In the murky world of golf-club relocations, some moves are made better than others
The classic 1980s kids movie “The Goonies” begins with the premise of a house being acquired so that a golf course in an Oregon town can be expanded, which in itself is unusual because normally that scenario plays out the other way around. The foreclosure doesn’t wind up happening, of course, as the kids save the day. Perhaps the movie was golf’s precursor to the cult 1997 Australian film “The Castle”, in which we learned the importance of acquiring and repurposing land “on just terms”.
I venture into this nostalgic filmography space for a reason. The acquisition of golf-course land refuses to go away, with the plight of Sydney’s Moore Park Golf Course the posterchild for a war on golf that we’ve been chronicling since 2017. We saw the writing on the wall then, yet the battle is perhaps at its peak today.
You can catch up on that saga by searching under “Moore Park” and “War on Golf” on our website, as it’s an ever-changing and unfolding situation.
However, we revisit the broader topic to a degree in this issue with Senior Writer Rohan Clarke’s excellent snapshot of golf clubs in Australia amid what we’ve dubbed “The Rise Of The Superclub”. While the bulk of Clarke’s analysis centres on clubs that have grown or pivoted in some way, it also covers the recent closure of Sydney’s Kogarah Golf Club as that land becomes lost to golf in favour of a soulless commercial development.
The club is merging with cross-town Liverpool Golf Club and becoming a new entity, which will surely be stronger for the union eventually. Yet one can’t help but shed a tear for the loss of another key golf site in a major city. Indeed, a friend of mine did just that – playing two final rounds on the last two days of operation at Kogarah. “I had tears in my eyes walking up the last,” Greg wrote in a sombre group text message that night.
You didn’t need to be the composed yet canny Lawrence Hammill QC (Bud Tingwell’s distinguished character in “The Castle”) to feel like Kogarah’s forced move didn’t happen entirely on just terms from a golf standpoint.
Other clubs and courses have felt this sting, although not every relocation has represented a negative outcome.
I’ve also lived this process as a club member. Having first been mooted in 2007, in July 2010 I voted along with my fellow Ashlar Golf Club members to relinquish our site to developers and relocate down the road to the new Stonecutters Ridge course [see panel]. It was opening regardless of our decision, but we needed a majority in-favour vote at the EGM for the relocation to proceed, a proportion that was obliterated when 97 percent of hands were raised.
Why such heavy support? It ranks among the best golf-club relocation offerings in recent memory, both on paper and logistically. The former Ashlar Golf Club in Sydney’s west might not have continued to trade for much longer without the move, while the facilities at Stonecutters were the literal definition of brand new and the golf course of a vastly superior quality. Forgive my crassness, but I joked to a few people at the time that it was like divorcing Maggie Thatcher to marry Scarlett Johansson.
After several delays due to lingering external factors (mostly infrastructure near the golf course), we finally began playing at our new ‘home’ at the end of August 2012. As proof that these things don’t happen in a hurry, the timeline from origin to relocation was slightly longer than five years – including a period when members were told the deal had been scuttled. Today, Stonecutters Ridge remains popular among members and well patronised by visitors.
As members, we would have described the move as taking place very much ‘on just terms’. Sadly, not every golf club has been so fortunate.
Top 5 golf club relocations in Australia
5. Eastern GC: It was a big move in every way – for distance from the former site in suburban Doncaster to its new Yarra Valley site at Yering in 2015, and for the scope of the new land (plus big cash in the bank).
4. Ashlar GC: Unlike other golf-club relocations taking place at the time, the 2012 move to the new Stonecutters Ridge site was only a few kilometres away.
3. Victoria GC: Spent its early years on links land at Fisherman’s Bend at Port Melbourne before moving to its present-day Cheltenham site in 1926.
2. Kingswood GC: Relocated to the Peninsula Country Golf Club [pictured] site in 2013 as part of a merger and the sale of Kingswood’s former site at Dingley Village. It’s surely the only time in history a move to unfashionable Frankston can be considered an upgrade.
1. Royal Melbourne GC: From Caulfield then to Sandringham, the grand dame of Australian golf blossomed on the world stage once it reached Black Rock in 1931.
