The 2024 Annual Hickory Day has been run and won at Frankston GC
21 players enjoyed a superb afternoon on this super little track for hickory golf.
Andrew Thomson won the Frank Sheperd Trophy
Unfortunately, due to insufficient entries the Burtta Cheney trophy for women was not awarded
A thoroughly enjoyable day and our sincere thanks to the Frankston GC for allowing Society to visit
The 29th edition of the Australian Hickory Shaft Open Championship was recently played at Warringah, Manly and Cromer golf clubs in Sydney.
More than 50 keen hickory enthusiasts came from all over Australia, Japan, Canada, China and New Zealand, turning up with their 100-plus-year-old hickory clubs, most dressed in period clothing.
Craig Bernhardt (Manly) partnered Darron Watt (The Rock) with a 75 beating Brendan Barnes (Sawtell) and Scott Bower (Canada) on the count back on Canadian foursomes on day one at Warringah.
Singles at Manly was won by local member Dave Saunders with a 76 including a hole-in-one at the 127-metre 15th hole, the first in tournament history. The leading woman was Suz Brown, also a local from Manly GC.
Day two of the championship hosted by Cromer GC was a real test using the antique clubs with their tight fairways.
Best score on the day was Craig Bernhardt’s 73 but three players could not be separated for the Championship on 155 − Tim Sayers (78-76), Dave Saunders (76-78) and Justin Ryan from Bendigo (80-74). Alex Sutherland was one off the pace with 155.
The women’s champion was Suz Brown (198) ahead of Kim Hastie (Metropolitan) and Rie Mitsuhashi (Japan).
Handicap honours were dominated by overseas players with Suguru Nakase on 125, followed by Xing Xiao Jun (China) 130 and Peter van Eekelen (NZ) 133.
The over 70’s cup went to Brian Dolan (Concord) 169.
All the players were impressed with the quality and presentation of the three courses and are looking forward to next year’s event.
The championship is organised and administered by the Australian Golf Heritage Society.
Shepparton Golf club founded in 1922 was the venue for the final Golf Historians Forum for the year.
Members of the club’s Centenary Committee warmly welcomed the Society members who travelled to Shepparton and in late October.
Committee members Neil Lavis, Sally Naylor, Rob Kelly, and Greta Keenan recounted the club’s evolution from when the golf was played in an ad hoc way around the district from about 1900.
An early golf club was formed in Shepparton 1909 but had no permanent course, and the club went into hibernation with the outbreak of the Great War.
The present club was found in 1922 and gained permissive occupancy of its land at its present site, opening a nine hole course in June 1924.
Within four years, the course was extended to 14 holes, and the club had 200 members.
In 1931, the club bought 8 hectares(20 acres) of adjoining land and expanded to 18 holes with sandscrapes for the putting.
The early 1950s saw electricity and the water supply connected, and more land purchased.
In 1955, course architect Sam Berriman was commissioned to design a new layout on the bigger land with grass greens.
A new clubhouse and improved course were opened in 1960, with the membership climbing to 1000.
In 1962, the club hosted a famous exhibition match between a young Jack Nicklaus , the reigning US Open champion and 1960 Australian Open winner, Bruce Devlin.
3000 spectators turned out to see both champions shoot 69 on a memorable day for the club.
The club has a series of historic photos from that day on display in the clubhouse, some of them signed by Nicholas himself. The original scorecard for the day is also displayed.
The 1970s &1980s, saw major improvements, more land bought and a focus on developing junior golf.
To facilitate this the club arranged for visiting golf coaches to help run clinics for up to 200 juniors from around the district.
In the late 1980s, the club fought for special permission to play a mixed team of boys and girls in the Goulburn Valley junior pennant competition
To further secure the clubs future they were finally be able to buy the original crown land that it occupied since 1922.
For the session we were treated to a short film depicting some wonderful early images of the course and on display were several artefacts and historical an photographs.
The clubs permanent display cabinets were a rich showcase of memorabilia not only of the Nicklaus- Devlin exhibition match but featured a section dedicated to a favourite son the late Jarrod Lyle.
During the forum, we were able to go out on course and expect the site of the original clubhouse near the 17th tee and also one of the original sand scrape greens which has been cleared and sign posted, it sits in rough amongst trees behind the 14th hole. It was lovely to see this small piece of the courses history retained.
Attendees stayed on site at the club, enjoyed a meal together in town and most played the course the next day.
The final Society dinner for the year was held at Riversdale Golf Club
A “Life in Golf'”as a player, administrator and golf course architect
We were very fortunate to secure Graham Marsh as our speaker and member Tony Rule kindly conducted Q&A session with this Aussie golfing legend.
A bit about Graham …He was born in Kalgoorlie WA. In 1969 he turned professional and won more than 64 tournaments on all five of the world’s major tours.
Voted Australian Sportsman of the year in 1977 and awarded the MBE in 1984.
Graham was also Chairman of the PGA Tour of Australasia for six years.
Graham Marsh Golf Design (GMGD) has been responsible for a number of the world’s leading residential, resort, private, and tournament golf courses, the result of his in-depth knowledge of the game and the intricacies required in golf course design.
Our thanks to John Trevorrow for this report
Riversdale GC dinner report Guest speaker Graham Marsh -September 2024
The third Golf Society dinner for the year drew a large gathering of members and guests to hear a fireside chat with Australian golf legend Graham ‘Swampy’ Marsh MBE at Riversdale Golf Club. Royal Melbourne Captain Tony Rule sat down with the veteran professional to elicit some colourful stories from inside the tournament ropes and locker rooms over the decades, plus details about Graham’s second career, as a notable designer and builder of golf courses.
The dinner was attended by 86 guests at Riversdale Golf Club. Graham, the brother of Australian Test cricket wicket-keeper Rod, told how their father Ken loved both cricket and golf. After Graham broke his arm in several places as a child, the family doctor said he should swing a golf club as therapy once the plaster came off. Young Graham discovered a love for the game and quickly progressed, being selected for the WA state team at 18 and turning professional in 1969 aged 25, winning on the US, European and Japan tours.
Marsh entertained the audience with tales from playing the Masters, many Australian Opens and the Open Championship 20 times. His best Open finish was 4th in 1983 at Royal Birkdale, ahead of Seve Ballesteros, Lee Trevino and Nick Faldo. Marsh shot a wonderful final round 64 on a day of fierce wind, and described how he got back to the locker room early where Arnold Palmer asked how he went. When told 64, Palmer responded: “How did you go on the back nine?” before telling Marsh not to go anywhere in case he had won the Claret Jug. During a nervous 3-hour wait, the wind dropped and Tom Watson went on to overhaul Marsh’s clubhouse lead and win his fifth Championship.
Aged 33, Marsh began to study the design genius of Alister MacKenzie and Harry Colt and later moved into his second career, establishing the Graham Marsh Golf Design company in 1986.
He received warm applause from the audience of Golf Society members and guests when he underscored the importance of golf history: “We have to know where we came from if we are to know where we are headed.”
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