What enamored Gene Sarazen in 1934 and captivated Brad Faxon in 1993 will likely still command a dominating presence when competitors arrive for the 2018 Melbourne ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf.
The glory of The Metropolitan Golf Club is that awe-inspiring.
More than 100 years since it became part of the majestic Sandbelt golf landscape in and around Melbourne, Australia, The Metropolitan GC remains a sensation. “It is no exaggeration to say that this course is comparable with anything in the world,” said Peter Thomson on the eve of the 1951 Australian Open at Metropolitan.
Then 22, Thomson would win his country’s biggest golf championship that year, “the Wonder Boy of Australian golf,” proclaimed The Age. Eight years later when the ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf made its first appearance in Australia, Thomson would team with Kel Nagle to hold off Sam Snead and Cary Middlecoff at vaunted Royal Melbourne and give the home fans a victory to celebrate.
Four other World Cups have been held in Australia – three more times at Royal Melbourne, in 2016 at Kingston Heath – so the 2018 edition will be a first for Metropolitan. But in a way, it will be a celebration of Australia’s glorious golf past for it was in 1934 that Metropolitan hosted the Centenary Golf Tournament, the first major international golf competition to be held Down Under. Jimmy Thompson was the surprising winner, but Sarazen expressed great affection for Metropolitan. In fact, “The Squire” vowed a return two years later to take part in the Australian Open, “even if I had to swim the ocean.”
He did, too, remarking to reporters on the eve of the ’36 Aussie Open that Metropolitan was “cunningly trapped.” Having one year earlier captured the Masters to become the first man to record wins in each of the four majors, Sarazen was regarded on par with Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones as the premier players of their generation. But by 1936 he was 34 and set on a lifestyle. He would travel widely for enjoyment, global golf opportunities, and to sprinkle the world with his golf wisdom. No, he didn’t swim to Australia; instead, he made the Aussie Open the middle point of a five-month cruise around the world.