GOLFERS from the Mornington Peninsula certainly aren’t lacking quality courses to choose from according to Golf Australia’s biennial top 100 rankings that were released on Wednesday 13 February.
Golf courses on the Peninsula filled 10 per cent of the nation’s top 100 public access courses for 2019 with the list taking into account courses that are considered “pleasurable” for all golfers of every standard.
The rankings were compiled over the past two years by Golf Australia editor Brendan James and a team of 32 other readers. It focussed on public access courses that offer tee times for visiting golfers, which are willing to pay a green fee, for at least five days a week.
Inside the top 20, the Peninsula had four golf courses make the cut, but it was St. Andrews Beach (Fingal, Victoria) which landed the honours of topping the list for the region.
St. Andrews Beach secured sixth position in Australia’s top 100 after having previously reached fifth (2017) and fourth (2015) place in previous years.
The Dunes Golf Links (ninth in Australia) ranked as the second best golf course on the Peninsula and despite having been in play for 22 years now, it has “rarely looked or played better” according to the judges. The Dunes (Rye) had previously ranked 11th (2017) and eighth (2015) in Australia.
Rounding out the top three on the Peninsula was the Moonah Links Legends course (Fingal) which landed 15th place in Australia’s top 100. According to the judges, it was “one of the most enjoyable layouts to play on the Mornington Peninsula”.
Moonah Links’ Open Course also made the top 100, sitting in 23rd place. Notably, the judges thought that “on a typical Mornington Peninsula day, the Open course at Moonah Links could be the hardest 18 holes in Australia”.
Portsea Golf Club (Portsea) was the final course on the Peninsula to rank inside Australia’s top 20, landing 19th spot. The judges said that “Portsea remains one of the ‘must play’ layouts for any visiting golfer to the Mornington Peninsula” with their collection of short par-3s and par-4s.
Outside of the top 50, the Peninsula had another five courses make the top 100 rankings.
They were: RACV Cape Schanck Resort (58th), Rosebud Country Club’s North Course (69th), Flinders Golf Club (81st), Mornington Golf Club (84th) and Eagle Ridge (97th).
First published in the Mornington News – 19 February 2019
