Long-time Vic Open host on the Bellarine Peninsula, ranked around No. 32 in Australia and rated among the country's top-five public-access courses; renowned for its par-3 set.
"The short 16th is pure wind judgment -- anywhere from wedge to mid-iron depending on the Bass Strait breeze."
In the 1920s this stretch of Barwon Heads was an asparagus farm owned by the Australian Jam Co. — the old pumping gear still sits beside the 5th tee. Tony Cashmore routed the Beach Course through genuine coastal dune land and opened it in December 2001; a Cashmore/Faldo Creek Course followed in 2004. Since 2013 it has hosted the Vic Open, one of pro golf's genuine rarities: men's and women's fields playing the same venue, the same week, for equal prize money.
Links lovers doing the Melbourne/Bellarine loop who want Vic Open pedigree without a private-club letter of introduction. Pair it with the Creek Course for a 36-hole day.
The three par 3s — 7, 12 and 16 — are the stars, set dramatically in the dunes, with the 16th a postage-stamp test of nerve. The 5th squeezes between water and dunes, the 8th is a par 5 that tumbles over rolling ground, and the 17th's bunkering dominates the approach. In the Vic Open, the 4th plays as the closing hole.
Real links golf: firm turf, dune carries off some tees, and Bass Strait wind that can turn a mid-iron into a driver. Fair for a bogey golfer on a calm day, punishing when it blows.
We couldn't find the Beach Course in the GSPro community catalogs, so this one stays on the real-world bucket list. For the Australian wind-and-firm-turf fix in a Clubhouse bay, queue up Barnbougle Dunes — same run-it-along-the-ground school of golf.
Fully public. Green fees sit around AU$100-130 for visitors — remarkable for a course of this ranking. Book online; mornings go fast in Vic Open season (February).
Source: web verified · high confidence
