The National Old Course

The verdict

The Old Course is where The National began, and it set a standard for clifftop drama that the club's later layouts have spent decades answering. Robert Trent Jones Jr routed it across the steep, tumbling land at Cape Schanck and opened it in 1988, embracing the elevation rather than taming it. The result is a par 72 of about 6,300 metres that climbs, plunges and swings back toward the ocean, with Bass Strait filling the horizon and the wind a constant companion on the exposed high ground.

It is golf to be experienced as much as scored. The fairways pitch and roll, the greens sit on natural shelves and saddles, and the views from the upper holes stretch across the peninsula and out to sea. The National has since grown into Australia's largest private members club, with four courses on two sites, but the Old Course retains a special place as the original, the one that proved this wild stretch of coast could hold championship golf. For visitors lucky enough to gain access, it is an unmissable round.

The holes worth the trip

The Old Course makes its character clear from the opening holes, asking you to commit to shots played from sloping lies to greens perched on the natural contours of the land. Robert Trent Jones Jr leaned into the elevation rather than flattening it, so judging the effect of slope and the ever present wind on distance becomes the central skill of the round. Big hitters can take on the hills, but the smart player thinks first about the angle into each green.

The signature is the short par 3 seventh, the most photographed hole on the property and one of the prettiest one shotters on the peninsula. It plays about 150 yards over a deep gully to a green set against the sparkling blue of Bass Strait, with coastal views from tee to green and a swirling breeze that turns a wedge into a genuine decision. It is the hole every visitor wants a photograph of, and it more than earns the attention.

Around it, the routing keeps delivering coastal theater: downhill drives toward the sea, approaches played across folds in the ground, and several greens framed by tea tree and native scrub. The closing holes bring the high ground and the views back into play, so the round finishes the way it started, with the ocean as a backdrop and the wind having the final word.

Where to stay nearby

The Mornington Peninsula is one of Victoria's most rewarding short break regions, so there is no shortage of comfortable bases near Cape Schanck. The villages of Sorrento and Portsea offer boutique hotels and fine dining at the peninsula's tip, while the hinterland around Red Hill and Main Ridge adds cellar door wineries, hot springs and country lodges within a short drive of the golf.

Most visiting golfers fold The National into a wider Melbourne and Mornington trip, pairing the peninsula's clifftop courses with the famous Sandbelt closer to the city. It makes an ideal anchor for a long weekend built around great golf, good wine and the dramatic coast of southern Victoria.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts on the Mornington Peninsula.