The sun was setting as a bloke in a Holden Kingswood sedan drove up the fairway, stopped and pulled a mower off the back seat to start attending to a green. That’s what there is to love about Australian golf. Proud volunteer members rolling up their sleeves to get things done. This nine-hole course was a country golf club at heart; but a little different in that this was rolling dunes land on the ocean and next to the town …

Destination golf in the modern era has had its well-known recent success stories in Oregon (USA), Northern Tasmania and most recently on King Island in Bass Strait all delivering world-class links golf. Of a differing style, but nevertheless another successful golfing pioneering story is Danang in the developing Asian golfing nation of Vietnam, where coastal land abounds and is soft dunes in nature. – Harley Kruse Vietnam has been the place on many people’s lips in the golf industry for …

The Australian GC has had four homes and six course incarnations since opening in 1882; SAGCA tracks its remarkable history. As tournaments go the 110-year-old Australian Open is not only the oldest, but also the finest in the country. It is traditionally played on courses amongst the best in the land, indeed highly regarded around the world, and these courses like the event itself are steeped in history. Think of clubs such as Royal Adelaide, Kooyonga, Kingston Heath, Metropolitan, Royal …

2015 not only marked 50 years since Peter Thomson beat the likes of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus to win his fifth Open title (at Royal Birkdale) – but also 50 years in the golf course design business. With a lifetime in golf, Peter Thomson – recently turned 86 – is truly a pioneer and one of the game’s true renaissance men. A self-taught golfer, as a boy Peter would find golf balls in a tramway cutting that …

Much has been said and written about the humble origins of the game of ‘goff’ on the sand dunes of the linksland of Britain. It is by no accident that the best golf courses and indeed collection of courses around the world tend to have been built on parcels of sandy land. All astutely chosen by their creators due to the sandy land’s inherent characteristics most suitable for golf – British linksland, New York’s Sandbelt, Melbourne’s Sandbelt, Monterey Peninsula, Oregon …

Clubs need better awareness of why they should engage the expertise of a qualified golf course architect Recently I attended the launch of a book on the life of Alex Russell, co-authored by Dr John Green and former SAGCA President Neil Crafter. It is an excellent book (see review on page 74) on the man who was Australia’s first home-grown golf course architect. A man whose work, along with the construction team of the Morcom brothers, greatly impressed Dr Alister …