Huntingdale,VIC

The Huntingdale Golf Club in Victoria is another prestigious course of Melbourne's famous Sandbelt Area and considered to be one of the Sandbelt's youngest courses, formed in 1941.

History of the Course:

The Huntingdale Golf Club is located in the famous Melbourne Sandbelt Region, and is a classic flat golf course along with long holes.

The Huntingdale Golf Club whereabouts were scattered before the war years but was finally established in the Sandbelt at Oakleigh in1941. Designed by renowned English golf architect, Charles H. Alison, the course consisted of 18 magnificent holes that saw the Huntingdale Club's reputation soar during the 1980's with its hosting of the 1979, Australian Masters Tournament.

However, a redesign of the course was completed before the 1999 Masters Tournament and was performed by the team of Newton, Grant & Spencer to toughen up the competition of the existing course and to challenge professionals at the Masters.

The par 72, 18 hole Championship golf Course of the Huntingdale Golf Club consists of a unique layout distinguished by its flat putting surfaces and long, straight holes. The well manicured couch grass fairways along with its hard and fast rolling greens and the tactically positioned bunkers; all create a formidable challenge, typical of the sandbelt courses.

The course has a majority of long par 4's and is also accredited to having some of the world's finest and toughest finishing holes.

Some of Golf's greatest that have played at the Huntingdale Club are Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Peter Thomson, Ian Baker-Finch, and Tiger Woods.

Course Trivia:

• Home to the prestigious Australian Masters Tournament, the status of Huntingdale club grew in Australian golfing circles, as it was considered to be the equivalent of the U.S. Masters.

• Greg Norman won the Australian Masters 6 times and ruled at the Huntingdale course.

• The MasterCard Masters Golf Tournament is hosted annually at Huntingdale Golf Club and plays host to many of the world's best golfers, making it Australia's premier professional golf event.

• Amongst the holes at the Huntingdale Course, the ones worth being mentioned about are its finishing holes 15 th , 16 th , 17 th and 18 th ; each distinguished with their difficulty of bunkers, sloping mounds and a lake, to play havoc with your score.

The Huntingdale Golf Club is a private golf course. Guests must be accompanied by a member.

As per Australian Top 100 Golf Courses (2006 rankings), the Huntingdale Golf Club has been ranked as No. 33.

As we continue on this tour, we will learn about the other top-50 golf courses in Australia.