Royal Melbourne Golf Club

Exceptional bunkering and a phenomenal layout. Firm, fast and undulating greens that were a tough challenge. My favourite golf course in Australia.

This was the 1st on the mainland Australia, I am very glad to have been able to do so.

This course it constantly ranked on among the top 10 in the world, so I will surely not focus on describing the layout or the individual holes, too much has been written on that part already by people infinitely more qualified to do so than I am. What I can say dough is, it was great fun to play the course, I did not find it to difficult (even had 2 birdies, which does not happen often when I play a course for the first time) the maintenance is very good, however, I was a bit confused a bout the greens dough. When I spoke with some friends of mine before the trip, all single handicappers or scratch golfers, they were telling me that RM has the best greens in the world, honestly, they were VERY good, but I'm not sure I would classify them as the best, I don't know, maybe I missed something.

The think I would like to mention is the booking process. There is a diametrical difference between what I experienced when doing the booking and what I saw when I arrived at the club. This is a private club so you need to do all the bookings in advance, and I have to say, the process was a bit difficult, you do get the feeling that you really need to work in order to get on the course, the mail correspondence was a bit slow and the people seamed not to really be flexible with the conditions or times etc... It only made sense to me why when I arrived at the Pro-Shop, here, the picture changed drastically, the staff could have not been more friendly and accommodating, they literally catered to all my wishes, there were not problems in switching my booking from the East course to the West (the one I actually wanted to play but could not get a tee time when sending mails), the caddie was ready and waiting for me, they even made some accommodations at the bar and restaurant etc... Really the best experience you could wish for. And this is when it became clear, as oppose to other high ranked clubs, RM, so it seams, does not want to become the most visited club on the planet, creating congestions on the course and having people walking on top of each other in the clubhouse (Trump courses, The Old Course etc.. are on that level). Rather than that, it offers you the filing of being privileged to play the course and enjoy the facilities with some prestige. I think that's the reason why the booking process can seam a bit difficult at moments, I think it's meant to prevent to large of a number of visitors to disturb the tranquility of the club and it's members. And they do that very well! It's just my opinion, but this is how it felt and I mean that in the best possible way, I liked it! And to be honest, if you pay about 800 Australian dollars for a 3 hours round of golf (green + caddie fee), this is what you expect.

Great experience, fun course to play, super friendly staff! A must for every golf fanatic!

Zeer mooie baan. Kostbaar om te mogen spelen.. maar het was de moeite waard. De mooiste golfbaan van Australie die ik gespeeld heb. Moeilijk greens soms zeer moeilijk te lezen, gelukkig gaf mijn caddie zeer zinvolle aanwijzingen snders had ik veel slechter geput.

Die hohe Bewertung dieses Platzes kann für mich nur in der "Geschichte" begründet sein. Zum spielen ok aber auch nicht mehr. Kenne viele wesentlich besser gepflegte und interessantere Golfplätze. Wenn man also nicht auf "Geschichte" steht, muss man diesen Platz sicher nicht gespielt haben.

Après avoir réalisé un rêve, celui de jouer Barnbougle, je pensais limiter les parcours jouer pendant ce voyage. C’était sans compter sur la générosité d’un instagrammeur qui, sans que l’on se connaisse, m’envoya un e-mail et me proposa de jouer dans la même journée Royal Melbourne West & Metropolitan.

Ne laissant pas vraiment le choix à ma compagne, me voilà à 7h du matin devant la grille regardant le live feed de mon drone survolant l’un des plus beaux parcours au monde.

Puis je rencontrais mes 3 partenaires. Un scratch joueur, et 2 top amateurs du pays. Un peu plus de 20 ans, super sympa et des drives à 350 mètres!

Tout d’abord, il faut dire sue le parcours est en parfaite condition (la meilleure selon le membre!).

Les bunkers, fairways, greens sont juste parfaits.

Mais le plus intéressant est clairement l’architecture. Les fairways sont plutôt larges avec quelques bunkers bien placés donc on essaye de se mettre de l’autre côté. Facile. Sauf que voilà. De la, il est impossible d’arrêter la balle sur la green. Chaque coup doit être placé stratégiquement car sinon le suivant n’aura aucune chance. J’adore!

Il y règne un calme total et mes partenaires de jeux continuent de faire tomber birdies et eagles! Un regal.

On finit au clubhouse pour faire un petit break et profiter de cet endroit de paradis à quelques encablures de Melbourne et à un prix très raisonnable en tant qu’invité par le membre.

J’ai vraiment beaucoup aimé mon expérience et la stratégie même si le parcours n’a pas de trou aussi spectaculaire qu’un Barnbougle par ex. Mais RMW mérite clairement sa place dans les meilleurs. Et le composite joué pendant l’Open d’Australie qui combine 13 du West et 5 du East pourrait etre le meilleur au monde...