The Melbourne Sandbelt Composite Course Challenge

---

Dear fellow golfer,

For more than twenty-five years I have walked the fairways of the Melbourne Sandbelt before dawn, waiting on the light, chasing the moment when a great golf hole reveals itself.

The Melbourne Sandbelt is, to my eye, the finest concentration of golf course architecture anywhere in the world — and I feel I am in a position to be able to say this confidently, having photographed and played extensively around the world.

This “fun” project began with a simple question I kept asking myself out on the course: if I could take the single greatest hole from each of these magnificent courses and string them together, what would that round look like?

The Sandbelt Composite Course Builder is my answer — and now, it is available to you also.

The Idea Behind the Composite Course

A composite course is a round assembled from holes drawn across multiple courses — eighteen holes, but no single club. You become the architect: choosing the opener that sets your nerves, the par 3 that takes your breath away, the closing hole worth the walk in. Every selection is paired with my photography, so you are not building from a yardage book but from the course as it truly looks at its best.

Build Your Own — or Review Mine

You can hand-pick all 18 yourself, browse hole-by-hole, by course or by par, or simply load The Author’s Composite Course — my own selection of the holes I feel combine to create a masterful golf course.

Your canvas is blank and you have 180 holes to choose from. Click through to the Composite Builder section, where you will see each of the holes listed with photos that I have captured to assist you in making your choices. Pars, length of holes and normal stroke indexes are also listed, as are Men and Ladies tees.

Criteria for Choosing a Hole

Quite simply, there is none… it is entirely up to you. However, if you want some idea of things to consider, then take a look at how I went about selecting my course:

• Architectural merit — strategy, shot options and the fingerprints of the great designers of the Sandbelt.
• Photographic character — a hole that photographs as well as it plays, with light and form that tell its story.
• Variety and balance — a spread of pars, lengths and demands so the finished round flows like a real course.
• A sense of place — holes that could only belong to the Melbourne Sandbelt, on its famous firm, fast sand.
• Memorability — the holes you would still be talking about over a drink long after the round.

However you go about it, I hope you enjoy the journey around the Sandbelt as much as I have enjoyed photographing it.

At the end of the process you have the ability to save your Sandbelt Composite course as a PDF to show your friends — or, better still, create a screensaver for your computer so you can relive the images every day. In the future we will be offering the ability to produce an 18-month calendar of your chosen composite course.

Keen to See More of the Melbourne Sandbelt?

My newly released book Great Golf on the Melbourne Sandbelt showcases, through imagery and words, everything that is special about this amazing golf region. If you are interested in a copy then click here to be taken through to the ordering site. The cost of the book is AUD $95, which includes free shipping within Australia. Overseas shipping is also available and listed on the site.

I encourage you to tell me about your composite course and post it to social media, tagging both @garylisbongolf and @melbournesandbelt.

Let the arguments begin!

PS. A word of sincere thanks to my colleague Janet Bowman, who developed the concept of the website and — contrary to my thoughts that it was “too hard” — has created something that is fantastic (and actually quite addictive).