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Aug 02, 2023

Melbourne Sandbelt to host Australian Hickory Championship

Sandy Golf Links will host the foursomes event on day one before the championship begins in earnest. The championship will be contested over 36 holes, with the opening round being played at Woodlands

Sandy Golf Links will host the foursomes event on day one before the championship begins in earnest. The championship will be contested over 36 holes, with the opening round being played at Woodlands Golf Club and the final round being played at Kingston Heath. The courses will be set up to play shorter and pin positions adjusted to cater to golf clubs around 100-years-old.

"Some of these clubs are pre-1935; they are the traditional, vintage hickories," Golf Society of Australia President Kim Hastie told Golf Australia Magazine.

"We require that you have to play the old traditional; the 'steels' didn't come in until sort of post-1935, so there are antique ones, so the very traditional old ones, but there is actually now quite a shift to modern replicas, so there are people making modern replicas, but both are allowed in competition."

There will be different categories – with a championship division and a handicapped division – meaning there is something for everybody in the field, which includes professionals and amateurs, to contest.

The event, which takes you back in time, has been co-organised by the Australian Golf Heritage Society (AGHS) and the Golf Society of Australia and is a tribute to the sport's origins. The game began with hickory-shafted clubs and moved to steel in the 1930s. The event itself is developing some extraordinary history of its own.

Historically, the event was hosted in Sydney before the call was made to take it nationwide, as it is a national championship. In 2018, the event went to Royal Melbourne, and they altered the layout to play as close to how it would have in the late 1920s. The event has only recently moved to be played over 36 holes, and the first foursomes title was contested last year when The Brisbane and Royal Queensland Golf Clubs co-hosted the event.

"The Society of Hickory Golfers, which is a U.S based operation, they run hickory events; they have expanded into Europe, and they've pulled all of the European hickory associations together to form the Society of Hickory Golfers Europe," AGHS Captain Les Browne says.

"In Australia, there are a number of different societies; there's one in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, a recently developed one in South Australia and Western Australia. And we basically run hickory events.”

Plenty of talent will venture to the Sandbelt to contest the unique tournament. Players from around the country who have mastered the art of playing hickories as well as golfers from Japan and New Zealand will make the trip. Former champions Darron Watt, Phil Baird, and Alex Sutherland will all tee it up, along with course designer, former touring pro and Golf Australia magzine architecture editor, Mike Clayton.

There has been an impressive collection of past champions, Ian Alexander, World Left Hand Champion Peter Read (seven times), Perry Somers (widely considered as one of the best hickory golfers of all time) and Alan Grieve (former U.S Hickory Champion.)

This year will mark the first time the Australian championship will be played in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Hickory Championship, which will only benefit the sport's growth in the coming years.