Green and golden ... Murray Downs Golf Course has wide fairways and lightning-fast greens.
Ahead of the Presidents Cup, Craig Tansley discovers a few rounds by the Murray suit him to a tee.
When the world's greatest golfers land in Melbourne next month for the most prestigious international golf event to hit our shores in 13 years - The Presidents Cup - it's likely they'll arrive by limousine to Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
Many, such as US Captain's assistant Michael Jordan and superstar Tiger Woods, will cross the Pacific by private jet. Others may have to share first class with passengers. It's unlikely, however, that any golfer will arrive in quite the style I've managed today.
I'm commandeering a luxury houseboat down the Murray River, passing flooded river gums, dodging head-strong pelicans and flocks of low-flying galahs to Mildura's Riverside Golf Club.
While Woods, Adam Scott and company will tee off in front of thousands of eager fans, at Riverside there's no one around but cheeky cockatoos and the odd inquisitive kangaroo.
The Mildura region is a vastly understated hot-spot for immaculately manicured and uncrowded golf courses with barely believable green fees (most charge less than $25 a round) and unmatched natural scenery.
While other regions of Victoria - such as the Mornington Peninsula and the Murray region around Albury - hog the golfing limelight, Mildura has seven immaculate courses in a mild temperate climate that allows for year-round golf (even in the middle of winter it is rarely less than 22 degrees).
Playing the golf courses here beside the Murray is like pitching and putting your way through a Drysdale canvas. At Riverside Golf Club, natural billabongs full of native bird life are a feature of most holes, although trying to steer your drives through clumps of gigantic native red gums and box trees can spoil the magic when your ball hits dead-centre.
After an early landing in Mildura from Melbourne, I'm eager to play as many courses as I can manage in a day.
I cross Riverside off my list by lunchtime with a respectable 88, then refuel for the afternoon's round with a platter of local delicacies - fresh-caught yabby is Mildura's best offering to the culinary world - on the banks of the Murray at Trentham Estate.
It's a short drive from there to Mildura Golf Club Resort, where I'll complete my 36-hole golfing adventure. There are more native gums at the Mildura Golf Club than at Riverside, making this course one of the region's most challenging. But the fairways are green and wide and the greens are as immaculate as anything you'll find in regional Victoria.
After a dinner of local steak at the Spanish Bar & Grill near Mildura's renowned Feast Street, I retire to my houseboat.
While Woods and Jordan might bunker down in the confines of Crown Casino's penthouse suites, I revel in the feeling of freedom that comes with a night under the stars sleeping right on top of Australia's longest river.
Mildura has five other golf courses but it's the Murray River's finest course, Murray Downs Golf & Country Club, that most interests me. Although it's located 191 kilometres away near the historic river trading town of Swan Hill, the drive takes you through pretty mallee bushland peppered with outback tracts in a patch of Australia they call sunset country.
Swan Hill's worth a visit for the paddle steamers that still ply the Murray. Just north of town on what was the Murray Downs Station, the golf course has been voted the Victorian PGA's Course of the Year.
For the cost of an average suburban course ($40 for 18 holes), I play a course with wide, rolling fairways and enormous, lightning-fast greens. But it's not for the faint of heart; there might be fewer river gums on Murray Downs but there's more sand than you'll find on beaches along the state's coastline and the kind of water hazards that hypnotise the average hacker, persuading us to drive our balls straight in.
THE PRESIDENTS CUP
THE world's best golfers will play against each other at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club on November 17-20. The Presidents Cup features the top 10 international golfers (except those eligible for the European Ryder Cup team) competing against the top 10 US players. The Presidents Cup will be broadcast to 600 million homes but Victorian golf fans have the opportunity to watch it live. See presidentscup.com.
FAST FACTS
Golf More information on Mildura's seven golf courses can be found at visitmildura.com.au/golf.html. For more information on Murray Downs Golf & Country Club; phone 1800 807 574, see murraydownsresort.com.au.
Staying there Sleep aboard a houseboat on the Murray; phone 5023 3375, see allseasonshouseboats.com.au.
Dining Try lunch at Trentham Estate Winery (see www.trenthamestate.com.au) or dinner at The New Spanish Bar And Grill (see seasonsmildura.com.au). See visitmildura.com.au.
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