Albany Golf Club

A links-like layout that sits on Middleton Beach, the course at Albany Golf Club was first used for golf in 1900 - two years after the club was established – and it was not until 1963 that the original 9-hole circuit was enlarged to a full 18 holes. It's a personal favourite of Craig Parry as "it plays hard and is never the same".

Occasional sightings of King George Sound can be made through trees and thick bush lining the fairways but this dense coastal vegetation helps to isolate the holes as a rather uninspired routing along the coastline results in many of the fairways running parallel to each other.

Lightly bunkered, the layout provides a raw links golf experience but, even though the club has been renewing a couple of greens every year in recent times, some feel more of the money splashed out in 2000 on a new clubhouse – relocating it from the south to the north end of the course – could have been better spent on the course.

In 2009, the course was heritage listed – an honour the club is truly proud of – and quite an achievement when you consider that in its formative years, golfers had to contend with ruminating cattle and sheep that were keeping the rough down and odious by-products from the nearby whaling station which were used to fertilize the fairways and greens.