Events

Golf Society members and guests enjoyed a ‘double-header’ hickory day at the delightful Frankston Golf Club on Thursday 22nd May. Friendships and connections that hickory golf seems to foster so well were renewed and formed as 21 golfers enjoyed 18 holes of stableford play over the historic course. The course has changed little since its 9 holes were laid out in 1913 by Melbourne-born pioneer professional Richard Shaw (Dick) Banks, and so is a perfect venue for hickory play.

The day was the scene for two concurrent events. In the first, a team of 11 players was selected to represent Australia in the 2nd annual Hickory Golf Test Match, which pits Australia against our traditional sporting rivals England to compete for the ‘Hickory Ashes’. One day after our hickory day at Frankston, the England team played its event at Royal North Devon Golf Club, in the south-west of England.

England won the first Test in 2024, and this year the Australian team wrested back the trophy. The best 10 cards from each First XI were added to create the team scores. Australia scored a creditable 305 points at Frankston, bettering the England team’s total of 274 points at Royal North Devon.

Andrew Thomson was the standout player for the Australians. Andrew carded 44 stableford points, followed by Kim Hastie and Ian Weir both with 33 points.

RND is a course with even more history than Frankston. It is the oldest golf course in England (not Scotland, or course), and was laid out in 1864 by old Tom Morris. The course is on the Northam Burrows, a large area of common (or public) land near Westward Ho! on the northern coast of Devon. Being common land, the golfers share the links with walkers and ramblers, and sheep and ponies graze over the land with fences taped around the greens to keep off the livestock.

At Frankston, the other 12 golfers played a regular Hickory Heroes monthly event on a day of mild autumn weather. Two newcomers to hickory, Ancel Greenwood and Marcus Lancaster, were welcome additions to the field, and Ancel scored 35 points off a handicap of 9 in just his second-ever game with the antique clubs. All players enjoyed post-game drinks and snacks over conversation in the Frankston club room.

The Golf Society is very grateful to Frankston Golf Club president Ross Eddy and the committee for permission to play on their delightful course.

                        Commonwealth Golf Club – Guest speaker is member Andrew Thomson 

                                           ‘Professional Golf – Old, New, and From The Inside.’
                     A perspective from Peter’s son who is a student of professional golf’s history

As another successful year for the Society draws to a close, I reflect on a few of the activities.

The second half of the year has been a busy one. The Don Lawrence Trophy rescheduling, a talk by Sydney based Sports Historian Dr Michael Sheret and a late Golf Historians forum in Shepparton, all made for a condensed program of events, nevertheless and pleasingly they were successfully run and won.

A highlight of the year was our dinners, we were fortunate to have three interesting and entertaining speakers in Dr Joshua Ralston, Sandy Jamieson, and Graham Marsh.

This past year work on the GA heritage collection, including a magazine & journal audit, the re formatting some old tapes and films and planning for deaccessioning items.

In our hickory events, we had the successful running of the Inaugural Victorian Hickory Shaft Championships at Barwon Heads GC.. pleasingly this event looks to have a solid future.

At the recent 43^rd AGM we gave special thanks to Greg Bain, who retired from the Committee after serving six years. In late 2018, Greg took over as the Long Game editor. His publishing background and enthusiasm for the role ensured we have had many  years of interesting and enjoyable reading. This past year he initiated and oversaw a rebranding refresh to the print formats and layout quality to standardize our look.

An example of  “our latest look” can be seen in our banner.

Our popular Annual Meeting Day and final golf event for the year, the Doug Bachli Trophy, was won by one of our new members Clayton Gunning. Hailing from WA, Clayton and two new fellow members made the most of their Melbourne visit, enjoying the many great courses we offer. We thoroughly enjoyed having them join us.

The trophy presentation this year was quite special with Doug Bachli’s daughter and grandson doing the honours.

Michelle Bachli paid tribute to her late father, the first Society President and brilliant golfer who won world in in 1954 when he become the first Australian to win the British Amateur Championship.

Lastly to the Committee, I give my sincere thanks. They contribute in many ways and I very much value their input and appreciate the time they give.

Committee elections, congratulations to those re-elected and welcome to our two new Committee members in Martin Maguire and Doug Turek.

My thanks to everyone who attended our events this year. Organising and running events is not without its challenges and so your participation and ongoing support is much appreciated.

Lastly the Society appreciates, the wonderful hospitality given by the many clubs we visited during the year.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy festive holiday season

Good golfing and enjoy the summer tournament season we have coming up.