Kooyonga Golf Club is a private
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
club in
Australia, located in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
at
Lockleys, a suburb west of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
. Members entry is off May Terrace,
Brooklyn Park.
Work on the course started in 1922 and the first nine holes opened on 19 May 1923. In August, the course hosted a country championship, for players from outside Adelaide, won by Mr. Haehrmann from Ambleside. The same month the
Australian Open was played at Royal Adelaide and the opportunity was taken to organise a 36-hole professional event at the club, on the day after the open.
Arthur Ham won the event with a score of 161, a stroke ahead of
Arthur Le Fevre. the course was extended to 18 holes in 1924.
The Simpson Cup was originally for competition between The Kooyonga Golf Club & The
Royal Adelaide Golf Club from 1927 to 1938. Post World War 2 the Grange &
Glenelg Golf Clubs joined the annual competition and in 2008 Southern District and Mid-North District entered teams also. As at 2022 Kooyonga has won 33 Simpson Cups and Royal Adelaide has won 10
Kooyonga has hosted six
Australian Opens (five men's and one women's), twenty
South Australian Opens and two
Australian Amateur Championships.
The world's greatest golfers (including
Walter Hagen
Walter Charles Hagen (December 21, 1892 – October 6, 1969) was an American professional golfer and a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of 11 professional majors is third behind Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tig ...
and the "Big Three" Palmer, Nicklaus and Player) have all played at Kooyonga over its long and rich history.
* Golf icon
Walter Hagen
Walter Charles Hagen (December 21, 1892 – October 6, 1969) was an American professional golfer and a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of 11 professional majors is third behind Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tig ...
played the Kooyonga Golf Course in the 1930s. Sensationally, the Kooyonga Golf Club Secretary of the time was arrested and remanded for embezzling 131 pounds that was to be paid to Walter Hagen and J Kirkwood. However a few years later when asked about Australian Golf Courses, Hagen mentioned Kooyonga as the one he rated extremely highly, describing the course as a "hard test".
*In 1950
Harry Vardon Trophy
The Harry Vardon Trophy is awarded by the European Tour. Since 2009 it has been awarded to the winner of the Race to Dubai. Before then it was awarded to the winner of the "Order of Merit". From 1975 to 2008 the Order of Merit was based on prize mo ...
winner
Norman Von Nida
Norman Guy Von Nida (14 February 1914 – 20 May 2007) was an Australian professional golfer.
Von Nida was born in Strathfield and grew up in Brisbane. He turned professional in 1933, after attracting attention by winning the 1932 Queensland ...
won the Australian Open at Kooyonga
*In 1961 American Golf Great, The King
Arnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous ev ...
defeated
Gary Player
Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...
by 4 strokes at Kooyonga
*The Black Knight
Gary Player
Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...
has won two Australian Opens there and in 1965, the Golden Bear,
Jack Nicklaus was runner up to Player in the Australian Open at Kooyonga.
*Five times
British Open
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
winner, and
Presidents Cup
The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...
winning Captain,
Peter Thomson Peter Thomson may refer to:
* Peter Thomson (golfer) (1929–2018), Australian golfer
* Peter Thomson (diplomat) (born 1948), Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations
* Peter Thomson (footballer) (born 1977), English footballer
* Peter ...
won the Australian Open at Kooyonga in 1972.
*
LIV Golf
LIV Golf () is a professional golf tour financed by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. The name "LIV" refers to the Roman numerals for 54, the score if every hole on a par-72 course were birdied and the number ...
CEO, the Great White Shark,
Greg Norman
Gregory John Norman AO (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian entrepreneur and retired professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 89 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA Tour tournament ...
has played at Kooyonga on a number of occasions, winning the South Australian Open there twice
Greg Norman
Gregory John Norman AO (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian entrepreneur and retired professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 89 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA Tour tournament ...
regarded winning the 1996 South Australian Open at Kooyonga as particularly important for him
*In 2018 the world number 1 female golfer,
Ko Jin-Young
Ko Jin-young (;, born 7 July 1995), also known as Jin Young Ko, is a South Korean professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. By age 22 years, she had won 10 times on the LPGA of Korea Tour, was second at the 2015 Ricoh Women’s British ...
won the Women's Australian Open at Kooyonga
The
Women's Australian Open
The Women's Australian Open is a women's professional golf tournament played in Australia, operated by Golf Australia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia, long co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). Beginning with the 2012 event, it i ...
was scheduled to return to Kooyonga in February 2022, however Covid travel restrictions have caused that event to be cancelled for the year.
The golf course also has a history of high profile members, including
Sir Donald Bradman, Australian Test Cricket player and media personality
Greg Blewett
Gregory Scott Blewett (born 29 October 1971) is an Australian international retired cricketer who played Test cricket and One-Day Internationals between 1995 and 2000.
Cricket career
The son of Bob Blewett who represented South Australia in ...
, Tennis legend
Mark Woodforde
Mark Raymond Woodforde, OAM (born 23 September 1965) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. He is best known as one half of " The Woodies", a doubles partnership with Todd Woodbridge.
Woodforde was born in Adelaide, and joine ...
, Cricket legend
Rod Marsh
Rodney William Marsh (4 November 1947 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian professional cricketer who played as a wicketkeeper for the Australian national team.
Marsh had a Test career spanning from the 1970–71 to the 1983–84 Australian ...
and State Footballer
Andrew Payze among other
captains of South Australian and Australian Industry
Kooyonga Golf Course, albeit exclusive is noted as a significant attraction for interstate and international visitors by the South Australian Government Tourism Commission
In 2022 the Golf Australia Magazine ranked the top 100 Golf Courses in Australia, and Kooyonga was elevated to the number 21 position on that list.
Tournaments hosted
*2021
Australian Amateur
*2018
Women's Australian Open
The Women's Australian Open is a women's professional golf tournament played in Australia, operated by Golf Australia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia, long co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). Beginning with the 2012 event, it i ...
*2007 South Australian Open
*1996-2004 South Australian Open
*1982-86 South Australian Open
*1980 South Australian Open
*1976 South Australian Open
*1972 Australian Open
*1971 South Australian Open
*1966
Adelaide Advertiser Tournament
*1965 South Australian Open
*1964 Adelaide Advertiser Tournament
*1965 Australian Open
*1962 Adelaide Advertiser Tournament
*1962
Australian Amateur
*1961
South Australian Open
*1960 Adelaide Advertiser Tournament
*1958 Adelaide Advertiser Tournament
*1958
Australian PGA Championship
The Australian PGA Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia. It is the home tournament of the Australian PGA. Since 2000 it has been held in the South East Queensland region. The tournament was part of the OneAsia Tour fro ...
*1958 Australian Open
*1956 Adelaide Advertiser Tournament
*1954 Australian Open
*1951 Adelaide Advertiser Tournament
*1950
Australian Open
*1949 Adelaide Advertiser Tournament
References
Further reading
*
V. M. Branson (1983) ''Kooyonga 1923–1983, the Story of a Golf Club''
External links
*
Sports venues in Adelaide
Sporting clubs in Adelaide
Golf clubs and courses in South Australia
Sports venues completed in 1923
1923 establishments in Australia
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