Royal Adelaide Golf Club

Royal Adelaide Golf Club: Also commonly known as Seaton, the present Royal Adelaide course was substantially redesigned by Dr. Alister MacKenzie in the mid-1920s. Here is an open, undulating inland links course, built on the Adelaide sandbelt, which presents a wonderfully testing challenge to all golfers. Don't be surprised to see an occasional commuter train trundling along the single-track railway that diagonally bisects the course. The track passes within a few feet of the clubhouse (one imagines it was originally a halt for the trains). The understated simplicity of the course design, based on nicely undulating terrain, rolling mounds and a scattering of pine trees, masks some tough challenges ahead. With plenty of sand available, its no surprise to find a wealth of excellent fairway and greenside bunkering; the fiery ring of eight bunkers guarding the par-3 7th's domed green, makes for a classic MacKenzie-inspired hole. A few precise tee-shots are required, not least at the short, blind and tight par-4 3rd, played up and over a small ridge. Your tee-shot back across the ridge at the par-4 4th is also blind, but this time played to a doglegging fairway. The highest part of the course is home to the 8th and 12th tees, alongside a rotunda look-out. The flatter closing stretch starts at the par-4 13th. Although following an out-and-back design, the course never strays too far from the clubhouse which is positioned squarely in the centre of this excellently maintained layout. There is no housing on the course, nor too close beside it, just this splendid old links, the subtleties of which will certainly grow on you the more you play it.