Metropolitan Golf Club
​For the architecturally inclined golfer who has yet to venture down-under to sample the joys of Melbourne’s famed Sandbelt, they will no doubt have a rolodex of images burned into their imagination. Firm and fast turf, sandy heath and ti tree flanking fairways, with razor sharp bunker edges eroding chunks of putting surfaces likely form the predominant scenes. Without knowing it, the traits etched in the consciousness of these intrepid dreamers are epitomized at Metropolitan Golf Club across what may be the Sandbelt’s most handsome affair.
Distinctly Sandbelt
Synonymous with the Sandbelt’s cluster of compelling golf, Metropolitan is parked in the heart of a suburban neighbourhood. Remarkably though, it rarely feels like it, with the heaving trees, native heathland and relative quiet blanketing a true sense of isolation into its location.
Perhaps best known for its immaculate conditioning, the club is widely regarded as one the world’s standard-bearers for maintaining ideal playing surfaces. Metropolitan’s green staff find a wonderful balance of manicuring and maintaining everything to the extreme – the purest fairways, firmest turf, fastest greens, sharpest bunker edges, yet ensuring that nothing looks out of place or contrived. Much of this naturalness lies at the hands of the native scrub which skirts the short grass and shapes the playing corridors, adding texture to its immaculate surfaces. Peaceful, natural and impeccably cared for, Metropolitan has carved out a wonderful sense of place.
The attention to detail is obvious
Metropolitan’s square plot of land is relatively compact, its topographic features modest and discreet, though like its neighbours, the dark sandy loam underfoot injected golfing life into the site. A game most engaging when the ball finds energy on the ground, Metropolitan’s soils keep the ball alive for longer than most as it bounds across the turf, granting options and forcing players to match up lines and distances to avoid running into trouble. These firm grounds, maximise the impacts of the land’s gentle rises, falls, humps and hollows, carving continuously pesky and subtle predicaments as golfers attempt to pick lines up doglegs and run balls up to front pins.
The complexities of Metro's flat land at the 10th
With its greens dialled up in their speed and firmness, Metropolitan’s defining trait is the rare intensity and tension from 150 yards and in. Its trademark unsympathetic hazards take chunks out of the putting surfaces, carving tight wings and sectors, whilst sharp run-offs of tight fairway suck balls into pockets of trouble. The severity of the surrounding consequences shrink already tight targets, injecting fear and hesitation into the golfer – decidedly unhelpful when stepping into a flat-out test of execution.
Although there are certainly favourable angles of attack which open up the length of the green, the firmness ensures even the most straightforward pitch commands a proper golf shot. These are the shots where Metropolitan finds its score volatility, as tiny margins – a foot either side, separate threes and sixes.
Knife edge pins flooded with consequence
Rightly or wrongly, what tends to stick with the everyday golfer is the quality of a layout’s set of par threes – likely because their qualities can be easily unpacked within a single swing. What Metropolitan does better than most, is deliver four entirely different one-shotters across relatively docile sections of the property. The variety of hazard placement and construction, paired with intelligently angled and tilted greens, shape distinct visuals into the quartet and force entirely different methods of attack into each. Whilst the attractive visuals of the second and thirteenth steal the majority of the headlines, the long seventh is a wonderful illustration of how Metropolitan’s bunkers bring life to the ground. With a sharp stagger of hazards, the angled front section of the surface subtly requests a running draw while the tip of the land feeds rightward – a wonderful summation of the intricacies of Metro’s challenges.
The gorgeous 7th green
Metropolitan is a course of relentless interest and quality, yet outside the drama of its hazards, there is little to overwhelm. Rather than being dominated by a scattering of memorable moments throughout the routing, it’s the stacking of testing, technical and compelling shots which stays with the travelling golfer – enamoured by the satisfaction of execution. Whilst some may view its gentle terrain as a shortcoming, it stands as an excellent model for what can be achieved on flatter grounds through thoughtful architecture, bold construction of hazards and attractive layers of textured surrounds.
There are few arenas better for travellers to cut their teeth on the Sandbelt golf experience.
A relentless run of high quality golf (9th)
The Second
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Metropolitan’s prettiest one-shotter is tucked in a gorgeous pocket of the property, surrounded by heathland vegetation and towering gums. Stretching to 160-metres, length doesn’t overwhelm, but the gaping hazards which protect both flanks grant an early opportunity for carnage. A wonderful short hole born from little natural interest.
The quaint setting of the second
The Fifth
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A strong contender for the layout’s finest two-shotter, the tee shot plays blindly over a rare rise in the fairway. The wide green sits handsomely in a corner as bunkers bleed out from the left ti-tree. No matter what club is left into the green, the encroaching bunkers and subtle tilt of the surface from left to right demand the proper shape.
One of Metro's finest green sites arrives at the fifth
The Sixth
So often, par-fives are the least memorable set of holes, implemented as connectors rather than features – not so at Metropolitan’s sixth. A sand-laden landing area commands precision from the tee, marrying up distance and line as to not run into a bunker an exacting task. Interestingly, the outside of the dogleg grants the best into the green angled front left to back right. The trademark narrow entry pinched by bunkers, combined with the steep false front puts precision at a premium.
A tee shot loaded with questions
The Eighth
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Though unassuming from the tee, the eighth finds quality and challenge in its last 100-yards with one of Metropolitan’s finest green complexes. A sharp gulley is carved across its front as bunkers erode the left side, whilst the subtle left to right tilt and steep run-offs make approaching from the fairway’s right edge a clear advantage.
The 8th's subtly pushed up green
The Ninth
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The firmness of Metropolitan’s turf, paired with doglegging holes puts a premium on shot-shaping, where a ball flight which doesn’t match the fairway’s swing runs out of room in a hurry. With the fairway carving quickly rightward, golfers are forced to either hit a fade or take less club and lay up to the corner. The aggressive player who takes on the corner will find a clean line at the flag, albeit to a confounding Biarritz green, whilst the bailed-out tee shot faces a terrifying approach over a cavernous trap. A hole simple only in its strategic principles.​
A groove runs through the heart of the ninth green
The Thirteenth​​
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Owing to its broad and shallow surface, the short 13th poses an entirely different question depending on the pin position. Tucked in the front left quadrant the entry is wide open, but the false-front and creeping back bunker squeeze the margin for error and make recovery from either miss a tricky proposition. To a pin jammed in the back right, the test is one of restraint and discipline – there is little sense in attacking the knife edge where both short and long are dead, but with a wedge in hand the middle of the green feels meagre. The flexibility for such a short hole is admirable.
A perilous back right pin on 13
The Sixteenth​​
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The Sandbelt is brimming with wonderful short fours and Metropolitan’s 16th tee may well be the most visually perplexing of them all. A dogleg moving right, a sea of bunkers litters the right half of the fairway – an intimidating look as their faces rise from the ground. The open left side runs out of fairway with a long iron in hand. Like all the best short fours with the green reachable for many, the safest option is not the first inclination, though at the 16th holding a driver on the firm, icked up surface is a near impossibility. A tee shot to the left edge opens up the length of the green and a relatively straightforward pitch, whilst any miss right faces any number of issues in navigating the magnificent hazards and shallow putting surface. The type of hole late in the round which swings matches.
There is plenty to distract from the right of 16