A message from the Victorian Government

Welcome to Melbourne for the 2024 Australian Open!

When we say we’re the sporting capital, visitors tend to think of the MCG. But what makes us the centre for sporting and major events in Australia is the diversity of our world-class venues.

The Melbourne Sandbelt is home to some incredible golf courses, setting the stage to showcase the best of the sport, and the best of Victoria.

And this year’s Australian Open is particularly special. This year marks the 120th anniversary of the first men’s event and the 50th anniversary of the first women’s tournament held in Victoria.

Players in the men’s, women’s and all-abilities championship will tee off on the same two courses, at the same time. It’s an innovative approach that will create a fantastic atmosphere for spectators, both on the course and watching around the globe.

If you’re visiting our great state, make sure you explore all that we’ve got to offer. Melbourne’s CBD is home to world-class dining experiences, hidden bars, rooftop vistas and more. Or keep heading down the coast to the Mornington Peninsula – or across the bay to the Great Ocean Road.

Our government is proud to partner with Golf Australia to bring the Australian Open to life. Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard to make this event a success.

Best of luck to all the players, and have a wonderful time in Victoria.

Hon. Jacinta Allan
Premier of Victoria

A Message from Golf Australia

It is one of the great privileges in my role to welcome everyone to the 2024 ISPS Handa Australian Open on behalf of Golf Australia.

The Australian Open is one of the sport’s great historic titles, and will once again be delivered this year in partnership with the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, WPGA Tour of Australasia and DP World Tour.

To be hosting the event on the world-famous Melbourne Sandbelt once more, and especially at two of the world’s finest courses in Kingston Heath Golf Club and The Victoria Golf Club, is tremendously exciting.

These venues are steeped in history, worldwide acclaim and have played a significant role in attracting the fantastic fields that will challenge for the Stonehaven Cup, Patricia Bridges Bowl and Australian All Abilities Championship.

The combination of top-class golfers playing on world-renown courses is a tantalising prospect for all of us. Golf fans are sure to turn out in their droves to both host venues, and will also have the option of taking in the action via Foxtel and the Nine network, as well as globally through the DP World Tour media network.

On behalf of Golf Australia, our sanctioning partners, the players and fans, I would like to thank the members and staff of Kingston Heath and Victoria for welcoming this great championship, as well as our commercial partners, in particular title sponsor ISPS Handa.

Victoria is a brilliant golf destination, and the Victorian Government continues to be a great supporter of our sport and major golf events. We are grateful to the government, and the team at Visit Victoria, for their role in bringing the Australian Open back to the Sandbelt.

Here’s to another memorable, competitive ISPS Handa Australian Open.

James Sutherland
Chief Executive, Golf Australia

Welcome to the ISPS HANDA Australian Open

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2024 ISPS Handa Australian Open Championship, hosted at the outstanding Kingston Heath and The Victoria golf clubs. This marks our third time as title sponsor of this iconic event, which continues to be revered for its rich history and its legacy of distinguished champions.

Our partnership with Golf Australia, however, dates back much further, beginning in 2010 with the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open Championship, a relationship we proudly maintained until the 2020 event, before the global disruption caused by COVID-19. We are thrilled to continue our enduring relationship with Golf Australia, united by a shared vision to harness the power of sport to create meaningful change in our communities.

At ISPS Handa, we are deeply committed to improving access to sport for people with disabilities and maximise the ways that sport can improve their lives and create opportunities. We are immensely proud to be the title sponsor of the ISPS Handa Australian All Abilities Championship, a role we have held since the first event in 2018. We firmly believe golf deserves a place in the Paralympic Games, and we hope our championship can play a positive role in achieving this.

For more than 30 years, I’ve had the privilege of supporting golf in Australia and witnessing firsthand its positive impact. Golf plays such an important role in transforming lives, impacting communities around the world, and bringing people together, as well as making Australians healthier and happier.

To the players competing in this year’s championship, I wish you every success.

Dr Haruhisa Handa
Founder and chairman, ISPS Handa

Welcome to the Australian All Abilities Championship

The Australian All Abilities Championship celebrates its fifth birthday this year as we prepare to watch the world’s best all-abilities players take on the magnificent Kingston Heath course on the famed Melbourne Sandbelt. It promises to be a very special event.

In the past four stagings, we have seen how important this championship is in inspiring the next generation of people with a disability to play golf – a sport for all Australians. There are countless stories of new golfers who have taken up the game because they saw what was possible by watching the AAAC either in person, on television or online.

This year we will witness another first – an Australian defending the title. Lachlan Wood became our first home winner last year with a three-shot victory. Wood leads the local challenge, which includes Wayne Perske, Steven Alderson and Cameron Pollard, the trio sharing titles across the country in the past year.

After making a winning debut in our event in 2022, the world No.1, England’s Kipp Popert, returns to Australia. He will be joined by world No.2 Simon Lee from Korea, who makes his AAAC debut.

Thank you to our partners ISPS Handa and Visit Victoria for your ongoing support of the AAAC, assisting our efforts to help even more people with a disability to enjoy the game of golf.

You can’t be what you can’t see, and I look forward to the positive impact this championship will have on inspiring the next generation of all-abilities golfers.

Christian Hamilton
Head of Programs & Inclusion, Golf Australia

A message from Kingston Heath Golf Club

Kingston Heath has a rich tournament history, which we are honoured to be adding to by co-hosting the 2024 Men’s and Women’s ISPS Handa Australian Open events, along with the Australian All Abilities Championship.

In 2022, we co-hosted all three events with The Victoria Golf Club, with the roles reversed this time around and Kingston Heath taking on the main hosting duties this year. This will be the ninth time our club has hosted an Australian Open Championship (men’s and women’s), and the first time hosting the All Abilities Championship.

We are excited that both champions from 2023 will be returning to defend their titles, with Ashleigh Buhai looking to make it three in a row. Joaquin Niemann showed his putting class last year, something which will be required again on both Kingston Heath and Victoria’s famed greens. We are very much looking forward to watching how all competitors approach ‘Sandbelt’ golf, where strategy off the tee is at a premium to ensure the optimum angle of approach.

Since we last co-hosted, the club was proud to be named as the host venue for the 2028 Presidents Cup, a testament to our championship course being built to stand the ‘test of time’. While we have added some length to certain holes with additional tournament tees over the years, the footprint out there now is relatively unchanged since the first tee shot was struck on our Cheltenham site in 1925.

Volunteers play a huge role in the success of any event, and these championships are no different, with more than 900 being recruited across both venues. We thank every one of them for giving up their time, along with thanking the members of both clubs for giving up what some would consider their second homes, to allow the world’s best golfers to compete in our great city.

Stephen Montfort
Captain

A message from The Victoria Golf Club

To all members of The Victoria Golf Club, I hope you all feel as proud as I do, that again Golf Australia has chosen our fabulous club to play a role in another ISPS Handa Australian Open. I thank all members for their support of the event. To those members who will give up their time to volunteer, thank you. To all others who will attend as a spectator, it’s a good time to reflect on how fortunate we all are to be associated with such a wonderfully presented golf course. It’s a course that received fantastic reviews from the professionals in 2022, and I’m sure similar reviews will be forthcoming at the completion of this year’s event.

Congratulations to James Sutherland and his team at Golf Australia for all their efforts in growing the game of golf. Again, this year we will see three titles up for grabs, being the men’s and women’s Australian Open Championships and the Australian All Abilities Championship. The variety in competition will certainly bring additional eyeballs onto the event, which can only be good for the game.

The Victoria Golf Club has a long history of hosting both men’s and women’s professional tournaments, whereby all of us as members have had a chance to witness how the best players in the world navigate their way around our unforgiving layout.

With Victoria this year playing a support role to Kingston Heath Golf Club, it provides us with the rare opportunity for members to play the course in tournament conditions. Given our commitment to the event concludes after the completion of the second round, the club will be open for play immediately on the Saturday morning and into the weekend. Good luck to all members who have secured a tee-time over the weekend.

Bruce Peacock
Captain