New South Wales Golf Club - Australia

New South Wales, outside Sydney, lies on the northern headland of Botany Bay, with commanding views over the Pacifit and along the coastline. Captain James Cook landed on the south side of the bay in the Endeavour on April 29, 1770, dispatching a boat that found fresh water at "Captain Cook's Waterhole" just below what is now the 17th tee. The course, which was routed and planned by Alister MacKenzie in 1926, lies between Cape Banks, named after Joseph Banks, one of the botanists in Cook's party, and La Perouse, named for Jean-Franyois Galaup de la Perouse, the commander of two French frigates that anchored on January 26, 1788. The course makes two loops along the coast, Nos. 5 through 7 on the front nine, and Nos. 13 through 16 on the back. The sixth hole presents a spectacular tee shot across the rocky ocean that is reminiscent of the 16th at California's Cypress Point, MacKenzie's masterpiece on the other side of the Pacific.

Royal Melbourne Golf Club - Australia

Royal Melbourne Golf Club, the top-ranked course in Australia, is the most illustrious of the series of masterpieces that stretch across Melbourne's famous sand belt, including Commonwealth, Victoria, Metropolitan, and Yarra Yarra. Founded in 1891, it is the oldest golf club in Australia with a continuous existence under the same name. In 1901, the course moved to a location in the rugged heathland by the racetrack in the suburb of Sandringham, marking the birth of golf in the sand belt. In the 1920s, the club moved slightly east to its present location in Black Rock, and hired Alister MacKenzie to oversee the design. MacKenzie arrived in 1926 to survey the site, the beginning of his historic tour of Australia, and entrusted the realization of his vision for what would become the West Course to Australian Open champion Alex Russell and green keeper Mick Morcom. MacKenzie created a wonderfully strategic design through thickets of ti tree and mimosa, while the scooped out, scalloped bunkering that blends into the shaved, rolling greens has never been surpassed.