St Andrews Beach Golf

Overview: St Andrews Beach Golf occupies a broad coastal site on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, near Gunnamatta Beach and Bass Strait. Tom Doak's layout uses dunes, native tea-tree, fescue and natural ground contours to create a links-style course with a strong sense of movement. The profile is an 18-hole par 70 measuring 6,640 yards. Some fairways are open and exposed, while others funnel between dunes or vegetation, and the greens often gather or repel an approach depending on the line chosen from the tee. That makes the course playable in more than one style: a golfer can use the ground and run a shot onto a putting surface, or choose a higher approach when the angle allows. The official hole guide shows how much variety Doak found in the site, from a short, risk-and-reward second to punchbowl surrounds and sloping green complexes later in the round.

History: The course opened in 2005 as the Gunnamatta Course, a Tom Doak design developed with Mike Clayton. It began as part of a larger plan for two eighteen-hole layouts, but the second Fingal course was never completed. After a period of closure, the Gunnamatta Course reopened as St Andrews Beach in October 2008 under Golf Services Management, and public access became central to its identity. The club's current guide describes the layout as a links-style course and notes its 2006 national recognition, while Golf Australia records the changes that carried the property from a proposed private project into an established public course. The routing remains deliberately close to the original land, with only limited earthmoving needed beyond shaping greens and building bunkers.

Did You Know? Tom Doak's second hole was inspired by a large blowout sand dune running along the approach. The short par four can be attacked from the tee, but the same dune also narrows the safer line, making one natural feature serve both the strategy and the character of the hole.