Our nationwide search continues with the 10 best golf towns in our most golf-rich state, Victoria. 

The entire country – and much of the golf world – knows Victoria is the beating heart of the game in Australia, but how does the state stack up when you disregard all the courses in Melbourne and the outlying cities and focus on its towns alone? That’s what we sought to decide in the second instalment of our series on the best golf town in Australia (in case you missed it, Bowral claimed the New South Wales leg last issue).

We spoke with several golf-savvy people south of the Murray and leaned on the experiences of our editorial staff to come up with 10 candidates, listed here in alphabetical order.

Barwon Heads

Many would say it became trendy with the release of the ABC TV series “SeaChange” in 1998; golfers might argue its moment came with the opening of the first course at 13th Beach Golf Links three years later. Or perhaps the town has been a golf haven ever since the golf club of the same name began more than a century ago. Whenever Barwon Heads’ moment in the sun first took place, it hasn’t left the golf spotlight since. Meanwhile, its offerings have only become better.

The seaside town on the Bellarine Peninsula is appealing to tourists of all kinds, but for golfers Barwon Heads holds an extra level of charm. The enchanting Barwon Heads Golf Club does own the right to brag as the first drawcard – a wonderful, throwback links and a club where old-school ways accentuate the golf vibe rather than detract from it. But it’s been since the start of this century that the town has become a genuine attraction. The unveiling of the Beach course at 13th Beach helped move things along in 2001, then a few years later along came its sister Creek course (and now a short course, too). The arrival of the Vic Open 11 years ago to such a warm response from the locals only boosted the golf-y feels in the town. Those feelings have been cultivated to the point that the highly successful tournament and the town are now synonymous. It’s a relationship between locale and pastime that’s hard to beat. – Steve Keipert

Bendigo

Bendigo’s golf history stretches longer than 120 years and will continue to with tour star Lucas Herbert adding to it each year. The golf landscape there began with Bendigo Golf Club’s founding in 1901 – decades after the town was a hub of the Gold Rush courtesy of the Central Deborah Gold Mine. Golf grew with the addition of Belvoir Park Golf Club, Neangar Park Golf Club and Axedale Golf Club. In Australian golf circles, Bendigo will always be known as the hometown of Herbert, a three-time winner on the DP World Tour and once on the PGA Tour before joining LIV Golf in early 2024. Herbert, 28, is known for frequently returning to Bendigo when he is back in Australia and visiting his childhood home course at Neangar Park. The par-71 layout is well worth a game to see the narrow fairways and subtle breaks in the greens that produced a multiple winner like Herbert, as well as the delightful nine-hole pitch-and-putt at Neangar. While you’re in this beautiful Victorian regional town, Herbert insists visitors try a chicken parmigiana at Tyson’s Reef Hotel. Just make sure you pronounce it “parma”,
not “parmy”. – Evin Priest

Echuca

Echuca, set on the Victorian side of the Murray River, two hours’ drive from Melbourne, might be renowned for its historic port, paddle steamers, vibrant riverfront and heritage buildings like the National Holden Motor Museum. But in golf, it’s known as a value-for-money destination and, on a smaller scale, as the hometown of Jack Wilson. The PGA Tour of Australasia pro shot to prominence when he finished third behind Adam Scott at the 2013 Australian PGA Championship. Wilson grew up in the country Victorian town and began playing golf at Rich River Golf Club at age 11.

You can see why a talented pro like Wilson flourished in Echuca; the spread of courses ranging from the laidback Echuca Back 9 course to the two layouts at Rich River, which sits just across the border. At Rich River, the West course, which opened in 1979, offers a stern test and its championship quality has allowed it to host a long list of professional tournaments, including the 2023 New South Wales Open. While the West is narrow and treelined, the East course, which was redesigned by Peter Thomson in 1998, is a more open, links-style layout. – E.P.

Healesville

One of the most appealing traits to Healesville – aside from the number of good golf courses with reach of the town – is the fact it’s just far enough outside the suburbs to feel like you’ve escaped, yet it’s close enough to remain convenient. Eventually, however, golfers’ eyes turn to the courses on offer. And there are several – beginning with the RACV Healesville layout that was so artfully renovated in 2009 by course architects Mike Clayton and Mike Cocking. Ultra-short at 4,872 metres, the par-68 layout is also ultra-fun, with several wild contours and dramatic green complexes that require total imagination for approach shots and greenside plays. In many ways, it’s a shame more courses like it don’t exist.

Other courses within arm’s reach of Healesville include Yering Meadows, The Heritage, Eastern and Gardiners Run. What shouldn’t be overlooked is the town itself, a quaint place with a village feel and one of Australia’s most mesmerising roads when you take Black Spur Drive towards Narbethong. – S.K.

Horsham

From 1994 to 2016, Horsham Golf Club held a place in Australian Golf Digest’s biennial ranking of our Top 100 Golf Courses every time bar one (2008), which makes the Wimmera course an anomaly – in a good way. It has the greatest longevity on our ranking of any Australian inland course that’s not part of a city. The club is also a beacon of resilience, having rebounded impressively and admirably from the devastating Black Saturday bushfires of 2009 during which 15,000 trees and shrubs were lost, the clubhouse, pro shop, machinery shed and equipment destroyed and the Sam Berriman-designed course decimated. While it has slipped out of the Top 100 in recent years post-recovery, Horsham remains one of the leading country layouts in the land. Nearby courses include Nhill, Dimboola and Warracknabeal in what is an underappreciated region in the landscape of Victorian golf. – S.K.

Where to eat, play & stay: Coomealla Memorial Sporting Club

Situated just 20 kilometres from Mildura and a quick drive from Wentworth, Coomealla Memorial Sporting Club – fondly referred to as “Coomie” – is a great spot for a Murray River retreat. Whether you’re seeking a peaceful weekend getaway or a round of golf, Coomealla Golf Club boasts a picturesque 18-hole layout along the banks of the Murray. Beyond its fun and beautiful course, Coomie is also a great place to enjoy a family meal or a lively night out.

Mildura

Spoiler alert, Mildura is such a sophisticated jewel in the crown of Victorian tourism that the off-course experience in this Murray River town may draw you away from the golf course. Whether it’s exploring Mildura’s famous Pink Salt Lakes – natural salt lakes that take a pink hue from the red algae growing in the water – or the local chef-hatted restaurants like Stefano’s and The Province By Matt De Angelo, it is one of Australia’s best and most authentic towns. There’s also great golf. Mildura Golf Resort was founded as Mildura Golf Club in 1901 and the current course was crafted among the sugar gum trees. In 1950, the legendary Norman von Nida played an exhibition match at Mildura and posted an even-par 70. Nearby, there’s also the fun and scenic Coomealla Golf Club, nestled on the banks of the Murray, and Riverside Golf Club, where the waterbirds nest in the natural billabongs. – E.P.

Rye

If the quantity and quality of golf on offer were the sole measure here, Rye potentially beats all comers. In the immediate vicinity of the bayside town on the Mornington Peninsula are The Dunes Golf Links, Moonah Links, St Andrews Beach and Eagle Ridge – that’s 99 holes, 72 of which reside in the top half of our biennial Top 100 Golf Courses ranking, each one a tremendous excursion across land just made for golf and every one of them 100 percent accessible to green-fee players. Throw in more high-calibre layouts nearby, including Sorrento, Portsea, Rosebud, RACV Cape Schanck and three of The National’s courses, and you can see why Rye is the hub of Australia’s most decorated golf destination.

The town is enticing even if you remove the golf. At or near Rye are amazing beaches, lookouts, nature trails, wineries, distilleries and the always-impressive Peninsula Hot Springs. Holidaying there is incredible; living there sounds dream-like. – S.K.

Shepparton

No passage of text on Shepparton should venture very far without making mention of Jarrod Lyle, the loveable, courageous and gregarious touring pro whose life was cut so horribly short by leukaemia. Shepparton, 190 kilometres north of Melbourne, was and still is Lyle country. And the man with whom the whole golf-playing nation identified remains indelibly linked to the town and its golf club.

The course at Shepparton Golf Club feels equal parts rural and riverland, the Sam Berriman-designed layout twisting and turning with the natural undulations and providing an array of attention-grabbing shots and vistas. With ochre-coloured bunkers and towering gums and pines, it is a visual splendour as well as a strategic test. Holes dogleg in both directions, with fairways rising and falling in what is a fine test of ball-striking ability and short-game nous. Part country, part Murray but with an identity all its own, Shepparton Golf Club and Jarrod Lyle are linked in more ways than one. – S.K.

Warrnambool

If it wasn’t for Warrnambool Golf Club, Marc Leishman might never have become a professional golfer (and his childhood best mate and caddie, Matt Kelly, might never have become one of the game’s best bagmen). And if Leishman hadn’t become a professional golfer, golf fans in Australia – and around the world – would never have witnessed some special moments on tour and at the majors.

It all started on the windswept links of Warrnambool Golf Club when Leishman was 8. He played his first game of golf with his father at the gorgeous links set just behind native bushland and breaking waves. There are magnificent stretches of holes at Warrnambool, such as fourth, fifth and sixth. These are three par 4s set among the sand dunes, with ti-tree and hilly greens acting as their defence especially when the wind isn’t blowing. “You can birdie all three of them, but you could also lose balls on all three holes,” Leishman once told this publication. The 532-metre 10th is surrounded by ti-tree and is a narrow, uphill, par 5 that runs towards the ocean. The 13th is also memorable; a 120-metre, uphill par 3 to a tricky green.

Aside from the Warrnambool Races, the town will always be renowned within the golf world for having a fantastic links layout that produced one of Australia’s most brilliant golfers. To top it off, the wonderful Port Fairy links is 20 minutes by car from Warrnambool. The question is, who will be the next champion to emerge from this pocket of the Great Ocean Road? – E.P.

What to do in Warrnambool

When in town, Marc Leishman recommends whale watching during winter and, for early risers, watching the racing trainers run their horses along the beach in the morning. This is, of course, before playing golf in the afternoon. As for his favourite restaurants in town, there’s Logan’s Café – “The calamari there is the best I’ve ever tasted” – and the renowned burgers at Kermond’s.

While you’re there…

Check out the wonderful Port Fairy Golf Links, a once unheralded layout now getting the notoriety it deserves. “A gem of a links course with a number of holes that would not be out of place on some of the great courses of Ireland’s rugged west coast. Holes 12-16 may be the best five-hole stretch in the country,” notes Australian Golf Digest Top 100 Courses panellist Ben McIlwain. Green fees are $90 on Saturdays and $80 from Sunday to Friday.

Yarrawonga

To visit Yarrawonga is to get in touch with golf history. Firstly, that’s because Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort, as a golf club, was founded in 1897, making it one of the oldest golf clubs in Australia. Secondly, at the other end of the historical spectrum, the neighbouring Black Bull Golf Club was the last golf course designed by late, great, Peter Thomson before his passing in 2018. The span of Yarrawonga’s golf timeline makes it one of the most important towns in Australian golf.

Now, that’s myself and the other editors being Australian golf history nerds, and the average golfer might think Yarrawonga’s most important contribution to Australian golf, as a town, is being an accessible and affordable golf destination with a stunning Australiana backdrop. That is absolutely true. As the cost of living soars, golf along the Murray is becoming more appealing than it already was; what golfers are getting for their money, both in playing opportunities and resort pampering, is better than most destinations in Australia.

Let’s start with the delightful Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort, with its 45 holes of golf (and yes, we’re aware it is technically located across the border in NSW). The club was founded in 1897 and grew to 18 holes. Sam Berriman redesigned the course in the 1950s, before Thomson and Mike Wolveridge chimed in during the 1980s. Yarrawonga now has the 18-hole Murray and Lake courses, as well as the nine-hole Executive course. Thomson’s contribution across the property is wonderful and inspired by his success on links courses, while Berriman’s work is outstanding, such as the short, par-4 eighth on the Lake course.

Minutes down the road is Black Bull Golf Club. Thomson and his design partner Ross Perrett tried something different with their design and moved away from narrow, treelined fairways known along Murray River golf courses and chose to use the lakeside setting to craft a more open, links-style layout. In doing so, they ensured the wind off Lake Mulwala influences the round as much as overhanging trees, which is inherently more fun and unpredictable. Black Bull also forms part of The Sebel Yarrawonga, the winner of the best “Luxury Lakeside Resort – Continent (Oceania and Australia)” at the 2022 World Luxury Awards. The resort boasts a spa and wellness centre, restaurants and the James McCully Golf School. – E.P.  

Where to stay: Mulwala Resort

Nestled in the picturesque border town of Mulwala in NSW, Mulwala Resort has undergone a slick transformation to a retro ‘Palm Springs’-style that matches the chilled vibe of Mulwala with the sophistication of a boutique resort. Mulwala Resort is just minutes away from Black Bull Golf Club and Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club. The resort is also a stone’s throw from local clubs, restaurants, shops, hiking trails and picturesque Lake Mulwala.

The rooms are complemented by private outdoor areas and the resort amenities include a year-round heated saltwater pool, with private cabanas providing an ideal spot for relaxing and socialising, as does the indoor/outdoor entertainment room and gathering space.

Where to stay: Lake Mulwala Hotel

On the edge of the beautiful Lake Mulwala sits Lake Mulwala Hotel, a comfortable and affordable accommodation offering an idyllic retreat for both family holidays and golf getaways with mates. Lake Mulwala Hotel is perfectly positioned in the heart of town and is just 50 metres from the lake. Guests can enjoy fishing from the banks, walking along the water’s edge at sunrise or sunset, or a dip in the lake’s pool.

The hotel offers tailored function packages, from golf trips and birthday celebrations to corporate events and holiday packages. Guests are welcomed by friendly staff who oversee 17 well-appointed rooms, including family, queen and twin rooms. Each room is equipped with modern amenities like air conditioning, heating, flatscreen TVs, free WiFi, bar fridges and complimentary tea and coffee. Private bathrooms and off-street parking add to the convenience.

And the winner is: Barwon Heads

Aided by a popular tournament but steeped in golf well before the Vic Open came along, Barwon Heads exemplifies what a great golf town can look like. It now moves on to our national final (in the February 2025 issue) as the Victorian representative.