th, often ranked among the best short holes in the country, stands as the course's signature — a gorgeous mid-iron shot to a green surrounded by dramatic white sand.

Gallery

Enquire About Yarra Yarra

🇦🇺 Melbourne Sandbelt, Australia

Victoria

Location: Cheltenham, Victoria
Opened: 1928
Designer: Alister Mackenzie
Events: Australian Open (4 times, including 2022), 1999 Australian PGA Championship, 2010 Australian Masters, Women’s Australian Open (2 times)
Rankings: 9th best golf course in Australia, Australian Golf Digest (2021)

Dr. Alister Mackenzie, famous for Cypress Point and Augusta National, made quick work of his visit to Australia, but what he left behind—including Victoria—is among the nation’s best. Featuring the same topography as Royal Melbourne across the road, the sandbelt classic is an Australian classic, regularly hosting events, including 2010’s Australian Masters headlined by Tiger Woods.

Gallery

Enquire About Victoria

🇦🇺 Melbourne Sandbelt, Australia

Peninsula Kingswood — North

Location: Frankston, Victoria
Opened: 1908 (restored 2019)
Designer: S.S. Reid (original), restored by OCM Design (Ogilvy, Cocking & Mead)
Rankings: 11th best golf course in Australia, Australian Golf Digest

Formed in 2013 by the merger of the historic Peninsula and Kingswood clubs, Peninsula Kingswood is one of Australia's most exciting Sandbelt renovations — Michael Cocking's OCM Design team completed a full restoration of both courses, revealing their classic sandbelt bones with dramatic new bunkering and expanded green complexes. The North course is often considered the more traditional and demanding of the two, with tighter driving corridors and more strategic bunker placement across gently rolling terrain a short drive from Kingston Heath.

Gallery

Enquire About Peninsula Kingswood

🇦🇺 Melbourne Sandbelt, Australia

Peninsula Kingswood — South

Location: Frankston, Victoria
Opened: 1908 (restored 2019)
Designer: S.S. Reid (original), restored by OCM Design (Ogilvy, Cocking & Mead)
Rankings: 17th best golf course in Australia, Australian Golf Digest

The younger sibling to the North, Peninsula Kingswood's South course was similarly restored by Michael Cocking's OCM Design team as part of the club's major post-merger renovation. The South plays over more expansive, open Sandbelt terrain with plenty of width off the tee, letting the golfer choose their own line through Cocking's bold new bunker complexes. Together with the North, the club now sits firmly among the finest 36-hole facilities in the country.

Gallery

Enquire About Peninsula Kingswood