Australia's Best Golf City

This month the world’s oldest championship returns to the city of Liverpool in northwest England, one of the best for golf in the United Kingdom. Beyond the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, host of the 2014 Open Championship, are other gems nearby such as Royal Birkdale, Hillside, Royal Lytham & St Annes, Formby and Southport & Ainsdale. The region is known to many as England’s Golf Coast, and is the perfect destination for those wishing to combine a big event or holiday with their passion for golf.

In Australia it could be argued that each of our major cities offers a similarly appealing mix of destination attractions and fine golf. Our task this month, was to determine which city was best and then rank the rest.

Not surprisingly, Melbourne finished on top of our table but the race for second spot was red hot. On pure Top 100 numbers second would go to Sydney, given 19 courses within two hours of the city featured on our 2014 Top 100 list, compared to 14 near Brisbane and 11 near Perth. Melbourne had 34. Simply having more Top 100 courses, however, does not necessarily make Sydney a better golf town than Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide. Not on the criteria we used anyway, which was to compare the best private and public courses in each city, along with the best nearby destinations, the best local players and the best golf climate. The final ranking might not surprise, but the individual category results should highlight just how fortunate we are in this country to have so much good golf available so close to our large population centres.

 

Best Private Courses

1. Melbourne 2. Sydney 3. Adelaide 4. Perth 5. Brisbane T6. Canberra T6. Hobart

 

Melbourne was a clear standout in this category. Its best two courses, Royal Melbourne (West) and Kingston Heath, topped the recent AGD rankings, while another 9 Sandbelt courses finished inside the Top 50. There are also great options further down the pay scale, with the likes of Southern, Spring Valley, Kew, Green Acres and Keysborough offering quality golf at an affordable price.

Second place went to Sydney, who with its greater variety of available private golf managed to hold off the powerful quartet from Adelaide of Royal Adelaide, Kooyonga, Glenelg and The Grange. Adelaide’s second-tier courses aren’t a match for those in Sydney, or Perth for that matter who might be considered unlucky down in 4^th place. Were any of Cottesloe, Royal Perth, Royal Fremantle, Western Australian GC or Mount Lawley closer to Lake Karrinyup in terms of quality the city would have certainly jumped to 3^rd.

 

Best Public Access Courses

T1. Melbourne T1. Sydney 3. Perth 4. Brisbane 5. Adelaide 6. Hobart 7. Canberra

 

Much closer than the private course category, with Melbourne and Sydney tying for top honours ahead of Perth and Brisbane. Public course golfers in both Melbourne and Sydney are able to access a range of straight pay-for-play facilities along with limited access private clubs that welcome visitors on certain days of the week. The best in Melbourne are Settlers Run, Sanctuary Lakes, Ranfurlie, Long Island, Cranbourne, Eynesbury, Sandhurst and Sandringham while in Sydney popular choices include St Michaels, Stonecutters Ridge, Long Reef, Twin Creeks, Camden Lakeside, Eastlake and The Coast.

Perth and Brisbane were also fairly close, with the quality of Joondalup (all 27 holes), The Vines (36 holes), Araluen and the redeveloping Sun City courses slightly edging Brookwater and its back-ups North Lakes, Indooroopilly and Keperra. Down the bottom of the list, the availability of both Royal Hobart and the Tasmania Golf Club for visiting players resulted in Hobart nudging Canberra down into 7^th place.

 

Best Nearby Destinations

1. Melbourne 2. Brisbane 3. Sydney 4. Perth 5. Canberra 6. Adelaide 7. Hobart

 

Classifying a golf destination as a region within two hours of a major city, Melbourne once again tops our chart thanks to the all-round appeal of areas like the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsula’s and the Yarra Valley. There are a further 15 Top 100 courses in these three regions, including 9 of Australia’s Top 31.

Brisbane edges Sydney for second place, courtesy of the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, which couple good courses and great weather with superb beaches and non-golf activities.  Though each of the Central Coast, Hunter Valley and Illawarra regions near Sydney are worthwhile destinations, the fact is that collectively they contribute just five courses to Australia’s Top 100 list, while the two Queensland coasts contribute 10. Perth and its terrific Mandurah/Golf Coast precinct was a clear 4^th choice, ahead of Canberra (Southern Highlands) and Adelaide (Fleurieu Peninsula).

 

Best Golfers

T1. Melbourne T1. Brisbane 3. Sydney 4. Perth 5. Adelaide 6. Hobart 7. Canberra

 

Only a fool would expect comparisons of golfers across the eras, and between the cities, to achieve some form of common consensus. The question of golfing greatness has been argued for as long as the game has been played, and is answered according to how one judges success and achievement. Are major championships the gold standard, or is it the number of accomplished players a city produces more worthwhile?

Regardless of your view, awarding the title of best golf city should mean including both the best places to play the game as well as the best people to have done so. In this category it was very tight at the top, with Melbourne and Brisbane matching major champions and much-loved stalwarts of the local Australasian PGA Tour. Were we judging golfers based on their home state, rather than the city they are most commonly associated with, Queensland would have won on the back of Karrie Webb’s many achievements. Instead it was a line-ball decision with the major titles of Peter Thomson, David Graham and Geoff Ogilvy from Melbourne matched against those of Greg Norman, Ian Baker-Finch, Adam Scott and Wayne Grady from the Brisbane area. Grady was the only Queensland major champion born and raised in Brisbane, but the others spent formative golfing years in SE Queensland and are closely connected to the city. As are the likes of Jason Day, Peter Senior, Norman von Nida, John Sendon and others. The non-major winners list from Melbourne is equally impressive, headed by current players Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby and Aaron Baddeley. It would be difficult to dismiss the claims of either Brisbane or Melbourne as being the best city in Australia for producing champion golfers.

Close behind in 3^rd place is Sydney, which counts major champions Kel Nagle, Jim Ferrier and Jan Stephenson among a long list of established golfing stars. Adelaide can lay claim to being home for the first 8 years of Adam Scott’s life, but the city rates behind Perth on our list because of the sheer quantity of very good players to have come out of the West.  From guys like Graham Marsh, Terry Gale, Wayne Smith and Craig Parry in years past through to more recent players like US Open runner-up Steve Leaney, Greg Chalmers, Michael Sim and others.

 

Best Golf Climate

1. Perth 2. Adelaide 3. Melbourne 4. Sydney 5. Brisbane 6. Hobart 7. Canberra

 

Whether you prefer to golf in warmer weather, or enjoy the challenges of playing in a windy locale with firm, bouncy ground, Perth not only has the best golf climate in Australia but one of the best in the world. Its sandy, free draining terrain is ideal for the game, as are the afternoon sea winds that regularly blow across the city. If design standards were a little higher here the city would be a serious international golf destination.

Melbourne and Adelaide are both popular destinations, in part because of the weather and in part because the overall climate allows for the sort of ground-game courses (and grasses) that golfers worldwide enjoy. Adelaide gets the nod slightly ahead of Melbourne thanks to its marginally warmer winters. Sydney finishes a rung down in 4^th place due to a more humid environment, and the propensity toward denser kikuyu fairways.

If golf in a sterile environment were as fun as golf in the wind then Brisbane would have finished on top of our list. As it stands the consistent heat and humidity leaves it in 5^th place, and only marginally ahead of chilly Hobart and the hot/cold extremes of Canberra.

 

Overall Ranking

1. Melbourne 2. Sydney 3. Perth 4. Brisbane 5. Adelaide 6. Hobart 7. Canberra

 

Darius Oliver, Architecture Editor Australian Golf Digest

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