The most significant thing to happen to Australian golf was not Adam Scott winning The Masters. Nor was it Peter Thomson winning five Opens in Britain or Greg Norman carrying the Australian Tour in the 1980s and 1990s.
Players inevitably come and go, and the best ones do leave significant marks on the local game. But unquestionably the most significant months in Australian golf history were the three leading up to Christmas of 1926 when Alister MacKenzie sailed here to redesign Royal Melbourne’s West Course.
Until then, if world-class architecture was the measure, Australia’s golf courses had been rudimentary. But 1926 was the midst of The Golden Age of golf design and great architects across the world were showing golfers how much better the game could be when courses emphasised brilliant routings, interesting strategy and beautiful, natural construction. where an emphasis was to punish the poorest shots of the poorest players.
On the banks of Melbourne’s Yarra River, under what is now the Bolte
