The Royal Melbourne Golf Club

Cheltenham Rd,

Black Rock, Victoria 3193

  • Office

    +61 (0)3 9599 0500
  • Pro shop

    +61 (0)3 9599 0500
  • Fax

    +61 (0)3 9521 0065
  • Golf pro

    Richard Hatt (Head Professional).

About the course

  • The Course:

    18 holes. Tree-lined & open sandbelt course. Gently undulating terrain - a few slopes to climb.

  • Surroundings:

    Woodland and residential.

  • Designer:

    Designed in 1926 by Dr Alister MacKenzie. Working with Alex Russell and Mick Morcom (Head Greenkeeper), the course opened for play in 1931.

Back
tees
Club
tees
Front
tees
Metres
6077
5246
Par
72
73
SSS or slope
72
73

At the same location:

Above distances are for the West course. Also at Royal Melbourne Golf Club is the 18-hole East course (par-72; 6030 mtrs from back tees).

Location

Latitude:

-37.970686

Longitude:

145.028869

How to get there:

22 km SE of Melbourne CBD

From the centre of Melbourne travel south-east on the Nepean Highway (Hwy 3). After approx 13 km turn right into South Road (Rte 14), direction Brighton. After 1 km turn left into Bluff Road (Rte 19), direction Sandringham / Black Rock. After 3 km turn left into Cheltenham Road. After 1 km golf is on your right.

Royal Melbourne Golf Club (West course)

5-PLUS: In the world’s elite - has few peers; one of our top-rated 5s!

Est. 1891

Royal Melbourne Golf Club (West course): Designed by the incomparable Dr. Alister MacKenzie, RMGC's West course is understandably regarded as one of the world's greatest places to play. For overseas visitors, it is also one of the world's most expensive.

Occupying rolling terrain on an easy draining sandy base, this is every bit a "heathland" course, with tracts of heather bordering many holes. Also present beyond the generally good width fairways is a mix of small trees, bushes and other uncompromising rough, that's well worth steering clear of. There is not too much to look at beyond the course, but you can be sure the superbly crafted holes will keep you focused on the golfing job at hand.

There is an understated simplicity in MacKenzie's design. The expansive layout, containing several surprisingly wide fairways, does not create an impression of being unfairly tight or inhibiting from the tee. But don't interpret this to mean the course lacks "bite," far from it.

In addition to the deeper vegetation that will swallow-up seriously wayward shots, you will need to navigate your way around (or out of) a plethora of stylishly crafted bunkering found along the fairways, and protecting the often huge, lightning fast and sloping greens. You're putting touch at Royal Melbourne will be tested as never before; some of the challenges here are akin to putting on a tilting billiard table.

Playing to your handicap, especially on a first visit, is not an easy proposition on this challenging course. The subtleties of this and most MacKenzie layouts, need to be learnt over time, with "local knowledge" a valuable commodity in any round you play here.

List of courses: Around Melbourne

Visitors

Who can play and when?

Private club, with restricted outside visitor play. Overseas and interstate visitors should contact the Club regarding playing possibilities; generally available on Mon, Tues & Fri.

Maximum handicap: men 36; women 45. Introduction letter from home club required. Only one of the two courses can be played on the same day.

Green fees

International visitor fee, 18-holes: A$850; interstate visitor A$550. Caddie-fee A$170 (caddies compulsory for o/seas visitors).

Contact club for full details. [Last updated: 2023].

Other information

This is a walking course. Golf carts can be booked in advance (medical certificate required). Caddies available, and compulsory for overseas visitors.

Practice facilities

Good

Did you know?

Established in 1891, Melbourne Golf Club was originally based on the Caulfield links (approx 8 mi away), before moving to Sandringham, and then to its current Black Rock site.

Royal Melbourne has regularly hosted top-level golf tournaments, including numerous Australian Open and PGA championships, and the Presidents Cup. Such tournaments are usually played on a Composite course comprising 12 holes from the West course and six from the East course. For more details see Top Golf Tournaments at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, West course.

Royal Melbourne is one of eight golf clubs in Australia honoured by exercise of the Sovereign's royal prerogative. Queen Victoria conferred the Royal title on the club in 1895. The eight Australian 'Royals' are (in order of gaining Royal status): Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, Adelaide, Hobart, Fremantle, Canberra and Perth.

Published ranking

Australia's No.1 course (Australian Golf Digest, 2022/23).
World's 7th best course (GOLF Magazine, 2023/24) and 3rd best public access course (Golf World, 2023).

Where2Stay

  • The Victoria Golf Club

    Park Road, Cheltenham, Victoria 3192

    +61 (0)3 9584 1733

    Visit website

    The Victoria Golf Club offers the golfer more than world class golf. The Clubhouse has 15 spacious and comfortably appointed rooms, each with full ensuite facilities, for residential accommodation. Each room offers views of the grounds and the course. Victoria’s stately, three storey, fully air conditioned clubhouse exudes comfort and a welcoming, congenial atmosphere. Victoria Golf Club is excellently located at the heart of the Melbourne "sandbelt" golf courses, with Royal Melbourne just next door, and many other famous name courses in close proximity.

    • Golf at this hotel:

      Victoria GC

    • Golf within 10 km:

      Royal Melbourne (East & West courses); Woodlands; Kingston Heath; Spring Valley; Yarra Yarra; Commonwealth; Metropolitan; Huntingdale.

    • Golf within 30 km:

      Peninsula (North & South courses); Long Island; Ranfurlie.

  • Quest Cheltenham4-star

    37-39 Station Rd, Cheltenham, Melbourne Suburbs, VIC 3192

    +61 (0)3 8523 5800

    Visit website

    Quest Cheltenham offers a new level of accommodation to one of Victoria's booming bayside surburbs. This new property offers a combination of 49 studio, one, two and three bedroom serviced apartments, all of which are fully equipped and stylishly furnished - to cater for business and leisure travellers. In addition to the spacious apartments, Quest Cheltenham offers on-site basement car parking, conference facilities and a gymnasium.

    • Golf at this hotel:

      No

    • Golf within 10 km:

      Royal Melbourne (East & West courses); Victoria; Woodlands; Kingston Heath; Spring Valley; Yarra Yarra; Commonwealth; Metropolitan; Huntingdale.

    • Golf within 30 km:

      Peninsula (North & South courses); Long Island.

Find a course

Or

Tournaments

Ryder Cup: Rome plays host to the first ever Ryder Cup to be staged in Italy, with the USA defending golf’s greatest team trophy at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club (Sept 29-Oct 1).

Solheim Cup: also in September, also in southern Europe, the 18th Solheim Cup will be contested at Finca Cortesin on the Costa del Sol, with Europe defending after their surprise win in Toledo, Inverness Club (Ohio) in 2021 (Sept 22-24). 

Who's Who

Céline Boutier: with many successes as both an amateur and professional golfer, Boutier added a major championship title to her impressive résumé at this year’s Evian Championship.

Alex Cejka: buffeted by rain and high winds, especially on the high-scoring final day, Čejka prevailed over Pádraig Harrington in a playoff at Royal Porthcawl, to scoop the Senior Open Championship title.

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club: With a clubhouse that might befit a Roman Emperor, and a golf course to match, you can be sure of a memorable outing at Rome's most talked about golf facility.

Jim Fazio's original layout was much changed to create a modern Ryder Cup course ... now one of the Eternal City's (and Italy's) most revered.

Prince's Golf Club, Kent (UK)

Here at Prince’s Golf Club you'll find 27 excellent holes of links golf. Just over the fence and sharing similar terrain is Royal St George’s; but Prince’s is far from overshadowed by its venerable neighbour. The three nine-hole loops at Prince's, laid out over gently undulating terrain, are sure to bring a smile of satisfaction to all lovers of links golf.

Stay&Play at Prince's: excellent onsite Lodge accommodation available

Popular videos

You can subscribe to the Where2Golf channel on YT if you like to see more video content. You'll find a "Subscribe" button on any of our YouTube videos. Or if you want a quick and direct access subscribe here. Once done, any new published videos will show up in your Subscriptions feed.

Hamburger GC - Falkenstein, Germany

WINSTONgolf - Links course

Littlestone Golf Club (Kent, UK)