The National Golf Club – Moonah Course

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

About

Course Architect: Greg Norman
Number of Holes: 18
Par: 72
Distances: 7,192 Yards / 6,576 Metres
Course Type: Links
Club Type: Golf Club
Address: The Cups Dr., Cape Schanck VIC 3939
Contact Us: [email protected]

Location

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The National Golf Club is one of the World’s best golfing facilities, with access to 72 holes of golf, 3 courses on site and 1 course a 30-minute drive away, it doesn’t get any better. The National Golf Club is a private members club that allows guests through invites by current members, external group play on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and reciprocal rights with select clubs, so playing there is easy enough to do with any degree of forward thinking. The Golf Club’s three onsite courses were designed by the greats: The Old Course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jnr, the Moonah Course by Greg Norman, and what was the old Ocean Course was designed by Peter Thomson & Mike Wolveridge, although it has been refurbished and redesigned by Tom Doak in 2019 and since been named the Gunnamatta Course. The offsite Long Island Golf Course was designed in 1938 by Oliver Gordon. The extensive onsite facilities at The National Golf Club are available to use if you have a green fee on the day. Various images supplied by Gary Lisbon.

Golf Course Information

The Moonah Course at The National Golf Club was designed by the golfing great, Greg Norman. It has been voted as the 18th best course in the world by Golf Digest; the Moonah course is seriously good, and more forgiving than its upstairs neighbour, The Old Course. Norman designed the Moonah Course with a minimalist approach that cannot be more different than Robert Trent Jones Jnr’s approach with The Old. It is fairly flat with slight elevation changes on the back nine’s homeward stretch. It is a links course with a modern design; Norman allowed the natural topography of the landscape to shape his golf course so that his touch was the slightest. The greens are true and fairways generally wide, but with undulations that can favour or deter any golfer depending on each shot. That is what gives the Moonah course its playability and volatility as a challenging course; no two rounds are the same, especially if the prevailing south-westerly wind is blowing.

The Moonah Course feels as if it has been there for thousands of years, with long grass curbing many bunkers and in between every hole, landing on the fairway is paramount and the only thing that will keep a scorecard looking rounded at a par-handicap. The greens are generally more forgiving than The Old, however landing far from the hole on any of the 18 can easily result with a run-off or 3-putt. The bunkers are world-class on The Moonah, with jagged edges, long reeds and great variances in size, it looks as if they were always there and the fairways simply grew around them. The effortlessness in which the Moonah Course coexists with the rolling terrain of its surroundings is another notch in the belt for Greg Norman’s design capabilities and a testament to the prime links-land that the complex is situated on.

Venue Information

Practice Facilities

The National Golf Club’s practice facilities are enormous and available to anyone playing golf that day. It comes with a 300-metre driving range with 10 covered bays and 15 open bays, utilising artificial grass mid-week and real turf every weekend. There are two short-game pitching areas with numerous practice bunkers, as well as two very large putting greens to practice on. There are also two nets to practice your swing before your round. There are also golf tuition programs that run on the practice facilities for either individuals or groups, with golf academies for juniors often running year-round. The golf pros at The National offer the full range of lessons and can accommodate any need.

Clubhouse

The Clubhouse at The National Golf Club is extremely large with coffee-to-go and a range of take-away meals before your round, as well as a restaurant that is open every day of the week serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The clubhouse also houses the pro shop which offers all the latest brands in golf accessories, shoes, outerwear, equipment and The National’s own-branded attire.

Rental Equipment

You can rent motorised buggies as well as electric trolleys, but manual pull-trolley’s are complimentary for your round as the complex is large and lots of walking is involved. Standard and premium sets of rental clubs are also available to rent from the Pro Shop. The National Golf Club is a world-class facility and the standards of their rental equipment meet the high calibre of their reputation.