RACV Cape Schanck Golf Club

Perched on the southernmost tip of Victoria's Mornington Peninsula where the Bass Strait crashes against Western Port Bay, RACV Cape Schanck is one of Australia's most visually arresting golf courses. When it opened in 1986, this Robert Trent Jones Jr. design became only the second of his Australian projects—a deliberate statement about its quality. The course features signature Trent Jones elements: vast, sculptured greens (some measuring 80 metres from front to back), enormous open bunkers, and tree-lined fairways that frame dramatic ocean vistas on eleven holes, particularly along a breathtaking back nine that delivers reward for accuracy with increasingly narrow fairways and punishing undulation. The front nine plays solid and forgiving through undulating terrain carved from native bushland; turn onto the back nine and the wind freshens, the vistas expand, and the challenge intensifies. From the 11th tee onward, golfers are greeted with sweeping views of the Mornington Peninsula and churning Bass Strait, while the superb par-3 14th sits as a dramatic exclamation point with ocean and National GC framing the backdrop. Year-round playability is assured thanks to excellent drainage and meticulous maintenance—this is a course that reveals something new in every season.