Events

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.”

Our second dinner for the year was held at Kingston Heath GC   Guest speaker Sandy Jamieson – PGA Professional

                                                                             The fight for Public Golf

Sandy Jamieson is a respected golf teacher with inventive ideas on how to turn beginners into golfers. He moved from a job at Commonwealth GC to the 9-hole public course at Oakleigh to begin his innovative 1Club method for beginners.

He also spearheaded a successful recent fight to save Oakleigh’s much-loved public course from being turned into a park by Monash City Council.

                                                         Kingston Heath GC dinner report – June 2024

Kingston Heath Golf Club, the newly appointed four-day host club for this year’s Men’s and Women’s Australian Open was the venue for Society’s second dinner.

President Kim Hastie welcomed members and guests and introduced speaker PGA teaching professional Sandy Jamieson – well known for being front and centre of the much-publicised fight to save the 9-hole Oakleigh Public course and co-creator & founder of 1 club golf an innovative concept to make learning golf, fun easy and affordable.

Kim spoke a little of his professional career, one by his own admission didn’t reach any great heights, which lead to a discussion with his accountant, resulting in a decision to move to coaching.

To understand Sandys decision a little more Kim referenced a piece he wrote “How Tiger Woods cause me quit golf”, it is well worth a read, and he was happy for it to be shared.

To better understand and engage his audience, he first asked all attendees if able, to stand up and then to sit down if they started their golf life at public course..interestingly the majority took a seat, next he asked for a show of hands to those who started with a full set of clubs.. not many hands raised … an enjoyable evening was guaranteed.

He spoke of his young years with his father and learning with cut down clubs, though later in his talk credits his mother having the most influence on his early learning career.

He talked of his pathway, starting with apprenticeship at Box Hill finishing 1995, from that followed time at Ringwood Public – then a move to the VIS as Assistant coach under Dennis McDade.

Sandy coached Jarrod Lyle, Robert Allenby and numerous others -including Andrew Tschudin now Cam Davis’s caddy.

After ending time on tour with Robert he moved to Commonwealth as Head Professional till 2019.

After nine years at CGC lack of enjoyment and frustration with where golf membership was going, change was needed which led him to Oakleigh Public.

When teaching, Sandy spoke of the importance of getting the fundamentals of golf right early on and gave us insight into the creation of the “1 club “ and how it assists with teaching a beginner.

His coaching fundamentals and passion for teaching many different groups of golfers was evident ..and he was deservingly recognised being awarded the 2019/20 PGA Game Professional Developer of the Year.

In question time he spoke about the importance of community golf and his involvement with saving Northcote which assisted him in the campaign for saving Oakleigh

In saving Oakleigh, there was a focus on drawing attention to the importance and need for providing teaching and course access to the disability golf sector and acknowledged the support of Golf Australia and several Sandbelt clubs which contributed greatly ensuring Oakleigh will now survive well into the future.

Sandy was a thoroughly entertaining speaker and after his talk many took the opportunity to handle samples of the 1 club and talk with further with him                 The Society thanks Kingston Heath for their fine hospitality

28^th Australian Hickory Shaft Open Championship – Melbourne 2023 – Event Report 

 Playing group before hitting off at Woodlands GC

The 28^th playing of the Australian Hickory Shaft Championship was recently played on Melbourne’s world-renowned Sandbelt courses. The courses were set up for hickory play and although the clubs are 100 + years old the winning scores were surprisingly low.

Hickory players from around Australia, as well as, for the first time, contingents from New Zealand and Japan, competed for the Championship and handicap trophies.

The new Sandy Golf Links course hosted the Foursomes on Day 1. The weather was superb, and the course was in excellent condition. There were some fine scores and an excellent score of 72 was posted.  New Zealanders Catherine Palmer and Mark Lawson took home the trophy. Runners up were Mike Clayton & Terry Thornton with a 76.

Darryn Watt & Andrew Baker won the handicap section with Nett 70.6.

Foursome’s winners Catherine Palmer & Mark Lawson flanked by handicap winners Darryn Watt & Andrew Baker.

The main Championship event is played over 36 holes with Round One at Woodlands GC and the final round at Kingston Heath GC. The hickory clubs used in the event would have been similar to the clubs used by the founding fathers of both courses, which were established in the mid 1920’s.

Woodlands presented the course in immaculate condition; however, the weather was not kind with wind and some rain. This did not deter the players who braved the conditions, some recording excellent scores.

The highlight of the day was the after-dinner guest speakers. Australian PGA CEO, Gavin Kirkman spoke of the history, his recent experiences and future development of the PGA. Bruce Green, PGA Life Member, and long-term professional at Royal Melbourne followed  and was thoroughly entertaining as he took us through his colourful career.

The early start for the final round at Kingston Heath was bleak, cold, and wet, but as one player noted “these are the conditions they play in all the time in Scotland!!” and nothing could deter playing on one of the world’s best courses.

A superb second round of 74 by Richard Macafee gave him a record low of 148, to secure the Men’s Championship trophy over NSW’s Tim Sayers on 162.

Richard, a long-time member of Kingston Heath, has a fast-growing passion for hickory golf. “I finally got my own hickories, and to play with my own set was unbelievable… I’ll be doing it a lot more now”, he said.

In the Women’s Championship, the first day at Woodlands was New Zealand’s Catherine Palmer’s first full round with hickory clubs, but she didn’t let that stop her from taking out the title with an impressive score of 169. She commented “back home in Christchurch, I’d just been playing nine holes, and these fast and firm courses, made it a lot more challenging,”

Champions Richard Macafee and Catherine Palmer 

The handicap section was a close contest between Golf Society members with Justin Ryan on 154 edging out Mango Maguire on 155.

Handicap winner Justin Ryan with Golf Australia CEO James Sutherland

The inaugural Asia Pacific Hickory Championship, sponsored by the US’s Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG) was played in conjunction with the Australian event, with Richard and Catherine are now also the Asia Pacific Hickory Champions. Australia won the Teams event.

SoHG’s President Joe Hollerbach sent a congratulatory message and his summary “may your hickory golf journeys be filled with continued joy, camaraderie and excellence” really summed up the occasion.

Most of the Internationals struggled a little with the close-cut fairways and firm fast greens, but all had terrific experiences. Off course they visited Australia’s best shop for hickories at Ormond hosted by the owner, Ross Baker, the most knowledgeable person in Australia on hickories. The Japanese contingent went mad and most bought a couple of sets, seems they can’t get originals in Japan only replicas. The Kiwi’s secured some Australian clubs – they claim they were returning them home as like many things originated in New Zealand… a standing joke!!

The week marked another successful event organised by Australian Golf Heritage Society and the Golf Society of Australia, alongside the Society of Hickory Golfers, who continue to celebrate golf’s origins and rich tradition.

Other photos

Foursomes group on first tee 

Above -Justin Ryan/Richard Macafee, Terry Thornton/Mike Clayton, Catherine Palmer (her caddie)/Mark Lawson

New Zealand Team

The Japanese Team

Below – Asia Pacific Hickory Champions Catherine Palmer, Richard Macafee with James Sutherland

More photos from the event can be found in the Gallery section.

https://golfsocietyaust.com/wp-content/uploads/Australian-Hickory-Shaft-Championship-report-Sept-2023.pdf