The historic Binalong Golf Club in the NSW Southern Tablelands will once again take centre stage at the end of September when the Australian Two-Man Sand Green Championships return for 2026. The event, building on the success of the Men’s World Sand Greens Championship hosted at the same venue in recent years, draws elite professionals and top amateurs to one of regional Australia’s most distinctive courses.
This year’s championship marks the third consecutive September gathering of high-calibre sand-greens specialists at Binalong after the 2024 and 2025 world titles were decided there. Organisers have yet to confirm the 2027 venue, though the event has previously rotated among regional New South Wales courses such as Walcha and Holbrook for related women’s and other sand-greens titles.
Past winners at Binalong include Queensland’s Brett Rankin, who claimed the inaugural 2024 World Sand Greens title in a dramatic three-way playoff, and fellow Queenslander Sam Slater, who redeemed a 2024 playoff loss by storming to the 2025 crown at 11-under. Earlier, Griffith’s Josh Stapleton won the 2022 Men’s NSW Sand Green Championship on the same course. These champions set a high bar for the field now assembling.
A strong contingent of skilled professionals and low-handicap amateurs is expected. Names previously drawn to Binalong include big-hitting Queenslanders such as William Bruyeres and Ben Henkel, two-time Queensland PGA winner Phoenix Campbell, former world No. 1 amateur Brady Watt, Canberra’s Matthew Millar, and a mix of interstate and international talent. The unique demands of sand greens reward precise iron play, imaginative recovery shots and the specialised art of “smoothing” a putting line.
One of the course’s most memorable recent innovations was the pink sand experiment. For the 2025 women’s event, club stalwart Michael Brayshaw mixed locally quarried sand with dye in his shed and transformed the 16th green into a vivid pink surface to raise awareness for breast cancer. The temporary “sand pinks,” complete with a matching flag, captured attention and highlighted the club’s willingness to try something different.
That same community spirit underpins the entire championship. Binalong Golf Club, founded in 1857 with its original nine holes carved through a now-defunct racecourse, is run by a small band of volunteers. Membership sits around 45, yet the club has repeatedly hosted national and world-level events through sheer hospitality, local knowledge and hard work. Players consistently praise the welcome, the home-cooked meals at the community club and the way the whole village turns out.
The course itself is in prime condition thanks to good seasonal rain. Fairways and surrounds have responded well, giving the distinctive sand greens a firm, consistent base that rewards accurate approach play. At roughly 500 metres above sea level, the 18-hole layout (par around 70–72 depending on tees) winds across undulating rural land with a mix of reachable par-5s, testing par-3s and tight driving holes. Small, rock-hard sand greens demand players land the ball well short and let it release, while the need to rake and smooth a putting path adds a tactical layer rarely found on grass. The combination of rolling terrain, scenic Southern Tablelands views, quirky bounces and the requirement for creativity makes it genuinely fun — a thinking golfer’s test rather than a power contest.
The event will again receive television coverage, following previous final-round broadcasts on 7Plus and 7Mate that showcased both the golf and the Yass Valley region. Free spectator entry, food vans and a festival atmosphere are expected to draw crowds from Canberra and beyond.
The championship arrives against a backdrop of local debate over the proposed Bendenine Wind Farm. A community action group has voiced strong opposition to plans for up to 90 turbines between Binalong and Bowning, citing concerns about visual impact, noise, fire risk, agricultural land values and community cohesion. The project’s scoping report has been delayed amid consultation, and the issue remains live in the district even as the golf club focuses on welcoming visitors.
For a few days at the end of September, however, attention will turn to sand, skill and small-town hospitality. Binalong has proven it can punch well above its weight. The 2026 championships look set to continue that proud tradition.
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