St Leonards Golf Club

Location: St Leonards, Geelong & Bellarine, Victoria
Address: 282-320 Ibbotson Street, St Leonards VIC 3223
Course: 27 holes · Dolphin nine par 36, Pelican nine par 36, Seahorse nine par 35
Visitors: Visitors welcome
Weekday green fee: $40 (18)
Phone: +61 418 382 464

About the course

St Leonards Golf Club is a volunteer-run club on Ibbotson Street, St Leonards, on the Bellarine Peninsula. It was founded in 1951, when local hotel owner Arthur Blanche built nine holes with sand scrape greens on his own land. That club faded in the late 1950s, but Blanche revived the course in 1963, an 18-hole public course with grass greens opened in 1967 to 1968, and the club was re-formed in 1979. After Blanche's death in 1988 the club took on the course under a series of leases.

In late 2023 play moved to a new course on the western side of Ibbotson Street, which opened on 11 November 2023. It is an inland links: nine large, raised bentgrass greens, each approached from three sets of tees, giving the Dolphin (blue), Pelican (black) and Seahorse (white) nines and 27 hole combinations. Wide Santa Ana couch fairways are cut tight for running approaches, mounding splits several fairways, and native grasses fill the deep rough. Bunkers are used sparingly, with centreline bunkers on the 5th and 7th, water comes into play on the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 9th, and wind is the main defence. An automatic irrigation system is supplied by a desalination plant.

No booking is needed. Green fees are $40 for adults and $25 for under-18s, covering unlimited play for the day, paid in cash or at the Vendi tap-and-go machine near the starter's hut. The course is closed to everyone until midday on Wednesdays for maintenance, and to green fee players until 2pm on Thursday and Saturday competition days, although visitors may enter those competitions. Three electric carts are hired through the Vendi app, at $40 for three hours or twilight and $45 for five hours. Thongs, singlets and work boots are not allowed on course.

There is a nine-hole practice putting green and a hitting net by the clubhouse, plus a practice fairway between the 4th and 8th holes. The refurbished clubhouse, with a bar, wood fire and covered lawn overlooking the final hole, opens from 2pm on competition days.

Green fees

$40 is unlimited play for the day; under 18 $25; no booking needed; closed to green fees till 2pm Thu/Sat; closed to all golfers until midday on Wednesdays; pay by cash or tap machine; closed to all golfers until midday on Wednesdays; pay by cash or tap machine

Planning your round

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