Randwick is a quirky, seaside course which is not unlike some of the underrated and little-known natural links scattered around the coastline of Scotland and Ireland.
When Golf Australia magazine released its ranking of Australia’s Top-100 Courses in January, the incredible West Course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club again claimed the crown as this country’s best.
If you were to run your finger down the list of the 99 courses beneath it, you would not have come across Sydney’s Randwick Golf Club. Nor was it listed among the 40 or so courses that just fell short of cracking a spot among the century-makers.
The fact is, this par-59 18-hole course of just 3545 metres, is not a classic design. Nor is it a championship layout crafted to challenge the game’s finest players.
What Randwick is, is a quirky, seaside course which is not unlike some of the underrated and little-known natural links scattered around the coastline of Scotland and Ireland. These are courses crafted by nature, where the flattest terrain becomes home to tees and greens and whatever lies in between – well, it lies in between. It is raw, natural golf, and with the inevitable influence of wind, it is fun golf.
It is also what you will find at Randwick Golf Club.
Here, the course hugs a rugged stretch of rocky coastline at Malabar, about 25 minutes’ drive south-east of the CBD. It is the same neighbourhood where you will find the globally acclaimed New South Wales Golf Club, and the nationally ranked St Michaels and The Coast Golf Clubs further along the coast to the south. Unlike its more famous neighbours, Randwick offers golfers million-dollar ocean views from every hole.
That wasn’t always the case. The original nine-hole Randwick course, which opened for play in 1932, was laid across relatively flat terrain next to the famous racecourse and on a site occupied today by the University of New South Wales, about six kilometres north of the current layout.
When the NSW Government announced the construction of a medical school for the university in 1959, the club was forced to look for a new home. A mock funeral for the club, where members buried balls and clubs beneath a headstone on the original site, was held.
They need not have mourned, however. The club amalgamated with the Civic Golf Club, which held the lease on some land at Malabar, and PGA professional and course architect Al Howard was commissioned to create the new seaside course. Howard’s Randwick creation, which officially opened for play in 1962, came in the midst of a prolific design career spanning nearly half a century and included acclaimed layouts like Tasmania, Ulverstone, Launceston, Corowa, Indooroopilly, Melville Glades and Cromer.
Very little dirt (by modern standards) was moved during construction. There was no attempt to smooth out the natural ripple, bumps and hollows that litter the fairways. Tees and greens were staked out and levelled, and, just as they would have in Scotland and Ireland, the builders left everything in between as they found it. And the result is terrific and, at times, unique and quirky.
There are 13 par-3s and five par-4s scattered across the small parcel of land wedged between suburban homes and the ocean.
You will travel a long way to find a golf course with five opening holes as interesting, beautiful, individual and fun as what you will find at Randwick. The opening quintet follows the cliff’s edge away from the clubhouse to the far end of the course. The views are worth the modest green fee alone. With waves crashing onto the rocks below, you navigate each hole with some trepidation, mindful of not snap-hooking (for right-handers) your ball into the sea.
The round opens with a 166-metre uphill par-3, where the tee is perched on a cliff top above the picturesque Malabar ocean pool and offers views across Long Bay to Malabar Headland National Park. The small, terraced green lies beyond two deep bunkers also cut into the hillside, while half a dozen surrounding palm trees project a tropical vibe.
It is a very different scene on the 2nd hole, 330-metre slight dogleg right par-4, where the fairway is cut between the base of a rough-covered hill to the right and the cliff top to the left. The fairway climbs to a simple, round green lying to the right of exposed rock bulging out of the ground to create a unique, and troublesome, hazard for those players missing the putting surface left.
The next three holes are all par-3s of very different lengths, features and challenges. The 140-metre 3rd hole is slightly uphill and played from a long narrow tee surrounded by more rocky outcrops. The tee shot needs to fly across a chasm rising up from the rocky shore below and avoid missing the green left, as cliff-hugging scrub will ensure a lost ball every time.
For such a diminutive layout, it is hard to fathom the 4th hole is only the second longest par-3 on the course, with the longest being the downhill 6th at 234 metres. The 4th, however, does play longer than its 204 metres to an elevated green that lies slightly obscured beyond a hill cutting in from the right. The fairway lying between the hill and the cliff to the left looks like a sheet of hailstone-damaged corrugated iron. There are bumps, hollows and pock marks everywhere, which certainly come into play when a strong southerly makes it almost impossible to reach the green from the tee with any club less than a driver.
A similar wind can also play havoc at the next, but for a very different reason. Of all Randwick’s holes, the 5th is perhaps the most exposed to the viciousness of the big southerlies which can batter this stretch of coastline. It is a tee-to-green journey of only 121 metres, but with a big wind blowing from left-to-right, here you have to be brave to hit your tee shot left of the green, over the edge of the cliff, and watch it float safely back onto green. A conservative shot away from the cliff could see you playing your second shot from the deep bunker back right of the putting surface.
There is so much to like about the first five holes, it would be easy to discount the remaining 13 as simply being bit players on this stage. However, there is certainly some fun golf to be played away from the cliff tops.
The 7th is a cracking short par-4, where a narrow fairway winds right-to-left around a lake and up to a green guarded in front by two bunkers. At 264 metres, there will be plenty of players licking their lips in anticipation of making birdie here, but they could easily head to the next having made bogey … or worse.
Randwick’s longest hole comes deep into the back nine. The 351-metre par-4 16th starts the run back to the clubhouse from the far southern boundary of the layout. It is a bunkerless two-shotter, with the only real concerns coming if you miss the narrow fairway to the right and lose your ball in the scrubby bush behind the 3rd green. There are bumps and hollows to be found in the fairway, which can influence your lie and, therefore, your shot selection into a smallish target for a hole of this length.
I played Randwick regularly from the late 1980s and through the ‘90s. It wasn’t my first or second choice of a round in this neck of the woods, but you never had any trouble getting on. Back then, its quirkiness and the views might have been positives, but its conditioning was a huge negative. Today, Randwick has blossomed into the fun layout it always had the potential to be. Now, though, it also boasts fantastic putting surfaces and nicely manicured tees and fairways, which adds to the enjoyment.
So the next time you see a golf publication or website spruiking its latest Australian Top-100 ranking, don’t expect to find Randwick Golf Club listed among the courses. That is, of course, unless the ranking is for the most fun or best value-for-money courses in the country … then Randwick is a shoo-in to feature.
FACT FILE
LOCATION: Howe St, Malabar, NSW.
CONTACT: (02) 8347 3777.
WEBSITE: www.randwickgolfclub.com.au
DESIGNER: Al Howard (1962).
PLAYING SURFACES: Kikuyu (fairways and tees), bentgrass/poa annua (greens).
COURSE SUPERINTENDENT: Josh Bellette.
GREEN FEES: Visitors' tee times are available seven days a week. Check the pro shop for available times. $39 (weekdays); $49 (weekends).
MEMBERSHIP: Randwick offers a range of memberships, including a seven-day ($1015 per year) and a six-day (Sunday to Friday, $875 per year). A $250 joining fee applies to both six- and seven-day memberships. Check the website for other membership categories.
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