Kingston Heath Golf Club

It’s hard to think of another golf course that wrings more excitement out of a relatively unexciting piece of land than Kingston Heath Golf Club.

Kingston Heath's routing, created by Scottish professional Dan Soutar in 1925, makes the most of the property's only large-scale landform, a sandy bulge at the southern end of the site. Several holes — including Nos. 14-17, which constitute a terrific finishing stretch — interact with this rise in a variety of ways. The true testament to Kingston Heath's quality, however, is that the holes on flatter land are just as compelling. Soutar's design works hard to keep things fresh, continually alternating between different types of holes — long and short, straightaway and dogleg. When Alister MacKenzie visited the course in 1926 to draw up a plan for bunkers, he was effusive in his praise: "Never yet have I advised upon a course where, owing to the excellence of design and construction work, the problems have been so simple," he said. The combination of Soutar's layout and MacKenzie's bunkering made the course a showcase for risk-reward design: on every shot, the player can either steer toward safety at the cost of future difficulty or flirt with danger in pursuit of a subsequent reward. For those wanting to learn about the "strategic school" of golf architecture, Kingston Heath is one of the finest textbooks available. To this day, its subtle design, presented with typically firm Sandbelt conditions, remains capable of challenging the best players in the world: the club has hosted seven Australian Opens, and it will be the site of the 2028 Presidents Cup.

Take Note...

Strong stewardship. Kingston Heath is widely acknowledged as the first Sandbelt club to pursue a historically informed restoration plan. Starting in the early 1980s, superintendent Graeme Grant studied vintage aerial photographs of the course and set about reinstating bunkers and removing unwisely planted trees. His work reestablished Kingston Heath’s reputation as one of the world's greatest courses. After Grant's departure in the late 1990s, Mike Clayton — and, later, his former partners at OCM Golf — continued to refine Kingston Heath, recovering its historical character while keeping it relevant for modern tournament golf.

Shorties. In 2003, Kingston Heath added a 19th hole, a par 3 in the northeastern corner of the property. Since it seamlessly connects the first green with the second tee, the hole is often used during member play to give one of the course's other par 3s a break and during tournaments to help with gallery flow. In 2018, OCM Golf (then known as OCCM, as Mike Clayton had not yet left the firm) redesigned the hole to better match the style of the rest of the course. Five years later, OCM built a full short course, the Furrows, along the eastern edge of the site. The Furrows features nine par 3s ranging from approximately 50 to 150 yards.

Doctor's orders. Alister MacKenzie's other major contribution to Kingston Heath's design was to suggest that the 15th hole, originally a drive-and-pitch par 4, be shortened to an uphill par 3 with a platform green and a terrifying bunker short left. Today's 15th is one of the stoutest and most memorable holes on the course, but the 150-plus-yard walk from the 15th green to the 16th tee is slightly awkward.

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