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InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort
Sanctuary Cove is set to put the party into Australian women’s golf. The Festival of Golf will be held at Sanctuary Cove Golf & Country Club on the Gold Coast in March 2026, in conjunction with the 2026 Australian WPGA Championship, to be held on Sanctuary Cove’s Palms Course.
The four-day festival will coincide with the women’s golf championship at a time when Australian women’s golf has never looked so promising. In November 2025, Australian Grace Kim claimed her first major championship at the Amundi Evian Championships in France in a play-off with three-time major champion, Australian Minjee Lee. It was the first time in history two different Australian women have won back-to-back women’s major championships (Lee won the major before Kim).
The Festival of Golf is set to redefine what women’s golf can be; in fact, it’s a bold reimagining of what the game of golf really is – men’s or women’s: with a lot of fun, food, fashion, live music and drinks thrown into the mix.
Held at Sanctuary Cove’s picturesque Marine Village precinct in conjunction with the women’s tournament, you don’t even have to be a golf fan to join in. And it suits every member of the family. There’s a dedicated kids’ zone and there’s lots of interactive golf participation zones to be involved in – where you can compete for great prizes in the longest drive, closest to the pin and putting and chipping events. There’s also an extensive golf exhibition, with unbeatable deals on the latest, greatest golf and lifestyle brands’ golf gear, equipment and travel.
And to up the fun content – each day there will be live bands and pop-up bars with a beach party to be held at Sanctuary Cove’s Lagoon Beach Club, amongst a one-acre saltwater lagoon lined with Gold Coast beach sand.
A country club experience
Sanctuary Cove Resort & Golf threw a heck of a party to open its resort and its two world-class championship courses in 1988. Frank Sinatra and Whitney Houston came across the Pacific to perform, but any golfer was much more interested in the performers set to battle it out for the first Sanctuary Cove Classic.
Golf superstars Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Ian Woosnam and Bernhard Langer came to play the only Arnold Palmer-designed course in Australia. American star, Curtis Strange, flew away with the prize.
Thirty-odd years later, Sanctuary Cove Resort & Golf’s two golf courses remain amongst the 100 best courses in Australia, part of a super-slick resort and country club experience which marked the arrival of Australia’s first international golf resort.
There’s two golf courses spread across the property’s 474 hectares on the northern Gold Coast. Arnie Palmer’s Pines Course is private, but it’s available to guests of the property’s InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort. Built amongst 101 hectares of pine forest and native bushland, it’s as a big a test of golf as there is in Australia, with 14 holes contoured around six man-made lakes. You’ve got to drive straight… or there’s trouble on both sides. And its long par-four 18th (with no bail-out off the tee) is one of the great closing holes in world golf.
But there’s no comedown at the public-access Palms course. Redesigned by legendary Australian course designer, Ross Watson, it’s even more scenic than the Pines course, and while it’s not as long, it requires as much accuracy and perhaps more strategy. It’s heavy on water hazards, deep bunkering and greens which undulate dramatically.
Both courses weave through wild, native bushland and past century-old cabbage palms, frequented by colourful birds and pods of kangaroos, which always impresses overseas golfers.
Although it’s the lifestyle integration that’s as impressive as any hole – the golf here blends into a dreamy sort of luxury resort lifestyle, Gold Coast-style. The resort, marina and full country club are all right next door. You’ll also find some of Australia’s best practice facilities with double-ended driving ranges, three full-scale practice holes and chipping and putting greens.
This feature was originally published in Issue 11 of Dream by Luxury Escapes.
