Par-4
Men’s: 391 Metres
Women’s: 337 Metres
Designer:  Alister Mackenzie (1926)

A golf hole with all the ‘trimmings’ can sometimes camouflage a forgettable design, yet holes do exist—seemingly drab—that fairly bristle with sound design principles. Yet, another scenario encapsulates Royal Melbourne’s sixth hole on the West Course: exciting for golfers of all abilities to play; a highly relevant playing challenge; visually striking.

First-time visitors to the sixth tee must deal with an impressive and intimidating sight—a long band of heath, verging on 200 metres—stretching away down the right-hand side of the hole. Like moths drawn to the flame, it captures many tee-shots. Recognising the heritage value of such flora, a club sub-committee undertakes to preserve it, along with the many rare species of wildflowers throughout the thirty-six-hole complex. While the rough and sand dominate your eye-line, there is a vast fairway to the left of this, so most golfers needn’t concern themselves with safe clearance. The shortest tee-shot carry is just under 200 metres, while it  is progressively longer the further one drives to the right—an enticing option for top-flight golfers who seek an advantageous fairway position.

When viewing Alister Mackenzie’s 1926 plan—prepared by Alex Russell—it’s easy to see how he envisaged the sixth hole would be played. The first half of the golfer’s journey heads broadly west, before turning northward toward the green. A solid line indicates the Scratch golfer’s tee-shot line, and it traverses the heath. Another solid line denotes this player reaching the green—on in two—surely too easy? But as the plan was mapped out in the hickory-shaft era, such a carry over the heath could never be considered automatic, or risk-free. To illustrate the shorter hitter’s strategy, a broken line is drawn well to the left of the heath, and then another punctuation signifies the ball coming to rest at the bottom of the hill, perhaps eighty or so metres from the green. 

The Royal Melbourne layout opened in 1931, and Mackenzie’s plan listed the sixth hole as a bogey five of 427 yards (389 metres). A significant change took place in 1936 when a massive bunker complex—the hole’s prime feature today—was added to fortify the already-present heath along the fairway’s right-hand side. The timing of this addition is worthy of deliberation: Mackenzie died in 1934, could such a monumental design element have been contemplated while he was still alive? Did the idea come to the wise men of Royal Melbourne—Alex Russell and Mick Morcom—during the two years following the master architect’s passing, or had they years earlier envisaged the hole with these bunkers in place? Many would love to know. Prior to the 1936 bunker innovation, the hole’s fairway hazards consisted of large bunkers that occupied ‘high’ ground on the outside of the dogleg. Although majestic in appearance, filling them in greatly improved the hole. Indeed, the sixth became more ‘heroic’ as a result, fulfilling a textbook description of the term.

By 1941, the hole had increased in length to 431 yards (392 metres), as golf ushered in the steel-shafted era. Around this time, golfers enjoyed an unimpaired view of the green from the tee, but this vanished following the planting of trees well past the inside corner of the dogleg. Prodigious hitting has never been the sole preserve of the contemporary golfer—prior to tree-planting the sixth hole had been driven on several occasions. An early Club Professional named Alex Orr was one of the more notable to achieve the feat.

When Melbourne’s south-easterly wind is present, the sixth plays downwind and at its easiest. A medium-length hitter needs to consider adjusting their tee-shot line, perhaps being more adventurous than usual and biting off some of the dogleg. A long-hitter can easily run through the fairway unless their tee-shot is shaped from left to right. But when facing a northerly wind—even a gentle one—the diagonally placed bunkers must be given a wide berth from the tee. Relatively speaking, it is the powerful-hitting golfer who is most adversely affected by the northerly. Human nature being what it is, one’s inclination is to not so easily surrender the ‘bold’ line, and so one is more likely to misjudge the wind strength and come unstuck. During professional tournaments when the south-easterly is in force, the field must at least contemplate usage of a three-metal in preference to a driver.        

To return a decent score at Royal Melbourne, it is crucial on many holes to leave your approach shots below the hole. However, when the pin is situated in the front, left-hand portion of the West’s sixth green—barely past a gaping bunker—doing so is fanciful. In the final round of the 2004 Heineken Classic, Ernie Els came to this hole at twenty-one under par with the tournament virtually locked up. Mindful of the problems associated with coming up short, he played long; but it was too long, instead, finding the back bunker. The situation was tantalising: by attempting to get his ball close it would surely run through to the bunker in front of the green; by aiming left of the pin he would surrender any likely chance of par. Ernie aimed left of the pin, but splashed out too strongly. The gallery gasped as his ball trickled down the green, over the keenly shaven fringe, then back down the fairway. The Big Easy doesn’t give much away, but he may well have been shell-shocked after his pitch back up the rise nudged to within three metres of the flag before temporarily ceasing, then rolling all the way back to his feet. The fiasco is commonplace during the Club’s Medal rounds, but here was a golfing hero being made to look fallible—pencilling in a triple-bogey seven. The tournament came alive. Els eventually steadied to return a flawless inward nine of thirty-two, defeating Adam Scott by one stroke to claim his third straight Heineken Classic.

A landmark change took place at Royal Melbourne around the turn of the last millennium when its greens were re-sown with Sutton’s Mix grass. As a result, this green—once Royal Melbourne’s most treacherous—is now a less nerve-wracking affair, although it can still produce humiliating putting experiences for careless, or overly confident golfers.

When compiling this book, I could scarcely believe my luck when one contributor after another nominated a wide range of favourite holes from around the world, and this superb hole had not been selected. It just goes to demonstrate one golfing truth: a golfer’s favourite hole is intensely personal.

Full Swing Golf Services Pty Ltd
Glen Waverley, Victoria, Australia