The Metropolitan Golf Club is one of the renowned
sandbelt courses of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
and is widely recognised as one of the finest championship courses in Australia. It is located in
Oakleigh South, in the city's south-eastern suburbs, approximately twenty minutes' drive from the CBD.
History
Metropolitan Golf Club shares its origins with Royal Melbourne Golf Club, which was founded in 1891 as Melbourne Golf Club, with the Royal title being granted in 1895. When the original course at
Caulfield was turned over to housing, Royal Melbourne moved to a new course at
Sandringham Sandringham can refer to:
Places
Australia
* Sandringham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
* Sandringham, Queensland, a rural locality
* Sandringham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne
**Sandringham railway line
**Sandringham railway station
* ...
. Members who remained formed the Caulfield Golf Club, and in 1906 purchased a farm in Oakleigh with a two-storey house. In 1908 they moved to the new course, designed by club member J B MacKenzie, renaming their club as The Metropolitan Golf Club. In 1960, several holes were lost in order to build a school, with replacement holes designed by
Dick Wilson
Dick Wilson (July 30, 1916 – November 18, 2007) was a British-American actor. He was best known as grocery store manager Mr. George Whipple in more than 500 Charmin bathroom tissue television commercials (1965–89, 1999–2000).
Biograp ...
being built on adjacent land.
Course
Metropolitan enjoys a reputation as one of the best conditioned year-round courses in Australia. Prior to the 1997 Australian Open, Greg Norman described Metropolitan's pure
couch grass fairways as the best he had played on anywhere in the world. During the 2001
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, a number of the world's top-ranked players compared the condition of the course to
Augusta National
Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta National, Augusta, or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. It is known for hosting the annual Masters Tournament.
Founded by Bobby Jones and Clifford Rob ...
. The
bentgrass
''Agrostis'' (bent or bentgrass) is a large and very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family, found in nearly all the countries in the world. It has been bred as a GMO creeping bent grass.
Species
, Plants of the World Online a ...
greens are large, firm and fast and are hand-mown right to the edge of the greenside bunkers. In total, there are 103 bunkers on the course and almost every hole is flanked by huge stands of Australian native trees which provide sanctuary to many species of native birds, including the noisy but beautiful
sulphur-crested cockatoo
The sulphur-crested cockatoo (''Cacatua galerita'') is a relatively large white cockatoo found in wooded habitats in Australia, New Guinea, and some of the islands of Indonesia. They can be locally very numerous, leading to them sometimes being ...
and the multi-coloured
rainbow lorikeet
The rainbow lorikeet (''Trichoglossus moluccanus'') is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia. Its habitat is rainforest, coastal bush and woodland areas. Six ...
.
Tournament history
The Metropolitan hosted the
Kirk-Windeyer Cup in 1929, the
Australian Open
The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
in 1930, and the Melbourne Centenary Open in 1934. The Australian Open returned in 1934 when it was won by
Gene Sarazen
Gene Sarazen (; born Eugenio Saraceni, February 27, 1902 – May 13, 1999) was an American professional golfer, one of the world's top players in the 1920s and 1930s, and the winner of seven major championships. He is one of six players (alon ...
, and again in 1951, when
Peter Thomson was victorious.
In 1968, Metropolitan hosted the
Australian PGA Championship
The Australian PGA Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia. It is the home tournament of the Australian PGA. Since 2000 it has been held in the South East Queensland region. The tournament was part of the OneAsia Tour fro ...
; the tournament was won by
Kel Nagle
Kelvin David George Nagle AM (21 December 1920 – 29 January 2015) was an Australian professional golfer best known for winning The Open Championship in 1960. He won at least one tournament each year from 1949 to 1975.
Early life
Nagle was ...
, who defeated a strong field that included
Arnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Since embarking on a professional career in ...
,
Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus (; born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "the Golden Bear", is an American retired professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greate ...
and
Gary Player
Gary James Player (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tour and nine ...
. In 1979,
Jack Newton won the Australian Open at Metropolitan by one stroke from a young
Greg Norman
Gregory John Norman (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian former professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as List of World Number One male golfers, world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 88 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA ...
, who three-putted the final green. The Australian Open returned in 1986, with
Rodger Davis celebrating a popular win, in 1993, when American
Brad Faxon
Bradford John Faxon Jr. (born August 1, 1961) is an American professional golfer. He has won eight times on the PGA Tour.
Early life and amateur career
Faxon was born in Oceanport, New Jersey and raised in Barrington, Rhode Island. He attended F ...
triumphed with a four-round score of 275 (13 under par), and in 1997, when English
Ryder Cup
The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...
star
Lee Westwood
Lee John Westwood (born 24 April 1973) is an English professional golfer. He is one of the few golfers who has won tournaments on five continents – Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Oceania – including victories on the European Tour an ...
defeated Norman on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff after Norman once again three-putted the final green.
In addition to the Australian Open (7 times) and the Australian PGA Championship (5 times), Metropolitan has hosted many other elite professional and amateur tournaments, including the
Australian Amateur
The Australian Amateur is the national amateur golf championship of Australia. It has been played annually since 1894, except for the war years, and is organised by Golf Australia. Having traditionally been a match play event, from 2021 it has ...
(5 times) and the
Victorian Open
The Victorian Open is an annual golf tournament held in Australia. It was founded in 1957 and is the Victoria state open championship for men. It is run by Golf Victoria and is a Golf Australia national ranking event.
The event is held concur ...
, for which it was the regular venue in the early 1980s.
Metropolitan celebrated its centenary year in 2001 and hosted the
2001 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in the first week of January. Sixty-four of the highest ranked golfers in the world competed in elimination format for
US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
5 million and the Walter Hagen Cup, on the course
Hagen
Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...
described in 1930 as "by far the finest course I have played in Australia". Pre-tournament favorite and world number 2
Ernie Els
Theodore Ernest Els (; born 17 October 1969) is a South African professional golfer. A former , he is nicknamed "the Big Easy" due to his physical stature along with his fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victories are four major ...
was knocked out in the semi-final by little known Swede
Pierre Fulke
Pierre Olof Fulke (born 21 February 1971) is a Swedish professional golfer who played on the European Tour.
Early life and amateur career
Fulke was born in Nyköping. He came to represent Eksjö Golf Club, situated in the province of Småland i ...
, who couldn't repeat his effort in the 36-hole final the next day in losing to American
Steve Stricker
Steven Charles Stricker (born February 23, 1967) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has twelve victories on the PGA Tour, including the WGC-Match Play title in 2001 WGC-Accenture Match Pla ...
2 & 1.
In February 2009, Metropolitan hosted the
Women's Australian Open
The Women's Australian Open is a women's professional golf tournament played in Australia, operated by Golf Australia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia, long co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). Beginning with the 2012 event, it is ...
, which marked 100 years of play on the course at
Oakleigh. The event was won by England's
Laura Davies
Dame Laura Jane Davies, (born 5 October 1963) is an English professional golfer. She has achieved the status of her nation's most accomplished female golfer of modern times, being the second non-American to finish at the top of the LPGA mone ...
Metropolitan hosted the
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
in November 2018.
See also
*
List of links golf courses
References
External links
*
{{coord, -37.9119, 145.0902, type:landmark, display=title
Golf clubs and courses in Victoria (state)
Sport in the City of Monash
Sports clubs and teams in Melbourne
1908 establishments in Australia
Sports clubs and teams established in 1908
Buildings and structures in the City of Monash