The 2019 Presidents Cup is being played at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, and two dozen of the world's best golfers are taking on what is called the Composite Course at the club.
So, what is the Composite Course at Royal Melbourne?
Royal Melbourne has two 18-hole courses -- the East and the West. The West Course was the original course at the club, built to the extraordinary plans of Dr. Alister Mackenzie, one of the greatest golf-course architects in the history of the game and one of the masterminds of Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters.
After the West Course was built, former Australian Open champion Alex Russell and Royal Melbourne greenskeeper Mick Morcom built the complementary East Course in 1931. Mackenzie had plotted out a nine-hole East Course, and Russell used some of those holes in creating the 18-hole course.
The Composite Course was first used in 1959 when Royal Melbourne hosted the World Cup (known as the Canada Cup at that time). The club decided to use 12 holes from the West Course and six holes from the East Course for the World Cup, creating the Composite Course concept. The holes that make up the Composite Course have been modified over the years as different competitions have had different requirements to test the field.
For the 2019 Presidents Cup, the Composite Course beings on No. 3 on the West Course, playing around to No. 7 on the West for the first five holes. Then the front nine of the Composite Course goes from Nos. 10-12 on the West and straddling the front and back nines with Nos. 17 and 18 on the West playing as the ninth and 10th holes.
The back nine of this composite course uses hole Nos. 1-3 on the East Course before playing East Nos. 16-18, then coming home on Nos. 1 and 2 on the West Course.
In total, the par-71 composite course plays 7,032 yards.
