People have long thought of running a multi-course, professional tournament on the Melbourne Sandbelt. The courses are close together and Melbourne, along with New York, London and Philadelphia, is one of the four finest golf course cities in the world.
Importantly the clubs have never hidden their courses behind closed gates. On the contrary, they have always embraced competitive golf, enhancing Melbourne’s reputation as a city filled with world-class golf courses.
In 2021 and in the aftermath of losing so much competitive golf to the pandemic, Geoff Ogilvy and Mike Clayton had the idea of putting together an annual event where some of the best youngest players in the country could play with a collection of the best pros.
“It was an idea born out of COVID and it evolved,” Ogilvy said. “We wanted to give the younger generation more opportunities to play under tournament conditions and what better place to do it than the Melbourne Sandbelt.”
The 2024 mixed tournament is the fourth playing of the Sandbelt Invitational and it returns to Royal Melbourne’s West Course and Yarra Yarra, with Commonwealth and Woodlands added to the rota.
Geoff Ogilvy, along with Mike Clayton, the driving force behind the Sandbelt Invitational.
It’s not every day professional golfers play courses the equal of these four fabulous sandbelt courses.
Ogilvy started his Foundation with the simple aim of older players mentoring and playing with the younger ones and promoting his ambition through the Sandbelt Invitational. It’s the traditional way Australia has developed players going all the way back to Norman Von Nida helping a young Peter Thomson on his way in Britain. Thomson in turn advised generations of players including Graham Marsh, Stewart Ginn and Ian Baker-Finch.
Host clubs and the Geoff Ogilvy Foundation would love to welcome spectators to the tournament to watch professionals including David Micheluzzi, Champions Tour stars Richard Green and Steve Allan, Cassie Porter who earned her LPGA card this year, Queensland PGA winner Phoenix Campbell, Su Oh, Elvis Smylie and Matt Griffin.
“For me, it’s so much fun to remember all the way back to my generation and our years of junior golf and to see this lot of kids setting off on their journey. Not all will be stars but it’s almost more fun seeing them before they are,” said Clayton.
As much fun to watch are some of the best young amateurs in the country. Spencer Harrison is a 16-year-old star from Perth. Amelia Harris first played as a 13-year-old in 2021 and one day she and Harrison might be the best two players in the country.
This is not a tournament reliant on who is playing or how much money is in the purse. Rather it’s a tournament played on four amazing courses in front of crowds appreciative of good, competitive golf.
– Michael Davis with Mike Clayton
Mike Clayton is Tournament Director of the Sandbelt Invitational
