Sandhurst Club -
The Home of The PGA of Australia

The wait is finally over! After half a century, a transformation is taking place in Melbourne's internationally renowned golfing heartland.

Sandhurst Club and ausgolf – Golf Membership special offer

Sandhurst Club, the Home of the PGA of Australia, is a modern venue with state-of-the-art facilities and a championship golf setup throughout, and until June 30 a special offer is available for joining as a golf member with the special ausgolf promotion.

Simply email golfmembership@sandhurst.com, quote ‘ausgolf special’ in your subject heading and if you take up membership by June 30 2012 Sandhurst Club will top up your Clubhouse Levy by $200!

That $200 worth of meals, drinks, golf equipment, lessons, practice balls – you choose your reward. Remember this special only applies to ausgolf newsletter readers so please be quick as the offer end on June 30!

The Clubs features

• Just over 30 minutes drive from the CBD of Melbourne via the Monash Freeway and less than 5 minutes from EastLINK, Sandhurst Club members enjoy enviable facilities that include

• Two championship golf courses, both ranked in the top 100 in Australia, both designed by 5 Times British Open Champion Peter Thomson

• The North Course, a links style course and former venue of the Victorian PGA Championship and

• The Champion's Course, featuring a contrasting 'sandbelt' style of course to the more open North Course

• The Club Modern practice facilities, including a 270 metre driving range, practice greens and practice bunkers

• The stunning Health Club, featuring a gymnasium, swimming pool (25 metre-4 lane indoor), two tennis courts and steam room

• Great reciprocal arrangements in Victoria, Interstate and overseas.

Membership costs at present are as follows:

Option 1

 Mid Week Membership. Featuring no wait list and no joining fee, this membership category is $1680 for a full 12 months, or just over $32 a week.

 Midweek membership allows golf play from Monday to Friday, including public holidays, includes mid week health club access, Clubhouse Levy and all competition fees!

Option 2

 Lifetime Membership. Featuring no wait list and no joining fee, this membership category is $3355 for a full 12 months, or just over $64 a week.

 Lifetime membership allows golf play 7 days a week, includes full use of the health club 7 days a week, Clubhouse Levy and all competition fees!
Champions Course 11th hole

To view find out more about the Sandhurst project visit http://www.linkslivingvideo.com.au/Sandhurst21.wmv or visit www.sandhurst.com

Sandhurst Club is a totally new club that combines the benefits of yesterdays tradition with todays modern needs. The Club is a private facility for Members and their guests only.

Forget long waiting lists and crowded fairways. Various membership options are available to suit todays work and lifestyle requirements, including both transferable and non-transferable memberships. 7 day a week playing rights await all who apply, and Sandhurst Club has equal playing rights for Men and Women.

Members enjoy a modern clubhouse with restaurant, wintergarden atrium, members bar and gym, as well as an outstanding grassed practice range, practice bunkers and practice greens. In the near future the village precinct will include tennis courts and a magnificent new clubhouse containing swimming pool, gymnasium and spa facilities.

Membership of the exclusive Sandhurst Club reflects the modern nature of the development; forward thinking management and club structures that provide for a state of the art facility and experience.

Traditional joining fee memberships are available (Lifetime memberships) together with the newer style resellable shares, which can be sold, leased out or bequeathed in a will. The shares are therefore an equity holding transferable right, offering the ultimate in flexibility for todays needs.

Membership numbers at Sandhurst Club will be limited to a maximum of 1900. This, together with equal playing rights for men and women, as well as a great junior program, clearly positions Sandhurst Club as a forward thinking golf club for the 21st century.

Privileged access to other venues

In addition to the two magnificent courses onsite, Sandhurst Club Golf Members enjoy privileged access to play at other PGA Links Managed venues such as Sanctuary Lakes Resort, the Greg Norman designed championship layout in Melbournes west, along with other courses such as Hope Island and Peregian Springs in Queensland. These venues are likely to be added to in the future as PGA Links expands itÕs network of clubs under management and other partner relationships are developed. Furthermore, Sandhurst Club members have privileged access arrangements with the Sandhurst Club located in Bendigo .

The North Course

Designed by Australia's greatest ever golfer, Peter Thomson and world-renowned design team, Thomson & Perrett, the first of the new courses, The North Course is now open to members and their guests. Emphasizing strategic shot making and providing a searching test of golfers short game skills, the open styled North Course features large sprawling greens, where getting to the putting surface is just the start of the challenge!

Borrowing from the traditions of Scotland where Peter Thomson enjoyed his greatest success the course has several distinct features such as the Wall surrounding the 3rd green and the Burn (reminiscent of St Andrews ) which dissects the 9th fairway. Utilising a single, native couch on the fairways provides the North Course with superb conditioning and playing surfaces all year round.

North Course Review

by Selwyn Berg March 2007

The Sandhurst North Course is now well-established as an enjoyable and fair test of golf for its 700 members and their guests. There are four sets of tees; the playing surfaces are a delight thanks to the developer's use of abundant recycled water, and are the envy of many Melbourne golfers whose courses are suffering from the extended drought. There is a great mix of holes, with several clever short par fours and modest par fives. A course that requires the use of most clubs in the bag is always interesting to play. Even from the championship black tees there are no overly long holes, although wind is an important factor particularly on the treeless stretches of the front nine. The second nine has less of a links style, as rural scrub and some of the magnificent ancient River Red Gums which are the signature flora throughout the development come into play. There are also wispy grasses and reeds around the many interconnected waterways. With many planted native species designed to recreate the original vegetation, bird and animal life has been re-established as the cattle have disappeared. Much of the course is set well away from both the clubhouse and the residential development, allowing golfers to enjoy a rustic pastoral setting amongst indigenous species. The course is flat to very gently undulating, trading the ÔwowÕ factor that can accompany dramatic change in elevation for easy walking.

The opening hole is a gentle enough introduction to Thomson's recreation of links style playing surfaces. A wide, very gently undulating fairway with tight, close-mown Legend couch allows the ball to run, and with no trees for shelter, the player who can keep it under the wind will have an advantage. The hard and fast green, wide open in front with humps and swales encourages a linksy bump and run approach.

The second hole, a serious par 4 offers the strong player a heroic challenge if he is to carry the left bunker and earn a simple short approach. For others, the drive must avoid a solitary gum that has been preserved in the fairway, and also bunkering on both sides. The large green is protected by semi-obscured bunkers on the right side together with trademark bumps and hollows.

The first of four par 3 holes, The Wall takes its name from a low stone wall that defines the left and rear of the green, in the style of the remnants of ancient Scottish walls that remain on some links.

Big hitters have a distinct advantage on the Par 5 fourth hole if they can fly the left hand bunkers and reach the green for two. Otherwise, a strategic decision is required for the second shot, as a small bunker about 100m short of the green sits right at the ideal landing spot. Options such as playing left of this bunker, laying up or carrying it will be determined by prevailing conditions and pin placement on the elevated, two-tiered and well-bunkered green. A delicate chip will be required after any missed approach. This is a hole that will reward local knowledge, but even then will play very differently as wind and pin location change.

There's no need to drive anywhere near the impressive wall of bunkers on the left side of the 6th hole, and a good ball that passes the rise in the fairway will run on and simplify the approach which must negotiate quite a narrow gap between greenside bunkers at the elevated split level green. As with the majority of sand hazards on the North Course, these bunkers are heavily fringed by unmown fescues that make for difficult chipping even though they may arrest a ball before it finds the sand, unlike bunkers on the Scottish links that conspire to gather the running ball from hollows and swales without a grassy impediment.

The 7th is an attractive vista from the tee, as the fairway gently rises towards left hand bunkers and then the green before a backdrop of stately gums. Bunkers and wicked slopes at the green defend the hole.

The 8th is a long par 3 to a raised green well guarded by a deceptive short bunker and three more greenside. The tip is to be long, as there is more room at the rear of the green and some friendly mounding to gather the ball. Modest hitters may elect to bail out short and right.

The par 5 9th bends left around a lake, enticing big hitters to play close to the water and the trio of bunkers at its edge in an attempt to shorten the hole. Playing safely to the right away from the water then requires a well-judged lay-up shot to avoid fairway bunkers, mounds and slopes that run down into water hazards on both sides. Once again, familiarity may well aid in shot selection, although it will also heighten the fear factor of execution given the abundance of hazards. The third shot should be a simple pitch across the 'Bluidy Burn' that runs in front of the long green - once again Mr Thomson has incorporated a little bit of Scotland in his design.

The 10th is not an overly long hole, and there's little to be gained from a heroic tee shot that flirts with OOB left in order to carry the corner bunker. A modest tee shot towards, but preferably just left of the huge River Red Gums leaves only a mid iron to this fairly straightforward green. The trees and also some low scrub are a prominent feature on this and many of the back nine holes, including the next where a large gum in the right of the fairway means that a huge draw is not an option, and the drive must be long and accurate to miss the fairway bunkers and set up the possibility of getting home for two on this shorter par 5. If this is not an option, then a highly strategic bunker placement just 70m before the green cleverly occupies the ideal landing spot for a second shot.

The 12th is deceptively wide open from the tee, even allowing a shot struck well left to find the previous fairway. However, only an accurate drive that finishes close to the right hand bunkers will permit a straightforward shot into the huge, elevated green with its dual front bunkers that make an approach from the left extremely difficult. There's a friendly slope down beyond the green which presents some chance of recovery chip. This hole is certainly one of my highlights.

The short par 4 14th is a pretty rural scene from the tee, surrounded by wetland grasses and small shrubs before the fairway, and a row of sandy bunkers and stately gums beyond. A truly heroic option exists to avoid a solitary tree in front of the tee with a big drive across the wetland and up onto the elevated but unbunkered green. The safer method is to lay up left of the fairway bunkers and rely on a good pitch to make birdie.

This is a delightful rustic part of the course, devoid of housing and with good stands of trees and shrubs in the roughs.

It's not the water in front of the tee on the par 3 15th that creates the difficulty, but the length and the large bunkers that guard the front right of the green and virtually dictate a fade for right handed golfers.

There's little advantage to be had by risking a long drive down the left on 16, between the fairway bunker and the treeline, in order to play a bump and run approach. A modest drive that finishes behind the bunker leaves just a simple pitch to the putting surface that has a ridge that runs across its centre and requires the ball to finish on the same level as the pin.

Two large gums frame the Par 5 17th tee shot, but are wide apart and the real requirement is to avoid the fairway bunkers or perhaps carry the left one for strong hitters able to get home in two. For others, it's important to keep the second shot left in order to have a simple approach, and in fact the hole would be much tougher if the bunker that now lurks to the right 100m in front of the green was on the other side! The huge green (which is a single putting surface shared by the 11th) is heavily defended on the right, and has a sandy waste area beyond.

Once again, on the long finishing hole only the strongest of players should accept the challenge to carry water on the left and the fairway bunkers beyond it in order to shorten the journey. A safer drive into the middle of the fairway will still provide good opportunity to reach the slightly elevated green with a lofted club.

The Champions Course

In an innovative first for golf course architecture in this country, the design of the Champions Course will be a dedication to past champions of the Professional Golfers' Association of Australia.

Holes on the sandbelt styled Champions Course will feature a plaque near each tee as a tribute to the relevant skills and attributes of the past champion, after whom each hole has been dedicated.

Some of the most notable features of the Champions Course at Sandhurst Club will be the gentle sandbelt style fairway contours, coupled with the open fronts to greens, and substantially tree lined fairways, in contrast to the more 'hurdle style' experience of the North Course.

Champions Course Preview

by Selwyn Berg March 2007

The second Sandhurst course, the Champions Course, will open late 2007 and will permit Sandhurst to cater for its targetted 1100 members. Justin Trott and Ross Perrett have been heavily involved from the Thomson-Perrett design team. Their offering will be more of a parkland style course, with over 300,000 trees and planted shrubs lining the fairways. Ancient River Red Gums feature throughout the course, lending a distinctive Australiana feel akin to some of our Murray River courses. Several green sites are framed by these huge trees.

Tree planting will be cleverly arranged to allow fairway frontage lots to look into the course, whilst shielding golfers' views unless they turn to look back towards the tees.

The bunkering is deeper and bolder than that on the North course, with ragged greenside bunkers reflecting the style of Melbourne's Sand Belt. Closely mown edges allow balls to run into the bunkers, in contrast with the fringe grasses on the North course. Whilst greens are generally open-fronted, there are some narrow gaps to negotiate for the better player trying to beat par.

There is far more undulation on the Champions Course, with rolling fairways and elevated greens, often quite small and irregular in shape, with bumps and hollows that create a challenge for chipping should the approach shot fail to hold the green. Most greens have several pin placement options.

A cap of 250mm of sand has been applied to ensure good drainage, and the G2 Bent greens and new Legend fairways, some barely one year old, are already in excellent shape, given the abundance of recycled water 1.2Ml per day has been used during the grow-in period, but will reduce considerably once the course is fully established.

With some significant distances between green and tee, and two holes accessed by underpass beneath McCormicks Road, cart use will be more prevalent on this course, and concrete cart paths are included.

Housing is sited well away from the fairways, on elevated land in order to avoid the 100 year flood level, and often beyond a run-off catchment pond system that helps filter out course nutrients before the water joins the site's lake system.

The course will be great fun to play, with multiple tee positions to suit golfers of differing ability, pitching and rolling fairways, and bunker and short game challenges.

Living at Sandhurst

Along with the superb facilities and two championship standard courses having the PGA permanently based at Sandhurst Club will ensure that this is one of the premier golfing venues in Australia .

Unprecedented in Melbourne , the concept of club living at Sandhurst is all about creating a better lifestyle for its members. It also takes the idea of community to a whole new level. All at once providing a sense of escape, and a sense of belonging.

As well as the Clubhouse with its bars, licensed restaurant and members lounge, Sandhurst Club will soon provide a Health Club with pool, aerobics room and gymnasium. Tennis courts will follow.

The commercial precinct will also provide cafes, community services and possibly serviced accommodation and convention facilities. Not to mention the national headquarters of the PGA of Australia and it's impressive golf facilities including golf retail shop.

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