The Links Golf Club, Port Douglas

Where: Old Port Road, Port Douglas Queensland Australia

Length: 6125 meters

Par: 71

Contact: (07) 4087 2222


The Links Golf Club at Port Douglas Queensland is the world's first tropical links and a fascinating example of traditional design within the hostile Queensland tropics. Located close to Port Douglas' Four Mile beach, the 73-hectare sandy stretch adjacent to the Coral Sea was a former cane farm and features gorgeous mountain vistas and a stunning rain forest backdrop. Though the site was far from the ideal base from which to replicate the British Links, designer Michael Wolveridge persisted. He explains, "We found consistent evidence of ancient coral reef life which encouraged me to create an authentic links, restoring the farmed land to small sand dunes and an open landscape more akin to Scotland than the tropics. Cooled by an ever present sea breeze, seasonal winds brought traditional links challenge with their weighty might".

A number of classic links elements have been incorporated into the design including double green, blind targets, hidden pot bunkers and even a small burn crossing the sixth green.

Links Golf Club, Port Douglas, enforces a "No Metal Spike" policy throughout the golf course and clubhouse areas. All players have the option to wear sandshoes or soft cleat fitted golf shoes.

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Kooyonga Golf Club South Australia

Opened: 1922

Where: May Terrace Lockleys, South Australia

Email: administration@kooyongagolf.com.au

Length: 6165 meters

Par: 72

The Kooyonga Golf Club was founded when a 1922 train strike forced South Australian golf pioneer H.L Rymill, to take a tram to his home club at Royal Adelaide. During the fateful trip, he noticed that a stretch of undulating swampland and sand hills, known as May's Paddock was for sale. Inspecting the site and realizing its great potential for golf, he conceived Kooyonga and immediately acquired the land. Within a few months, the first nine holes were open and by June 1924 the full eighteen were ready for play.

As a regular tournament venue, the club keeps pace with the prodigious professional game by making substantial changes to the course setup during major events. Unable to add much length, fairways are instead narrowed and the severity of the surrounding rough increased to test modern players. Gary Player once slaughtered par at Kooyonga with two rounds of sixty-two during the 1965 Australian Open and the club remains determined to prevent a repeat performance.

In 2008, Kooyonga Golf Club celebrates its eighty-fifth anniversary. The Club's history has inevitably been linked with great world events, but perhaps more than any other factor, chance has played the greatest of all parts in shaping the fortunes of Kooyonga.







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Mt Lawley Golf Club Western Australia

Where: Walter Rd. Inglewood, Western Australia

Email: admin@mlgc.org

Distance: 6213m

Par: 72

Located in Perth’s northern suburbs, the Mt Lawley Golf Club opened in 1929. Royal Perth golf professional David Anderson designed the private course to compliment the gentle undulating sandy soil.

In the Scottish tradition, each of the holes are named and it is a part of the club's culture to refer to holes by name rather than number. The course features tight tree-lined fairways, traditional bunkers and firm, slick greens. Bunkering is a design feature (there are over 60 of them) with greenside traps cut close to putting surfaces that are generally subtle and mostly break off the shoulders of the bunkers.



Mount Lawley Golf Club is a traditional course reminiscent of the famous sandbelt courses in Melbourne. The course has long been considered the best member course in Western Australia. Mt Lawley’s signature hole is the short (132m) downhill par three 13th, named ‘commonwealth’ for the shape of the green resembles a map of Australia. The 13th is also the most affected by the treacherous West Australian wind. Other highlight holes include the dogleg 12th hole and the deceivingly short par four 16th.



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Royal Melbourne Golf Club

One of the finest golf courses outside Britain or America is the Royal Melbourne Club, which has continual membership dating from July 1891.

The official outfit for all members in those early days was a scarlet coat with gold buttons., knickerbockers, and Tam O'Shanter, thus confirming the Scottish connection.


The course moved to the Sandringham district of Melbourne in 1901 and a new course was laid out. Its deep bunkers turned it into one of the great championship courses in the world. While retaining some characteristics of Scottish links, it also has some of the beauty of the Augusta National course. But that is hardly surprising because the man hired by Bobby Jones to design Augusta, Alister Mackenzie, was also hired to design the new course at Melbourne in the 1920's. The second, East, course, was added in 1932 and the original course was called the West course. Such is the design of the two that holes from both can be incorporated into one 18 hole course for major championships.


The greens at Royal Melbourne are lifted every six years to ensure their trueness and, consequently, they are lightning fast. And for a true test of a golfers ability and nerve the 6th and 14th holes provide a daunting task. Both are doglegs; the first requires the decision to play short of, or attempt to negotiate some awkwardly placed bunkers. The latter is a 90-degree dogleg, but trees lining the right-hand side of the fairway make it difficult to assess the correct line.

Golf trivia: A golf club cannot adapt the word Royal in its title unless this right has been bestowed upon it by the sovereign or a member of the royal house. This is normally granted when a club receives Royal patronage.

The Perth Golfing society was, in 1833, the first club to be granted Royal designation. There are now over 40 Royal golf courses in the British Isles.

Email Royal Melbourne Golf Club: rmgc@royalmelbourne.com.au

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John Daly in Australia

Back in 2002, John Daly was invited to play in the 2002 Australian PGA Championships at Coolum, and was reportedly offered $200,000 to sweeten the deal. Evidently it worked and Daly came to Australia and left a few days later in typical Daly style; making headlines.

Here's Daly's Friday afternoon in brief:

* Daly Bogeyed 10 and 11

* Birdied 12

* Triple bogeyed the 13th after his ball went in the water, this led to confusion when Daly disagreed with an officials ruling of where the drop should be. And somewhat set up the rest of the days events

* Bogeyed the 15th

* Double bogeyed the 16th

* Triple bogeyed the 18th

* Threw putter and ball in pond 30 meters away

* Shook hands with playing partners, Australian's Greg Norman and Craig Parry

* Walked home


It was John Daly's third straight week playing in the Asia Pacific and sadly his mother passed away only a week before arriving in Coolum. Tony Roosenberg the tournament promoter said "It's vintage Daly, but I forgive him. It's been a very difficult week for him."

Daly was ordered by the Australian PGA to write apology letters to his playing partners; Norman and Parry and to the official he abused. And was disqualified for not signing his score card. Daly also received a $10,000 fine.

Divers recovered Daly's putter and ball and they remain in the memorabilia section of the Hyatt Regency golf club in Coolum Queensland. Daly donated his bag and clubs to the Australian branch of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Daly also wrote all the letters of apology before he left Australia.

I'd like to see Golf Australia approach John for the 2009 Australian Open.

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Australian Masters at Huntingdale

The Australian Masters at Huntingdale has become an iconic event on the Australian golf calender since it began in 1979.

Total prize money for the Masters is A$1.5 million, with the winner receiving A$270,000 and presented with the gold jacket which has become a notable tradition in Australian golf.

The Australian Masters at Huntingdale is played over 72 sandy holes, with a course length of 6,383m. The tournament is co-sanctioned by Australasian and European tours.

Greg Norman has won the event 6 times in 1981, '83, '84, '87, '89 and '90.

The list of internationals that have competed in the event include:

* Tiger Woods
* Jack Nicklaus
* Nick Faldo
* Bernhard Langer (winner 1985)
* Mark O'Meara (winner 1986)
* Colin Montgomerie (winner 2001)
* Sergio Garcia

Below is the full list of champions:

2007 - Aaron Baddeley
2006 - Justin Rose
2005 - Robert Allenby
2004 - Richard Green
2003 - Robert Allenby
2002 - Peter Lonard
2001 - Colin Montgomerie
2000 - Michael Campbell
1999 - Craig Spence
1998 - Bradley Hughes
1997 - Peter Lonard
1996 - Craig Parry
1995 - Peter Senior
1994 - Craig Parry
1993 - Bradley Hughes
1992 - Craig Parry
1991 - Peter Senior
1990 - Greg Norman
1989 - Greg Norman
1988 - Ian Baker-Finch
1987 - Greg Norman
1986 - Mark O’Meara
1985 - Bernhard Langer
1984 - Greg Norman
1983 - Greg Norman
1982 - Graham Marsh
1981 - Greg Norman
1980 - Gene Littler
1979 - Barry Vivian

The 2008 Australian Masters commence on the 27-30 November at Huntingdale GC Victoria Australia.

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The Royal Sydney Golf Club, Australia

Name: The Royal Sydney Golf Club
Where: Kent Road, Rose Bay 2029 New South Wales, Australia
Email: administration@rsgc.com.au

The Royal Sydney Golf Club, not only home to the 2008 Australian Open is one of Australia's most exclusive sporting and social institutions.

Opening in Concord in 1893, but shortly moving to Bondi, it is New South Wales second oldest golf club. The present clubhouse dates from 1922, following the destruction by fire of the previous clubhouse which opened in April 1905

The original membership of twenty men grew to 500 by 1910 and 2,000 by 1926. In 1985, women were admitted as members. In 1993, membership stood at 5,800, making The Royal Sydney Golf Club one of the largest sporting clubs in the western world.

There are over 2,000 members of Royal Sydney Golf Club play on the two courses; the world famous Championship Course and the less challenging, 9-hole Centenary Course. The long and short practice facilities are amazing and the practice putting course is one of the best in the world.

The Royal Sydney is a situated on the Pacific Ocean. It's heavily bunkered and especially demanding in any wind.

Dr Alistair Mackenzie was a Scottish golf course architect who had designed over 400 golf courses across the world, including Cypress Point and Augusta National (alongside Bobby Jones) noted this on his visit to Royal Sydney in 1926. "At first sight the land on which Royal Sydney Golf Course is situated appears flat, but in reality this is by no means the case, as it is full of minor undulations and excellent golfing features similar to those of the best sea side courses. Undulating ground of this kind with a complete absence of hilliness is exceptionally adaptable to the construction of holes which should compare favorably with the best Championship courses in Britain.

The greens are excellent and I do not know of any fairways which are superior. The course, however, suffers from similar defects to those which are almost universal in Australia and these are due to the fact that the design and construction has been done from a penal standpoint instead of a strategic. Few bunkers are of any interest which do not influence the line of play to the hole and bunkers on the sides of the fairway are not only of little interest but actually create bad players owing to their cramping effect. Fully three quarters of the bunkers at Rose Bay should be converted into grassy hollows. I am suggesting a completely new scheme of bunkering which will have the effect of giving alternative routes to every class of player and thus providing enjoyable golf to everyone and moreover stimulating the scratch man to improve his game."

The Championship Course has hosted the Australian Open Championships (11 times), the Australian PGA Championship and the Australian Men's and Ladies Amateur Championships. Royal Sydney provides professional and efficiently run tournaments, not to mention it's incredible location. Golfing legends Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Greg Norman and Peter Thomson have all been tested at Australian major championships at Royal Sydney.

Holes: 18
Par: 72
Men's: 6,054m
Ladies: 5,258m
Bunkers: 121
Fairways: Wintergreen Couch
Tee areas: Wintergreen Couch/Santa Anna Couch
Greens: Penn G2

The Centenary Course, is a short 9-hole at Royal Sydney. Course architect, Thomson Wolveridge Perrett designed the 1997 rebuild to utilize every golf club in the bag. Water comes into play on six of the nine holes, complementing undulating terrain, tight fairways and small contoured greens. The Centenary Course caters perfectly to beginners and older golfers, while still presenting a challenging round.

Holes: 9
Length: 3,276m
Bunkers: 14
Fairways: Wintergreen Couch
Tee areas: Wintergreen Couch
Greens: SR1019

The Royal Sydney Golf Club is a private golf course. Guests must be accompanied by a member.

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