The Royal Melbourne Golf Club

History of the Courses

Author – John Green

Cover of the new publication

"..a lovely detailed book on the history of the RM courses...I can highly recommend it... It is beautifully illustrated with period maps and photographs, and with recent photographs of each hole on both courses by the amazing David Scaletti."

- Neil Crafter GolfClubAtlas.com

"Arguably no one is better equipped to write such a book."

- Richard Allen, Captain RMGC 2011

About the Author

Dr Green is a retired medical practitioner who has been a member of Royal Melbourne for sixty years. He has been Club Champion on three occasions, and has served on several club committees, including Green Committee and History and Archives Committee. While having no aspirations to ever design a golf course, John has been a student of golf course design and has written a number of articles for the SAGCA Journal and Paul Daley’s multi-volume series, Golf Architecture – A Worldwide Perspective. On the provision that its qualities distinguish players at all levels, not just those at the top, Dr Green has long championed Dr Alister MacKenzie’s view that the best course is the one that provides the greatest enjoyment for the greatest number.

About the Book

Internal pages showing text and images for the Second West. Note section of the Mackenzie map of his original plan for Royal Melbourne

John’s book concentrates on the period 1901 to 2001; from when the Royal Melbourne Golf Club first moved to its location in Sandringham, through to the time before recent alterations were made to some holes of the West and East courses. The period prior to this, back to the club’s origins in 1891, is also covered; but in less detail, as is the most recent decade and its changes. Royal Melbourne’s West Course and Cypress Point are the two golf courses in the world that remain most faithful to MacKenzie’s original vision. This aspect, alone, underlines the importance of this publication.

Contemporary and historical photographs, plans and illustrations complement and help to clarify the text. Peter Thomson, five-time Open Champion, respected golf course architect and golf writer, penned the Foreword, while David Scaletti, renowned golf course photographer, contributed more than seventy photographs. Paul Daley, publisher of many fine books on golf, was the contract publisher and editor.