Melbourne Golf – Yarra Yarra

One of the eight clubs that market themselves as true occupants of the Melbourne sand belt is Yarra Yarra, 40 minutes southeast of the city centre.

Founded as a rough, 9 hole course at Eaglemont in 1898, Eaglemont Golf Club, as it was originally known, was also avant garde in that male and female members enjoyed equal rights from the outset.

In 1910 it decided to purchase land near the Rosanna railway station and was renamed the Yarra Yarra Golf Club opening for play in 1911. By the mid 1920’s a move to the sandbelt was pursued and in 1927 land was purchased at East Bentleigh, well south of the Yarra River in the heart of the famous Melbourne Sandbelt.

While not overly long, the course still requires strategic shot making to avoid the insidious fairway and greenside bunkers. Many greens have subtle slopes that means a good (?) shot can trickle and trickle and end up in a bunker.

If there’s a lesson to be learned from these sand belt courses it’s that many players carry a sand wedge with the bottom (bounce) of the club ground down to a very small flat surface (4 degrees). Obviously we weren’t carrying such a club. That’s partially the secret to escaping the bunkers given there is usually a minimal (!) amount of sand to help the ball out.

As we didn’t tee off until nearly 3 pm the long shadows added an element of uncertainty to reading the greens. Between regular visits to those bunkers and weak putting it was a long day.

Fortunately our visit culminated with a wonderful farewell dinner as our group tour came to an end. Lots of speeches and thank you’s with promises to reciprocate visits both at home and abroad.

The Canadians are scattering tomorrow, some still with weeks of holidays planned in New Zealand and other places. A few are heading home as early as possible.

Great new friends, both Australian and Canadian, a real mixture of sights and sounds from a true cross section of the country (although really only a small slice), thousands of miles travel from the tropical north to the sandy south, access to iconic golf courses and on and on. It’s been a long three weeks and there’s a 21 hour flight to get home so we’re not quite done yet.

Mo will be back on the road in a few months with plans to hike a sizable portion of the Camino trail in Spain. Hopefully she will blog her adventure. Stay tuned.