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Just east, a few miles
alongside the Yarra, is the beautiful Alexandra Gardens, and across
the river is the National Tennis Center (home of the Australian
Open). Across the train tracks is the famous Melbourne Cricket
Grounds. The M.C.G. has been the site of many cricket test matches,
along with numerous Australian Rules Football games including “The
Grand Final”. The Grand Final is the Super Bowl of Australian Rules
Football, and the M.C.G. can accommodate well over 100,000 screaming
fans.
For golfers,
the Melbourne Sand belt area is just a 20 minute drive southeast of
town, and it has more than a dozen championship layouts built on a
sandy base, given its namesake. To name a few: Commonwealth G.C.,
Royal Melbourne (36), Victoria G.C., Kingston Heath, Huntingdale,
Yarra Yarra and many more.
As you drive
down and around Port Phillip Bay, you come to the scenic Mornington
Peninsula as it juts out (like Cape Cod) between the Southern Ocean
and Port Phillip Bay. Many city folks flock to the Peninsula in the
hot summer to be cooled down by the ocean breezes. Portsea is on
the tip of the Peninsula, and from the Old Portsea Golf Club you can
see the skyline of Melbourne. Portsea has built a new
state-of-the-art clubhouse and is a great old style links course
that is always a pleasure to play. A few new courses have been
built to make the Peninsula another golf destination such s: The
Dunes Golf Links, The National Golf Club, and Moonah Links (site of
recent Australian Open).
Traveling east,
to Wilsons Promontory National Park, you can stop and see the
penguins walk almost right up to you, a unique site. Inland from
the beach is an area called Gippsland, a hilly but very damp
location, much like Ireland. Going north from there is the Snow
River Country where they filmed The Man from Snowy River. It
is a very mountainous area where enough snow falls in the winter to
ski!
As you make
your way down the mountain and west, you come to River Country. The
great “Murray River” creates a unique oasis. This area is very arid
and dry, but The Murray gives water for growth in the form of fruits
and vegetables along with a speedboat paradise. It is a popular
spot in the winter months for many Victorians, because the climate
stays pretty warm with lots of sunshine and there many well kept
golf courses to play.
The Calder
Highway south will take you to Bendigo and Ballarat, two old
goldmine towns that I remember well. I shot “62” at Ballarat in the
Pro-Am and won the Bendigo Pro-Am with Georgia watching.
Going further
south on the west side of Port Phillip Bay is the quaint town of
Geelong, and it is the start of the Bellarine Peninsula with its
best golf course Barwon Heads Links course. A little further south
on the “Great Ocean Road” is the Anglesea Golf Club in Anglesea.
This unique course has a population of over 1,000 kangaroos and they
crowd the course in the a.m. and p.m. You have to hit around them;
they don’t’ move. As you continue to drive down the “Great Ocean
Road’, it is a beautiful sight to see the rock formations as they
hit the tough Southern Ocean. Warnambool is next and the biggest
town west of Melbourne. It has a great links style golf course
where I shot 63 in the Victoria PGA. Victoria “The Garden State”
has a lot to see, along with the greatest city in the world –
Melbourne!
Join us again for
more
Almost An Aussie-by
Champion Golf Pro Mike Colandro
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