Goulburn Golf Club

 

The first stirring in the matter of a golf course for Goulburn were in 1880. Then it was proposed to make links in Clinton Street (Clinton Street west of the Australian   Arms was all vacant paddocks). The municipal Council received a letter of protest from J.T. Gannon (Solicitor) on behalf of F. Horn, Mrs Smith and WA. Evans. One of the earliest courses was at "Burrungurroolong" where E.W Kelso and C.M. Shaw made "an apology for a golf course" in the nineties. A "Goulburn Golf Club" was formed in 1898. The opening day was the 18/8/1898. There were eighty (80) members. the "New" links were described as starting "at the back of Mr Helm's residence, Auburn Street, South, and go over towards South Hill, the residence of Mr W Chisholm. They take a turn back towards Mr Guymer's cottage, then into the corporation paddock and back to the starting point past Dr McKillop's cottage, the distance being three miles. There are eighteen (18) holes. C.M. Shaw was its secretary.

 

There is some little discrepancy between local accounts of the foundation of the Goulburn Golf Club. One account has it that it was brought into being by A., H.C.L. and R.R. Payten, who had previously played golf on their own property. the other states that a meeting was held on the 22/6,/1898 at the Bank of Australasia attended by A.B. Chisholm, J.H. Turner, A.E. Sendall, EM. Ibbs, R.E. Conolly and C.M. Shaw. A third account states that the club was formed in 1891/92. Oral arrangements were made with tenants of paddocks extending towards South Hill, and Bethune, a Sydney golfer, came here and laid out a course. This course was only used for a few months.

The club then moved to the present links, but only for two years. It then went out towards Kenmore. Before than, however, the first golf match was played on what are now the present links on the 22/7/1899 against a Sydney team arranged by R.A. Warden. One of the visi­tors was Hugh MacNeil, a champion of Australia. The first club house was a deserted hut standing about when the old first green was. About 1900 the golf club moved out towards Kenmore using Confoy's hotel as the club house. After three years it returned to the Eastgrove links where it has been ever since. The second golf house was a cottage at the south end of the links adjoining Eastgrove itself. At this time the golf course was leased from the University of Sydney. Later through the efforts of C.M. Shaw, R.E. Conolly, the Payten Brothers, Alf Riley and others, the present golf company was formed and the ground acquired. At first a nine (9) hole course with sand greens; about 1925 the club put in an eighteen (18) hold course and grass greens. The present golf house has every convenience for members, a caretaker's residence and a ball room. It was opened on the 25/5/1912. L. Kelly, Open Golf Champion, was given a civic reception when he visited Goulburn in 1933.

 

GOULBURN

It seems that golf was played in the Goulburn district on a number of grazing properties in the 1880s-on such property was "Strathallan" (now occupied by the NSW Police Academy), owned by H.c.L. and R.R. Payten. Three attempts were made to introduce golf to Goulburn residents in the 1890s, but it was not until 18 August 1898 that the Goulburn Golf Cub opened its course. On the first occasion, in the early 1890s, a course was proposed on land south of the main street, but Frederick Horn (a noted builder and ex-Mayor) engaged the solicitor J.T. Gannon in a successful protest to the Goulburn. Around 1896 C.M. Shaw, manager of the Bank of Australasia, with the assistance of E.W Kelso, principal of King's college, laid out what was described as an "apology for a golf course" six miles south of Goulburn on the Gibson property "Burrungurroolong".

In 1898 an 18 hole course, known as South Hill was laid out "starting at the back of Mr Helm's residence in Auburn Street South and going back to South Hill, the residence of W Chisholm, taking a turn back to Mr Guymer's cottage and back to the starting point past Dr McKillop's cottage, the distance being three miles".

 

At the outside there were eighty members of the South Hill course, and the elected office bearers were: President, R.E. Connolly; Secretary, C.M. Shaw; Committee, A.B. Chisholm, J.S. Turner, A. Sendall and EM. Ibbs. It is generally recognised that due to the efforts and enthusiasm of C.M. Shaw he is the "Father" of Goulburn Golf Club.

 

In 1899 the first interclub match was played in Goulburn against a team from Royal Sydney, about which the Sydney Mail had this to say:

The Goulburn caddies, like the genus wherever golf is now, are amusing. The caddie of one Sydney man had to be repeatedly admonished for jeering at the other side, and the caddies usually had with them an admiring string of brothers and sisters, each pleading for the hon­our of carrying a club. The consequence was that just when a particular club was required the particular sec­tion of the parry honoured with its care would be dis­covered exhibiting the treasure to awe-struck small boys on some remote part of the ground - then there was the outspokenly commendatory caddie, the caddie cynical, the caddie derisive and various other varieties.

 

In the Royal Sydney team were Leonard Dobbin and R.A. Warden-the latter was described by Dobbin as `a person golf owes much to in the State, through his efforts to introduce the game into regions of the South and West where golf was previously unknown'. these gentlemen stayed on at Goulburn for a couple of days and, together with the committee, completely recast the course by eliminating one hole together and making two new ones.

 

In 1900, following a disastrous flood, the Club moved to a site near the northern suburb of Kenmore. It used Confoys Hotel as a clubhouse, and operated there for approximately three years, the members justly claim­ing to have the first abundant supply of amber liquid since the formation of the Club.

 

Then in 1903 the Club moved to its present location, renting the property from Sydney University, which had acquired the eighty acres as a result of a bequest by Captain William H. Hovell (of Hume and Hovell fame). Captain Hovell had been given the land as a grant from the colonial Governor, and he left it in trust until such time as a university was built in Goulburn; his good intentions tied up the land for thirty-five years after his death in 1875.

 

The present clubhouse was occupied in 1912 and, to gain access across the Mulwaree River, a swinging sus­pension bridge was built-it withstood many major floods until eventually replaced by a bridge for vehicular traffic. About this time, 1910, J. Merrilee was employed as professional for a term not exceeding four weeks for one pound per week, his duties being to supervise course improvements and to instruct members on the finer points of the game. It was not until 1925 that the Club engaged a full-time professional, W McKenzie, who was responsible for the design of the new 18 hole grass­greens course that came into play the same year (he was the same W McKenzie who served as professional at The Australian from 1930 to 1964.)

Two Goulburn members won the Australian Open Championship whilst they were members of the Club: Lou Kelly in 1933 and Bruce Devlin in 1960. Devlin was also a member of the successful Australian Eisenhower Cup Team for the 1958 event played at St Andrews, and today he lives in the USA where he has continued his golfing career and interests. In recent times another Goulburn golfer, Brett Ogle, won the 1985 New South Wales Amateur Championship and has appeared suc­cessfully in national and international events since turn­ing professional. Judy Perkins (nee Mancell) and Leonie Oxley are two outstanding golfers who have come from the ranks of the Goulburn associates.