THE winds of change may have swept through the most exclusive and well-known golf clubs on the planet, but in Brisbane’s southwest the McLeod Country Golf Club is operating as it has done for almost 50 years.

While Augusta National Golf Club and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews have made long overdue moves to admit women as members, McLeod is proudly holding to its tradition as one of the world’s few golf clubs governed by ladies.

There were 163 women who signed on as inaugural members in February 1968. Today, ladies constitute approximately 40 per cent of the membership – but make 100 per cent of the decisions.

The male members (‘the Fellows’) are undoubtedly treated better than lady members at many other golf clubs, but if the time comes when the ladies need more tee times on a Saturday morning, it will be the men who have to make way should they not be filling their allocated slots.

But all this isn’t to say there haven’t been some changes.

The par-4 17th is the longest two-shotter at McLeod but generally plays with the breeze at your back.
The par-4 17th is the longest two-shotter at McLeod but generally plays with the breeze at your back.

In September the Fellows were, for the first time in the club’s history, invited to celebrate the club’s anniversary with the members. It was a move club captain Collette Byrne says didn’t garner the complete approval amongst the membership.

“It didn’t go down too well with some of the older ladies but it was a great success,” explains Byrne.

“We’ll never forget our history and our past but we do have to move forward in some respects and we will always remain a club that is administered by women.

“The club was founded on the fact that women weren’t getting a say or being allowed to play on certain days and we have quite a good balance now.

“These women were against the odds founding this club, they really were, so we have to be very protective of our history because we are one of very few such golf clubs in the world.”

A sharp dogleg to the left and downhill approach makes placement, not power, the key at the 357m 14th.
A sharp dogleg to the left and downhill approach makes placement, not power, the key at the 357m 14th.

A Woman’s Place

In the early 1960s, society had somewhat moved away from the notion that golf was an acronym for ‘Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden.’ But around the golf clubs of Brisbane there was still a growing frustration at just how female golfers were being treated.

There was a groundswell amongst women golfers to establish a club of their own, but it wasn’t until Centenary Estates went looking for someone to develop a course amidst their real estate subdivision at Mount Ommaney that an opportunity arose.

Of course, 50 years ago Mount Ommaney was considered so far from the centre of Brisbane it may as well have been in another state. But given it is only 22 minutes from Brisbane’s CBD it has become a property hot spot in the past two decades.

When an interim committee was formed after the first public meeting to explore whether such a golf club would gather enough support to be a success, they determined the initial stage of construction would cost $48,000. Today, according to realestate.com.au the median house price in Mount Ommaney is $852,000.

One stipulation by the developers that has contributed to McLeod’s status as an undiscovered delight was the word ‘women’ was not to be used in the club’s name. So rather than the Mount Ommaney Women’s Golf Club, it was proposed the course be named in honour of Gertrude McLeod, a former president of the Queensland Ladies Golf Union and Australian Ladies Golf Union.

With the name of the club having no correlation with any of the surrounding suburbs, McLeod has remained something of an unknown quantity to many golfers despite its location less than 10 kilometres south of Indooroopilly and 15km west of Brisbane Golf Club.

“I tend to talk to plenty of people when I’m out at the club and the overwhelming response from people visiting for the first time is that they are pleasantly surprised by what they find,” says Byrne.

The 295m par-4 15th wraps around a lake to the left and plays to a peninsula green.
The 295m par-4 15th wraps around a lake to the left and plays to a peninsula green.

A Golf Course With The Lot

“This is a golfer’s golf course. There is nothing you get at other golf courses you can’t get here. It really is a hidden gem,” says general manager Sean Kennedy.

And you know what? He’s right.

Many club officials claim the tag of ‘hidden gem’ when rounds per year fall short of projections. But there is no question first-timers playing McLeod will walk away wondering why they haven’t done so before.

Since stepping into the role two years ago, Kennedy has made the golf course his priority. With the implementation of programs by course superintendent Craig Clarke, the proof is in the pudding – on every fairway and green.

But it is the canvas painted by course designer Dr Clive Boyce which has remained largely untouched for 40 years that makes McLeod such a joy to play.

The property’s rural roots are evident in the colossal concrete grain silo beside the second tee, while a host of elevation changes and folds of the land have helped to create eye-catching holes at every turn.

A concrete grain silo stands sentinel beside the tee at the 175-metre downhill second at McLeod Country Golf Club.
A concrete grain silo stands sentinel beside the tee at the 175-metre downhill second at McLeod Country Golf Club.

This is no up-and-back suburban track – it is a rolling, twisting and enjoyable round of golf that is a challenge to players of all abilities with a Slope Rating of 132.

A slight dogleg left that plays to an elevated green is the course’s opener and is followed by a 175-metre downhill par 3 abutted by water. Then, a snaking par 5 with water down the right side, a sharp dogleg-left par 4 at the fourth and a dogleg right at the par-4 fifth hole. This writer couldn’t name a course played during the past 12 months with more variety in its opening five holes than McLeod.

The eighth green is a pinched plateau that places a premium on driving accuracy, while the par-5 ninth is a 517m monster playing uphill and invariably into a stiff breeze to a green perched above a large lake.

The 401m par-4 13th is the only hole on the course that could be considered straight, while 14 turns left sharply before playing to a green perched at the bottom of a hill. The 15th is a 295m par 4 that turns from right to left and features a spectacular green perched out on a peninsula surrounded by water.

You wouldn’t proclaim one hole to be significantly superior to any other here; this is a golf course that delivers a pleasant surprise continuously throughout the round.

McLeod Country Golf Club is a facility getting a lot of things right.

Long may the ladies reign.

DETAILS

McLeod Country Golf Club
Par 71, 5,670m, Slope Rating 132
Web: mcleodgolf.com.au
Phone: (07) 3376 3666