While it may not have been the performance he wanted on the course, Rory McIlroy’s long-awaited return to the Australian Open lived up to the hype.
Rory McIlroy was blown away by the sea of fans waiting for him, Adam Scott, and Min Woo Lee on the first tee box at the crack of dawn as he got his tournament underway. Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen may have won the tournament, but McIlroy stole the show.
This wave of fans followed McIlroy around the course, as if he were the moon controlling the tides. Jack Nicklaus once called the Australian Open the fifth major, and it certainly had that feel.
What should have made this event even more special was the venue. For the first time since 1991, the world-renowned Royal Melbourne hosted the tournament. But McIlroy called it the second-best course in the city behind Kingston Heath, pumping the brakes on the hype train.
Members may have hoped his opinion of the course would change after playing it. And it has! He now thinks it’s the third best.
Rory McIlroy explains why Royal Melbourne is the third-best course in Melbourne
McIlroy enjoyed the Australian Open, despite his T14 finish, seven shots back from the leader. But the course? He admitted to Fried Egg Golf that it left him feeling a little disappointed.
The career Grand Slam winner explained: “I must say, Royal Melbourne, it’s the third best course in Melbourne.
“My thing with Royal Melbourne is that the green complexes are amazing, absolutely incredible. But I feel like, of all the fairway bunkers on the course, there might be one that is in play. There is a lot of blind tee shots.
“You don’t get to hit a lot of drivers off the tees. I’m not saying that you have to hit driver. It would be great if everything was scaled back a bit, then that golf course would play the way it should play. But I just think nowadays it’s just not quite what it once was.
Which tournament would you like to see become the fifth major championship?
The Australian Open, for example, should almost be the fifth major. The market down there is huge with potential.
Rory McIlroy
“Maybe it is a great golf course, and maybe it’s just that technology has made it – I don’t want to say obsolete – but maybe it’s past it by a little bit. The one thing I would say about Kingston Heath or even Victoria.
“But Kingston Heath I feel makes you hit all the clubs in your bag. Whereas at Royal Melbourne, I only hit four, five or six iron off the tees on par fours. I didn’t really hit them. Even the par fives were pretty short. So that is where I feel like it didn’t get you hitting your range of shots.
“I have played it in a couple of different winds and it’s an amazing set of greens and the surrounds and the bunkering and all that. But from tee to until you reach the green, I thought there was going to be more. Not to offend Royal Melbourne members, but sorry!”
So, according to McIlroy, this is yet another course that has fallen victim to technological advances.
Royal Melbourne has a St Andrews problem
None of these historic courses are what they once were, and the reason is exactly what McIlroy described. The courses are simply not being played as they were designed, and golf is suffering for it.
St Andrews is undergoing renovations to lengthen the course and keep up with the modern game. Bunkers are being moved and tee boxes sent backwards as the Home of Golf desperately attempts to provide a real challenge for the best golfers on the planet.
Which four players do you choose?
But when players are comfortably hitting drives over 300 yards (the average driving distance on the PGA Tour in 2025 was 302.8 yards), what chance do these courses have? And the issue might only worsen, as Bryson DeChambeau is developing a new ball to handle his hard-hitting style.
As McIlroy alluded to, it’s not the course’s fault. These once great venues, that posed an immense challenge to players in the 80s and 90s, have obstacles that can simply be bypassed in the modern game.
Until technology is scaled back, you can wave goodbye to some of the most iconic venues in the world as you once knew them.
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