Commonwealth Golf Club

About the club

Commonwealth Golf Club has hosted just about every important tournament in Australia: the Victoria Open, Australian Amateur and Australian Ladies Open, and Australian Open Championship. It is one of the dozen or so courses, all within a few miles of one another, known collectively as the "Melbourne Sandbelt." Sam Bennett, who went on to become the club professional, designed the course just after World War I. A subsequent club captain, Charles Lane, conferred with British architect Harry S. Colt in the early 2Os when designing the bunkers and greens. Other fine-tuning has been carried out over the years, but the style and character of the course remain much as they were in those early years. Today the course is quite attractive, featuring more trees and vegetation than some of its better-known Sandbelt peers. Like many of those courses, this golfing treasure exists amid a somewhat ugly urban setting.