While Rory McIlroy will grab the spotlight as the career grand slam winner returns to Australian shores for the first time in more than a decade, for diehard golf fans, Royal Melbourne will be the one stealing the show this week.
For the first time in 34 years, the Australian Open will be played on what might be the best golf course in the world.
Royal Melbourne’s West Course is ranked the sixth best in the world top 100 – one spot above the Home of Golf, the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland and ten spots higher than Augusta National, home of The Masters.
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Six-time major champion Sir Nick Faldo insists it should be ranked higher, once saying: “The West Course might just be the best golf course in the world. Period.”
Meanwhile, Royal Melbourne’s East Course is rated the tenth best in Australia by the same panel of seasoned golfers who compile the rankings.
Put the best of both together – 12 holes from the West and six from the East – as tournament organisers have done this week and you get the Composite Course, which Tiger Woods once called “beyond a dream”.
They blend so beautifully that someone unfamiliar with the gem of the world-famous Melbourne Sandbelt would be unaware when players change between East and West.
Woods also said that Royal Melbourne is perhaps the best second-shot golf course in the world.
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The 15-time major champion’s high praise comes as no surprise given the West Course was designed by famed golf course architect Dr. Alister Mackenzie, who was also responsible for Augusta National and Cypress Point, the number one ranked golf course in the world.
With such pedigree, it is clear to see why Royal Melbourne comes with a big reputation.
“It’s just so highly regarded by everyone in the game – from architects to design enthusiasts and golfers who play it. There’s something special about it,” Adam Scott told foxsports.com.au.
“This region is quite special and then Royal Melbourne, it’s something different. It’s got slightly unique features even for this Sandbelt region and everyone gets very excited about the opportunity to play here.”
Earlier, Scott said: “I think winning the Aussie Open at Royal Melbourne has one of those asterisks next to it, where it’s just that little bit more meaningful.
“Just the fact we haven’t played a national open here since 1991 is going to make this a really special one for every Aussie golfer, but I think also for anyone who’s here, if they were to win it, it’s kind of a feather in the cap. It’s something to be incredibly proud of.”
Cameron Smith is desperate to win an Australian Open — and said that if he lifted the Wanamaker Trophy on Royal Melbourne’s fabled grounds it would be that bit better.
“You get the course vibe with it as well… It’d be a pretty special thing to win an Aussie Open around Royal Melbourne, for sure,” he said.
The challenge for the likes of Smith and Scott is that McIlroy, too, has arrived inspired by the sandbelt venue, and desperate to achieve success there.
Speaking at the Australian Open’s official gala event on Tuesday night, McIlroy said that he’s long admired the course and is thrilled to finally have his chance to play competitively on it.
“I think the golf here in the sandbelt in Melbourne is some of the best golf in the world,” he said.
“I’ve only played Kingston Heath and Huntingdale really, so to get a chance to at least play the front nine today at Royal Melbourne was a real treat.
“I’ve watched plenty of tournaments there of the years and it’s amazing. It really is. Such an iconic golf course and I can’t wait to get started with this week.”
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The Composite Course has long challenged the world’s best.
The 1998, 2011 and 2019 Presidents Cup was played on the mashed together layout with Woods producing one of the finest displays of the twilight of his career by guiding the USA to a come-from-behind victory as playing captain.
Almost all of the sport’s legendary figures have shown their greatness on Royal Melbourne’s glasslike greens across many eras.
The likes of Scott, Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, Gary Player and Lydia Ko are among the illustrious names to have conquered the composite course.
The specials ones always shine at special places.
The firm and fast conditions allow for mastery of the golf ball, and the open fairways allow for creativity.
Players regard it as sacrilegious if the ball spins backwards at Royal Melbourne.
Such scenes at Kingston Heath last year off the back of severe downpours drew the outrage of Smith in a fiery press conference, but Royal Melbourne’s director of courses Richard Forsyth has promised from a long way out that his golf course will play in the traditional manner it is highly regarded for.
It has not exactly been baked in sunshine for much of the month leading up to the Australian Open, but golf fans can still expect to wedge shots to bounce forward on the weekend rather than zip back sharply as his common place at PGA Tour events.
“The greens are holding a bit too much moisture, more than we want for the ball to release, but if the weather forecast is right, you’d expect we’re going to get that going into Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” Forsyth told foxsports.com.au.
“That’s our plan, anyway, but you can’t control the weather.
“We’ve had more than double our average rainfall for the month of November, and it’s just kept raining to top things up – which is great for growth, but not so good for firmness.
Forsyth added: “In the ideal scenario, you want the profile to have good deep moisture so that when it does start to dry out, you don’t have to keep topping it up with water.
“So, it’s actually a pretty good scenario.
“If I want to be picky about it, we’d be perhaps a day ahead of this – it’d have stopped raining on Monday or the day before, and starting to dry out more.
“But if we get that 30ish degree day on Thursday and that north wind, I think it’s going to be like flicking a switch.
“The players will have practised on this stuff that’s forgiving and then it might go bang, get fiery and bouncy.”
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – DECEMBER 14: The 16th green Royal Melbourne during the 2019 Presidents Cup.Source: Getty Images
WHAT MAKES THE COURSE SO SPECIAL?
Royal Melbourne’s 36 holes are stretched over four blocks of land, meaning golfers on the West Course must cross the road to play a four-hole stretch, while on the East, players must cross two streets as 11 holes are situated off the ‘home paddock’.
The professionals will not have to dodge any traffic with the Composite Course consisting entirely of holes located on the main block of land where the clubhouse resides, and both east and west courses start and finish.
They will have to tackle some of the toughest greens in the world, however.
Like Augusta National during the Masters every April, the true test of Royal Melbourne comes on the greens.
After winning the 1984 Australian Open, eight-time major champion Tom Watson said: “Those greens scared the daylights out of me”.
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While four-time Ryder Cup winner Sam Torrance recalled, for the club history book The Course of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club by former professional turned golf course architect Mike Clayton, playing an Australian PGA Championship there and his cigarette rolling away from him.
“I had a 15-foot putt, and I smoked normal cigarettes then – not roll-ups – and I threw [my cigarette] down on the green and next thing it’s rolling right down the green,” the Scot said.
“They were the fastest greens I’ve ever seen.”
Off the tee, Royal Melbourne is not particularly tight.
Many tee shots can be played with an iron or with a driver depending on how aggressive the player wants to be, but lines are crucial to ensure a good shot into the much-feared greens.
Otherwise, disaster can await, and the best holes on the course dangle that carrot.
Greg Norman won the 1987 Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.Source: Herald Sun
HOLES TO WATCH OUT FOR
The front nine is no doubt where fans will flock with three of the world’s finest holes bunched together in a four-hole stretch.
The 161-metre fifth hole (West #5) is one of the most famous par 3s on the planet, but it can quickly become a golfing nightmare despite being Adam Scott’s favourite hole on the course.
“As (Tiger) said, you don’t need a 200m hole to test everything about the shot,” director of courses Richard Forsyth told foxsports.com.au.
Hitting over a valley, the green is surrounded by bunkers on either side, and the putting surface also slopes downhill from back to front.
Anything short can race off and leave an awkward chip back up on to the green, while anything long will leave a terrifying downhill putt.
“It’s the best natural green setting I have seen in golf”.
Five-time British Open champion Peter Thomson wrote in his book Peter Thomson’s Classic Golf Holes of Australia that “the view from the tee is inspiring, but even for the best of players the scoring possibilities lie between one and six”.
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“Three and even four putts are common for the careless or over exuberant,” he added.
Immediately afterwards is one of the finest par 4s one will find anywhere in the world – the 391m sixth (West #6).
The dogleg to the right dares players to be aggressive and take on the bunkers down the right to get closer to the green, but once again it is the putting surface that is most likely to bring players unstuck.
In the 1959 World Cup of Golf, legendary American and seven-time major winner Sam Snead putted off the green and into the front bunker.
In the 2004 Heineken Classic, former world No.1 and four-time major champion Ernie Els made a quadruple bogey eight on this hole – one day after shooting a course record 60.
Locals say you should never hit past the flag into the green as the downhill putts can be particularly nasty, as Snead discovered 66 years ago.
Two holes later, the 285m eighth (West #10) will test players as it is regarded as one of the best short par 4s on the planet.
McIlroy during Tuesday practice at Royal Melbourne.Source: News Corp Australia
The drivable hole is incredibly dangerous with the green protected by a monster bunker short left, and a tricky wasteland area long-right.
Norman once said this hole “messes with a good player’s mind”.
“You know you can knock it on the green, but you can make an eight as quickly as you blink,” he added.
Laying up does not necessarily make things easier, with Norman saying, “it’s a very intimidating shot from 70 metres. There is no horizon, no backdrop”.
The back nine is no breeze after those fierce tests, as the quality barely diminishes despite the signature holes being bunched together on the front nine.
Mike Clayton told Golf Digest in the lead-up to the 2019 Presidents Cup that the Composite Course is like a greatest hits album.
“Royal Melbourne is the closest thing you will ever see to Pine Valley, where every hole is great,” the former European Tour player said.
“I can’t think of another course where almost any hole would be the best hole on 90 per cent of courses anywhere in the world.
“That’s Pine Valley, and that’s the Composite Course at Royal Melbourne.”
