2023

Royal Park Golf Club celebrates 120 years… They created a special event coinciding with celebrations for the 120th anniversary of Melbourne’s unique historic course. An all-day golf event,open to anyone was organised and to help celebrate GSA were asked to send a group of hickory players to play in the afternoon team’s event.

Congratulations to the club and GSA /Royal Park member Bruce Sutherland for organising a very enjoyable day.

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Report of Royal Park Golf Club 120^th anniversary event, Sunday March 19^th

 By Michael Davis

Royal Park GC president, Bruce Sutherland, is a member of St Andrews in Scotland. “Luckily, I am a ‘country member’ which makes it affordable. It’s very dear otherwise.”

But Bruce cherishes his membership at Royal Park just as dearly as he does that at the venerable home of the game of golf.

Like Royal Park, St Andrews is indeed a public course provided you can afford the green fees, which are considerably higher than the iconic Melbourne 9-holer which runs alongside the Melbourne Zoo in Parkville. Golfers at Royal Park often stand over the driver or a crucial putt to a roar from the lions’ den or trumpet from the elephants’ enclosure.

All of this, according to Sutherland, adds to the charm of the place. But more than that, he believes 9-hole public courses in Australia are the lifeblood of the game.

He says he is honoured to be president of Royal Park and was thrilled to  celebrate the club turning 120 years old in March this year. It was probably men like Sutherland who in 1903, soon after the federation of Australia, formed the Royal Park Golf Club on their own initiative.

“They leased the land, built and maintained the course with their own resources, time and physical work in Royal Park on the edge of the heart of the city. This park, at 170 hectares, is the largest green space in Melbourne. It now includes fields and facilities for a wide range of sports, the Zoo, wetlands and a range of public facilities,” Sutherland says.

“The place is steeped in history,” he adds proudly. “The area was originally a ceremonial place for people of the Eastern Kulin nation. From the outset, the golfers’ first tee was next to the cairn where Bourke and Wills began their ill-fated expedition.”

One of Royal Park’s many beautiful quirks is that it is the only known course in the world which has both a train and tram lines running through it.

The course began as 18 holes but over the years as the park developed it was moved to a variety of positions in Royal Park. After being mowed by one-man mowers, a horse-drawn mower was introduced in 1929.

The club endured many highs and lows over the years in terms of membership numbers and financial security. In the 1960s the club held monthly dances. It is now a public, 9-hole, undulating, tree-lined golf course in the north-east section of the park. It has survived the effects of two world wars (during the second of which thousands of soldiers were camped in the park), densification of the neighbouring suburbs, the burning down of the clubhouse, as well as the effect of the Covid pandemic when the local pet dogs thought they had found a new heaven on the empty fairways.

The club has been a nursery for hundreds, maybe thousands, of golfers. The most prestigious of which is five-time Open champion Peter Thomson, widely regarded as Australia’s best-ever golfer. Peter discovered the game as a young lad when his uncle ran his greyhound on the fairways. Living close the fourth hole, with only a single club the boy began hitting the white ball in 1941 when nobody was around. Once his talent was spotted he was greatly encouraged by some members of Royal Park Golf Club.

In 1942 he became a member when the club lowered its entry age to 13 to accommodate him. He won its championship in 1945. A plaque at the first hole commemorates his relationship to the club.

On Sunday March 19^th, more than 90 players (juniors, women, men and veterans) gathered at the club to celebrate its longevity and 120^th anniversary. The festive day started with a shotgun 18 holes played in the morning followed by lunch, light-hearted speeches — including a moving one by Peter Thomson’s son Andrew – and a prize-giving by Peter Ross, president of the Victorian Golf League.

In the afternoon there was a 9-hole ambrose competition with many of the golfers playing with old hickory clubs and some even donning plus-fours for the occasion. Fifteen members of the Golf Society of Australia and their guests joined in, and these hickory players even featured among the prize-winners in the afternoon competition.

“All the golfers were aware of their indebtedness to the founders of the club, acknowledging all the efforts and commitment of those who followed them, to foster the game of golf at Royal Park that so many enjoy,” Sutherland said. “It was a wonderful day of golf camaraderie with both old acquaintances being rekindled and new friendships made.

“This club is an example of the great value of public golf courses. It succeeds via the co-operation of its various stakeholders, the Melbourne City Council, Serco who maintain it, Greenspace and the YMCA who manage the clubhouse and bookings and the various clubs that use it.

“In line with our history, Royal Park Golf Club will continue to offer very attractive membership rates for all classes of golfers, making golf accessible for many, encouraging the growth of the sport.

“We are committed to broaden the range of people playing golf and keep their fees reasonable to ensure they don’t act as a barrier to membership. And we pride ourselves on fostering the social aspect of the game, welcoming visitors and new members,” he says proudly.

May it continue for another 120 delight-filled years.

– First published in Inside Golf magazine Issue 211 – May 2023 

Dinner report – Monday 27 February – Yarra Yarra GC       The rise of non-traditional golf

Golf Australia CEO James Sutherland had a surprise in store when he spoke at a Golf Society dinner at Yarra Yarra Golf Club in February.

During his speech to 65 members and guests in the historic Eaglemont Room, Mr Sutherland rolled out some surprising facts about the rise of golf, but said it was happening in ways other than what most in the room were familiar with.

Participation in golf was rising, he said, in alternative formats such as driving ranges, minigolf, indoor screens golf, pitch-and-putt, and entertainment venues that offer food and drinks and music as players hit golf balls off mats and aim at novelty targets for fun.

Mr Sutherland said membership at traditional private golf clubs had risen about 12 per cent since 2018 – boosted partly by the Covid19 effect – but this came after 20 years of steadily declining membership numbers across Australia.

These alternative golf formats were welcome, he said, because they are a nursery for the game and help form bridges between all the different formats of golf.

He surprised many in the audience when he said that members at golf clubs in Australia made up only 14 per cent – or just one in seven – of all people who hit a golf ball in any year.

The audience included two GSA members honoured with Order of Australia awards on Australia day: Anne Court AM, and Jean Gilbert OAM. Mr Sutherland’s dinner speech came as he is two years into his role as head of Golf Australia. He re-affirmed that GA sees its role as “encouraging more Australians to play more golf” and the national body has a strong emphasis on children, families and women increasing their participation in the game.

Mr Sutherland was joined by two other speakers, Barbara Kelly, the general manager of Chirnside Park Country Club, and Anthony Lawrence, CEO of Clublinks.

Barbara Kelly was recently inducted into the Victorian Golf Industry Hall of Fame. She has had 30 years at Chirnside Park and told the audience about the club’s transition of re-zoning their declining golf course at Chirnside Park to sell the land for housing and buying a phased-out quarry at Lilydale to create Gardiners Run 18-hole golf course. The club retained the clubhouse at Chirnside Park and converted it into a community hub with restaurant, bars, function centre and gaming, surrounded by enough land for community sports such as lawn bowls, tennis and a newly opened minigolf centre.

And it’s a winner. Membership is up, staff have increased, turnover is $10million per year and the club banks a $1million annual surplus.

Anthony Lawrence described how Clublinks is a company that manages eight golf clubs plus sports centres and gymnasiums across Australia. He said non-traditional golf was a fast-growing part of their business, and the three-tier driving range at Moore Park golf course in central Sydney was a thriving business.

One of the latest success stories, he said, was ‘Bubbles and Buckets’ at Moore Park, where players paid $99 for two glasses of champagne and snacks while they hit buckets of golf balls at the range. He said it was popular with groups of up to 40 women who socialise and network while they play, and every session was booked out.

John Trevorrow 

Click on the links below to listen two recordings from the dinner.

https://golfsocietyaust.com/wp-content/uploads/YY_Dinner_Presidents_Welcome2.mp3

https://golfsocietyaust.com/wp-content/uploads/YY_Dinner_speakers_recording1.mp3

Dinner speakers- James Sutherland, Barbara Kelly and Anthony Lawrence with President Kim Hastie Lower one Jean Gilbert OAM