Kingston Heath Golf Club

Few courses anywhere in the world carry the weight of reputation that Kingston Heath does. Laid out in 1925 by Dan Soutar and later transformed by Alister MacKenzie — who reworked the bunkering during his landmark 1926 Australian visit — the club sits in Melbourne's Sandbelt, the strip of sandy, heathland soil south of the city that produced one of the world's great concentrations of golf courses. Kingston Heath is widely regarded as the finest of them all, a remarkable claim given the company it keeps alongside Royal Melbourne, Metropolitan, and Commonwealth.

MacKenzie's bunkers are the defining feature: bold, irregular, almost theatrical in their placement, they demand strategic thought from the first shot to the last. The heathland vegetation — tea-tree scrub, native grasses, banksias — frames every hole with a character entirely its own, and the sandy subsoil ensures outstanding drainage and firm, fast playing conditions year-round.

The club has hosted numerous Australian Opens and remains a regular on Golf Digest and Golf Magazine's lists of the world's top 20 courses. It is a private members' club, and a round here carries genuine significance.