There’s only one thing better than the weekend and that’s a long weekend... or two. In the second part of this limited series, we recommend more three-day golfing adventures with plenty of highlights on and off the course.
MORNINGTON PENINSULA, VICTORIA
Golfers are really spoiled for choice on the Mornington Peninsula. Here is one weekend getaway where you can experience a rejuvenated 36-hole layout and a peninsula favourite just a short drive away.
The Dunes Golf Links has become one of the most popular courses on the mega golf-rich Mornington since it opened for play in 1997. It has attracted plenty of acclaim across the past 26 years, including the blessing of five-time Open Champion Tom Watson, who played the course in its early days and left suitably impressed. He even singled out the par-3 17th as a “truly beautiful golf hole.”
The Tony Cashmore-designed layout is wonderfully undulating and offers a dry playing surface year-round thanks to the deep sandy base found beneath its Santa Ana couch fairways and bentgrass greens Cashmore is humble when talking about the design saying that he just chose the spots for the greens and tees and God did the rest. “We just had to mow everything in between,” he added. Native grasses have been allowed to grow and cover the untouched topography between the fairways, which wind through valleys and over large dunes and lead to the large greens that either sit down in a natural amphitheatre or are left exposed to the elements.
The overwhelming feature of a round at The Dunes is Cashmore’s beautiful natural bunkering, which is a combination of wild rugged expanses of sand with well-placed intimidating pot bunkers.
Cashmore has a real flair for creating great short par-4s and one of the best in his design portfolio is the 310-metre 4th hole. The fairway splits left and right around several mounds. The right fairway is punctuated by three deep bunkers and longer hitters need only carry their drive 225 metres to fly their ball over the sand and set up a short pitch onto the green. The more conservative left fairway route leaves a difficult-to-judge short iron approach into the green, which is guarded by five bunkers.
An easy 10-minute drive north will have you in the Port Philip Bay side village of Rosebud, which derives its name from a cargo ship that ran aground on the beach there in 1855.
By the 1960s, Rosebud was the biggest town on the southern end of the peninsula, and it wasn’t long before it boasted a 36-hole golf course.
The expansive grounds of Rosebud Country Club lie on what was once a pine plantation. In 1962, the club purchased 184 acres and 18 holes, of what is now known as the North Course, were built over the next two years. More land was bought by the close of the decade and construction of the South Course was completed in 1972. Four years later, the club hosted the Australian PGA Championship across its North Course.
While both layouts were widely regarded as fine courses for decades, it wasn’t until the design team at Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead (OCM) revealed a masterplan for the complex in 2019 that Rosebud started to realise more of its enormous potential.
Subtle changes – like altering mowing lines and clearing scrub, along with some extensive bunker rebuilds – were made to both layouts during 2020 and had an immediate positive impact on the quality of the golf.
The clearing of vegetation – particularly on the North Course around the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th holes – exposed vast tracts of sandy wasteland that has added not only to the challenge of these holes but also to their visual appeal.
Of the aforementioned holes, the par-3 13th is a solid test at 169 metres from the back pegs. There is seemingly sand everywhere on this hole, not the least around the edge of the putting surface which is bigger than it appears as you stand on the tee.
Not surprisingly, both the North and South Courses have improved dramatically in the national ranking lists during the past two years and that trajectory is expected to continue.
“Rosebud’s North Course has always been highly regarded but has sometimes been lost in the conversation about the Mornington Peninsula’s best courses simply because there are just so many good layouts in the area. But there have been significant improvements across the layout and is an absolute joy to play,” Top-100 judge Paul Wilson said.
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
LOCATION: Mornington Peninsula, Victoria.
HOW TO GET THERE: Rosebud and The Cups region are about 40 minutes’ drive south of Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs via the Mornington Peninsula Freeway.
GREEN FEES: The Dunes GL – $95 (18 holes, midweek), $105 (weekends). Rosebud CC – North Course $110 (18 holes, seven days), South Course $90.
WHERE TO STAY: The Links Lodge at The Dunes (pictured behind the clubhouse below) opened in November 2021 and has been purpose built for the travelling golfer, with a choice of two-bedroom suites inclusive of separate living area and kitchenette, or king size bedrooms with ensuite.
The four-star Fairways Resort is next to the Rosebud Country Club course and just a pitch away from the clubhouse café, bar, sports bar and bistro. There are 39 generously sized guest rooms, featuring king size beds, contemporary décor, ensuite, flat screen televisions, tea and coffee making facilities, toaster, bar fridge, heating/cooling and private courtyards. There are also Family Rooms and refurbished Spa suites available.
WHERE TO EAT/DRINK: Bistro 62 at Rosebud Country Club offers breakfast and lunch (seven days) and dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. All the menus are based around fresh seasonal produce and if you are partial to a steak, the Cape Grim porterhouse comes highly recommended.
Rosebud is home to some pretty good cafes and Hobson is one of the best of the lot. The all-day menu is a beauty … get there for a late breakfast of eggs on toast and come back later for a Bloody Mary and a burger.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: Finding any spot with a view across Port Phillip Bay, especially late in the day, is a treat. It can be even better with a beverage in hand. Check out the award-winning Rocky Jones distillery, which specialises in a wide range of delicious grape-based gins, and the view is pretty good too.
WEBSITES: www.thedunes.com.au ; www.rosebudcountryclub.com.au
KING ISLAND, TASMANIA
King Island had an enviable reputation for a long time as the origin of incredible produce that was making its way into the kitchens of some of the world’s best chefs right around the world.
That hasn’t changed.
But the opening of world class golf courses Cape Wickham and Ocean Dunes in 2015 thrust King Island onto the global golfing stage and suddenly people from around the world were lining up to visit the Bass Strait Island.
Any golfer who has ever experienced hot golf destinations like California’s Monterrey Peninsula, Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast, the south-west of Ireland or the great Scottish links, will be impressed by these wonder courses.
Cape Wickham Links debuted at No.5 in Golf Australia magazine’s Top-100 ranking less than three months after opening and has been entrenched in the top-four ever since. It is also ranked the No.1 Public Access Course in Australia.
Designed by American Mike De Vries and Melbourne-based Darius Oliver, Cape Wickham easily realises the great expectations of what was anticipated from such a wonderful piece of golfing land on the island’s north-west tip.
It is an outstanding routing, which features eight holes set right alongside the jagged coastline and another two where any approach shot is played toward an ocean backdrop. You can see Bass Strait from every hole. Some holes sit high above the sea, on others you can almost feel the sea spray as you peg your ball on the tee. There are holes built across rocky promontories and others, like the soon-to-become-iconic par-4 18th hole, where a beach lies at the edge of the fairway and is in play for the wayward hitter.
Cape Wickham certainly has golfing substance. There’s no doubt its seaside holes will be the ‘money’ shots to sell Cape Wickham to the world, but this easy-walking routing loses nothing when it heads inland. The wide fairways and dramatic green complexes are playable for golfers of all standards and one of the most enjoyable rounds you will have without getting your passport stamped.
Located just north of Currie and less than five minutes’ drive from King Island airport, Ocean Dunes covers idyllic golfing terrain with fairways that rollover and weave between huge sand dunes, with several holes laid alongside on its two-kilometre stretch of ocean frontage.
Ocean Dunes is the brainchild of Graeme Grant, a talented course designer and superintendent with more than 40 years’ experience.
The spectacular layout opens with a 500-metre par-5 that rises over the crest of a hill as it veers right – around a massive bunker cut out of a dune – between some tall dunes and plunges down to the green set against the edge of the rocky shore. It’s a terrific opener where there are several options from the tee in terms of line and length of your drive, to set up your approach to the green. Once you have reached the putting surface, which is sloped from front to back, take in the views up and down the King Island coast.
The shortest of Ocean Dunes’ holes will be some of the most talked about by players post-round. The 130-metre par-3 4th hole is played across an ocean inlet with rocky edges on both sides of the water. The tee is perched just above the waves, while the expansive putting surface is very wide and features a bunker cut into the middle of the front edge. This pinches the target to its narrowest and has the effect of almost creating two greens, left and right of the bunker.
Another ocean crossing opens the back nine, with the long par-3 10th hole. From the back pegs, the hole stretches to 210 metres and is slightly uphill. Thankfully there are several tees on each hole, making this course playable for all golfers. In the case of the 10th hole, the prevailing wind coming from behind will help on most days, but it will challenge your ability to choose the right club.
And don’t forget the island’s original layout at the King Island Golf and Bowling Club, a superb seaside course just south of the Currie main street that many believe is one of, if not, the best nine-hole layout in the country. In fact, there are actually 12 green complexes with six holes (5th, 6th, 9th, 14th, 15th and 18th) not being played to a shared green, while there are alternate tees for almost every hole.
It is a wonderful course played right down to the edge of the Great Southern Ocean and, as you can imagine, is always played under the influence of the wind, which simply adds to the challenge and the fun.
The King Island Open, played on the first weekend in November, is a 36-hole stroke play event which attracts plenty of visiting golfers from the mainland. The 53rd Open will be played in 2023 and will open on Friday November 3 with a nine-hole ‘Chook’ run, 18 holes on Saturday and Sunday and there will be a four-ball event at Cape Wickham on the Monday. What a weekend!
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
LOCATION: King Island, Tasmania.
HOW TO GET THERE: Regional Express, Sharp Airlines and King Island Airlines offer regular flights from Melbourne, Hobart, Launceston and Burnie/Wynyard.
GREEN FEES: Cape Wickham – $225 (18 holes), $275 (all day rate). Low season rates apply. Ocean Dunes – $205 (18 holes), $250 (all day rate). Low season rates apply. King Island Golf & Bowling Club – $50 (18 holes).
WHERE TO STAY: Staying onsite at Cape Wickham is a great experience and allows golfers to make the most of early morning course access, or you may prefer to have an early morning dip in the waters of Victoria Cove alongside the 18th hole.
Cape Wickham has 16 villas with each room boasting unparalleled views across the course towards the Cape Wickham lighthouse. Next to the villas you will find a half-acre putting green known as the ‘Lighthouse Loop’ – a 12-hole putting course where you can roll some putts and share an ale with your friends.
WHERE TO EAT/DRINK: The Parers King Island Hotel not only has affordable and very comfortable rooms and suites right in the middle of Currie’s main street, but the bistro (open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner) is also outstanding.
And you don’t have to venture too far from the hotel to discover one of the great treats of the island … the King Island Bakery. The pies here are magnificent. Be adventurous and sample some of the gourmet pie offerings, including the legendary King Island crayfish pie. But leave some room as any of the freshly baked sweet treats, made with real cream, are a must.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE: You can’t go to King Island and not visit the King Island Dairy and its incredible cheese store. This is a ‘cheesies’ paradise with award-winning cheeses available to taste and buy. The dairy’s cheese platters, with matching wine and beer, are memorable.
WEBSITES: www.capewickham.com.au ; www.oceandunes.com.au ; www.golfkingisland.com.au
Related Articles
The Great Golf Weekend Guide Part I
Travel Feature: Golf’s Sunny Side
