The final round host venue for the 2021 and 2022 Sandbelt Invitational tournaments, Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club has a new role as the site for round two of the Geoff Ogilvy hosted event beginning December 11, 2023, at Victoria Golf Club.
Following rave reviews from the players for the South Course (2021) and North Course (2022), the event, which showcases a field of men and women, pros and amateurs, will return to the South in 2023.
Offering expanded playing opportunities and in-competition learning experience for the younger pros and amateurs through a field and tournament also including experienced players like Ogilvy, the Sandbelt Invitational is the U.S. Open winner and Tournament Director Mike Clayton’s shared brainchild.
“No matter if it is the North or the South Course, playing at ‘PK’ is always immensely enjoyable,” Ogilvy said.
“The club has been magnificent since our inaugural tournament, and I am so happy that it is on my itinerary for this trip back to Australia after playing more on the PGA Tour this year, particularly a return to the South Course.”
Sharing a similar breeding ground to the tournament, Peninsula Kingswood’s current layouts and form was also the result of an Ogilvy and Clayton combination under their former design company OCCM (Ogilvy, Clayton, Cocking and Mead).
The result of Peninsula and Kingswood Golf Clubs merging, the highly acclaimed 36- hole facility officially reopened in 2019 to instant praise, with PK’s South Course the reimagination of Peninsula’s original “main course”.
Ranked 16th in Australia’s Top-100 Courses by both Golf Australia Magazine and Australian Golf Digest, the South now bears a much closer resemblance to the great courses of the Melbourne Sandbelt that lend the tournament its name.
Clearing plenty of the existing vegetation was part of the work undertaken, while some inspiration from Augusta National led to a return of creeks running through the South Course as was planned in the 1930s and ‘40s before Sloan Morpeth designed the original Peninsula.
The South is built on a bigger scale than its northern neighbour, with wider fairways and vistas part of a charm that causes player debate on which layout is preferred, while Peninsula Kingswood’s Pure Distinction bentgrass greens are among the best across Australia.
“Peninsula Kingswood generally is one of the finest golf facilities not just in the country, but perhaps the world. Much like the Sandbelt broadly is one of the greatest collections of golf on the planet,” Clayton said.