Royal Melbourne Golf Club (East Course)

Overview: Royal Melbourne’s East Course is a strategic Sandbelt layout by Alex Russell, set across the sandy, undulating ground at Black Rock. It starts and finishes on the main site and is marked by seven home-paddock holes, smaller greens than the West Course, carefully shaped bunkers, and bold changes in elevation. The opening run mixes a short par four, a long par four, and an uphill par three, establishing the course’s preference for positional play over simple distance. The closing stretch includes the short 15th, the heavily bunkered 16th, and two holes that also form part of the Composite Course.

History: The East Course opened for play in 1932. Russell worked with Royal Melbourne’s master greenkeeper Mick Morcom, having already helped construct the West Course to Alister MacKenzie’s plans. The East’s bunker shapes and green contours reflect that shared design language, but the course is Russell’s own work. MacKenzie had previously sketched a nine-hole East routing that was never built, and Russell incorporated several of those ideas into the finished layout.

Did You Know? The 16th is one of the East Course’s most distinctive short holes. Its uniquely shaped green is cut by a deep front bunker that separates two sections of the putting surface, while more sand guards the left and back. The 17th then becomes the longest hole on either Royal Melbourne course, with diagonal bunkers crossing the line of the long second shot and leaving players to decide how aggressively to attack.