Monday 20 April
Thomson Room – Australian Golf Centre
Cheltenham Road, Cheltenham
A Golf Historian’s Forum with a Difference
As Curators of Golf Australia’s Golf Collection, sharing or viewing items is a long-held objective of the Golf Society of Australia. So, the first forum of 2026 was one with a difference by inviting members to view items in the collection as well as watch some remastered golf films in the (Peter) Thomson Room of the Australian Golf Centre.
The Monday 20 April event however kicked off with an opportunistic tour of the broader building – the purpose-built home of the Australian PGA and Golf Australia (GA. GA Head of Governance and Operations David Greenhill was our tour guide. The tour started first with a visit of the offices of the PGA and GA where employees sit together arranged in common functions. This way, for instance, the expertise of running a golf tournament is shared and administration functions are not duplicated. On the tour some had an oppourtunity to chat with PGA CEO Gavin Kirkman. Doug Turek introduced Gavin to club maker Ross Baker who kindly volunteered his time to refurbish a Joe Kirkwood golf club, donated by Doug to the PGA from the estate of Jack Simmons. The “new” club was showed off alongside the PGA’s Joe Kirkwood trophy at the recent PGA Brisbane championship.
After looking out over the wonderfully long driving range and distant short game facility, the group toured inside the Australian High Performance golf centre. First off was a visit to the putting room which amongst other things allows for two-dimensional tilting of the putting surface. Next, we visited the physical training room briefly interrupting some consultations. We finished admiring one of the three high-tech hitting bays with doors opening up to the driving range – in fact, allowing hitting above the public range below. Professional golfers and targeted talented youth use the facilities to improve their game and even record their best swings under multiple cameras. One of the bays also specialises in club fitting. We were reminded that now ,golf is an Olympic sport some of the running costs of the facility is so shouldered. A few of the hickory players in the group thought they might make a plea later to use the facility to practice prior to competing in the upcoming Brisbane national hickory championships.
Following our tour, members and their guests moved to the Thomson Room and settled in to watch three vintage films that had been reformatted from reel film by the GSA. The first film in black and white was a golf clinic held in1972 at Bendigo Golf Club hosted by Bettine Burgess. She took us through, at times an amusing golf demonstration from four talented young women including Sandra McCaw, Robyn Dummett, Barbara McHutchinson, and a young Jane Lock. Next, we watched another black and white clip from a film tilted the “The Charge from Down Under ” It showed highlights of Kel Nagle winning the 1964 Canadian Open against a close finishing Arnold Palmer. Lastly, we listened to an interview of a young 24-year-old Peter Thomson by US golfer Jimmy Demaret. After chatting about golf and strategy Peter went on to demonstrate his short game – which hickory golfer John Trevorow later in the day put to good use.
In the Thomson Room on display, were a small selection of items from the collection such as vintage magazines, old scorecards, Golf Rules books along with old golf balls, Bussey stand bags, quirky golf figurines, and collectable clubs.
The impressive scrapbooks of photos and news clippings were of great interest.
Attendees were able to browse the Library and visit the next-door Heritage Work Room – the engine room of the GA managed collection – albeit not all the memorabilia can be stored there.
To close long time GSA member and former Long Game Editor Greg Bain shared his plans to create a “virtual museum” for some of the GA Collection that unfortunately cannot be enjoyed in a physical museum. This pilot project will document the career of Peter Thomson and highlight the vast memorabilia available about Peter that is not readily seen, it will include films, photos, tributes to Peter and a centerpiece item is a Hi-res 3D image of his 1965 Claret jug. Once collated it will be made available through a website.
Lastly a few enthusiastic hickory golfers ventured off to play Sandy Links and experience lightning-fast greens and famous sand belt bunkering – the latter in moderation.
Special thankyou on the day to host President Kim Hastie, tour guide David Greenhill, GA archivist and film presenter Miriam McBride, and committee member Grant Nicholson who did not miss an opportunity to sell some duplicate books, magazines, and print at most affordable cost.
