Huntingdale Golf Club

Huntingdale was built in 1941 to a plan by C.H. Alison, Harry Colt’s partner and the architect whose bunkering gave the Japanese language a word for a deep pit of sand. It is the youngest of the great Sandbelt courses and it is Alison’s only Australian work.

For thirty years it was the best known of them, because in March 1979 it staged the first Australian Masters and then held the tournament almost without interruption until the event began rotating venues in 2009. Since then the course has been substantially reworked by OCM Golf, the practice of Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead, who re-routed several holes on the back nine, replaced the old fifteenth and sixteenth, moved a green site and found room for a short eighth that had not existed before.

What it asks of you

A par 72 on the same sand as its neighbours, routed through heavier tree cover, which historically made it the tightest driving course of the Sandbelt group. The OCM work opened up sightlines across the property and changed that balance without removing it.

Alison’s bunkers are the defining feature, deep and steep-faced, and the short holes in particular are defended by them to the point where the choice is the green or the sand. Reviewers are consistent that missing a par three green here means a difficult recovery rather than a chip.

Much of Alison’s original corridor structure survives, so the course reads as a modern layout built on an old frame, and that combination is what has pushed it back up the Australian rankings.

What players say about it

Visitors play by member introduction or arrangement, so the review record is moderate. The notes below summarise recurring themes across specialist golf sites, traveller review pages and player discussion threads. They are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course, and we do not name or quote individual reviewers.

What comes up in its favour

• The renovation is widely praised, and reviewers credit it with reviving a course that had slipped behind its neighbours.
• The bunkering draws consistent admiration, and the short holes are singled out as exceptionally demanding.
• Conditioning is rated highly, and the pro shop and staff are described as welcoming.
• Several accounts make the point that the course now has its own character among Sandbelt layouts that are otherwise all MacKenzie or MacKenzie-influenced.

What comes up against

• It looks and plays as a modern course, and purists who came for 1940s Alison find less of him than they expected.
• The par threes are hard enough that a mid-handicapper can lose several strokes on them alone.
• It is the least storied of the Sandbelt group and is regularly played last or skipped on a short trip.
• Access is by introduction, and the review record is thinner than for a course of this standing.

Getting there and when to go

South Oakleigh is around thirty minutes south-east of central Melbourne, with Metropolitan, Commonwealth, Kingston Heath and Royal Melbourne all within a few minutes.

The course plays all year on sand that drains. Spring and autumn give the most reliable weather and summer the firmest conditions. Visitor access is by member introduction or arrangement.

Green fees

Rates and visitor conditions are set by the club. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, Wikipedia and published architecture and tournament coverage for the history, the Alison design and the OCM renovation, and the club’s own site for access. The opinion section summarises public reviews, guest accounts and architecture writing read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played this course, and nothing here is a substitute for that. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say in what it says. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.