By Peter Owen
FOR a golf club that honours former Victorian governor Sir Dallas Brooks, the epitome of English aristocracy, Noosa Golf Club, on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast, is remarkably down to earth.
Brooks, the British war hero who served as Victoria’s governor from 1949 to 1962, was a regular visitor to Noosa, and loved nothing better than playing a round of golf at a club that was then known as Tewantin-Noosa.
He’d arrive at the course in his Rolls-Royce and have his chauffeur act as his caddy, teeing up his ball and offering advice to the Cambridge-born Gallipoli veteran, whose golfing prowess was good enough to have seen him represent the British Navy at the sport.
Noosa’s main honour board event remains the Sir Dallas Brooks Trophy, an annual matchplay competition that offers a trophy Sir Dallas presented to the club in 1963, three years before his death.
But don’t for a moment think that Noosa is a golf club for silvertails, even though it’s located close to an area that boasts some of the most expensive real estate in the country.
After all, this is the birthplace of the Jack Newton Celebrity Classic, that annual golfing institution that is as much about eating, drinking and telling jokes as it is about sporting prowess.
Its poster boy in those early Noosa days was larrikin Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who rarely missed an opportunity to let his hair down and share a beer or three with Jack Newton himself, and the legion of celebrities attracted to the event.
First played at Noosa in 1979, the three-day charity tournament was originally run by Noosa member and club legend John Piercy, whose contribution to the club is commemorated with the John Piercy Memorial charity golf day which, these days, raises money for the Smile for a Child charity.
It was Piercy who also founded Noosa’s Tuesday Club, a remarkably successful social golf club that continues to attract capacity fields each week, players attracted by the generous prizes – $150 for the winners of three grades, and cash prizes going down to fifth place in each grade – the spirit of mateship and camaraderie that it generates, and the fellowship that is obvious at the bar after each round.
It’s a competition that has been going since 1975 and, for the devotees who turn up to play each Tuesday, it’s the highlight of the club’s golf calendar.
Why stage an event on a Tuesday? Well, that’s simple. Piercy was a bookmaker and was unable to play on Saturdays and Wednesdays – those were racing days. He believed – correctly, as time has confirmed – that there were others, like him, who would appreciate a game of golf with mates on Tuesdays.
So, no, there’s nothing pretentious or pompous about Noosa Golf Club. It’s a place where people come to play golf on a quality course in a bushland setting with wildlife all around, enjoy each other’s company, have a bite to eat, and stick around to share a beer and tell a story.
Noosa Golf Club, situated on the Cooroy Noosa Road, on the edge of the Tewantin National Park, had its origins 85 years ago when nine businessmen met to consider beginning a local golf club. Shire councillor R. T. Read had secured 65ha of land, and five of the assembled men agreed to each donate five pounds to buy it.
The meeting was chaired by Laurie Elmer, generally regarded as the founder of the club. The modern clubhouse, overlooking the 18th green, is named ‘Elmer House’ in his honour.
The land was cleared; Scott Murphy, the professional at nearby Gympie Golf Club drew up plans for the fairways; and a nine-hole course, with sand scrapes instead of grass greens, was ready for play in 1937.
During World War 2, play was abandoned, but members’ wives raked the course and kept the newly planted trees alive with buckets of water before the club resumed operations in 1946, the relaunch funded by a raffle which offered as the prize a pair of geese.
Sand bunkers were built in 1973 and a turf nursery established. In 1975 the course was extended to 12 holes, and three years later the remaining six holes were ready for play.
The first clubhouse was a simple lean to with canvas sides. It served its purpose until 1956 when a purpose-built clubhouse was constructed at a cost of 500 pounds. In 1967 an extension was added and in 1982 a balcony, overlooking the course, was extended and a kitchen added.
Major works took place in 2003, adding a new dining room, administration offices, a meeting room, storage and locker rooms, and the pro shop was moved from under the clubhouse to its present position opposite it, close to the first tee.
And still the improvements continue.
A project, costing $2.6 million and funded in part by the Government’s Community Development Grants program, was scheduled to begin in February to upgrade and enlarge the car park, and to install netting around the driving range.
And a massive upgrade of the golf course – involving the renovation of every hole and the enlargement of all greens to an average of 500sqm – is taking place, without any real hindrance to golfers’ enjoyment of playing the course.
The club has two ‘spare’ holes – one on each of the two ‘nines’ – and, as work is carried out on any particular hole, golfers simply use a replacement hole, with the course’s slope and scratch values adjusted accordingly.
Work has so far been completed on the 5th and 12th holes, and the 14th will be finished in April. Contractor Atlas Golf Services, whose clients include The Pines Sanctuary Cove and the new Cathedral Lodge Golf Club in Victoria, has begun renovating the 3rd hole, where the green will be reshaped, water extended, and the tee enlarged.
All greens will be converted to Tiff Eagle grass, tees will be Zoysa grass and, in an Australia-first, all trees will be identified, photographed and their GPS position plotted and recorded, and their carbon weight noted.
Club manager Allan Harris said the renovations, costing upward of $4.5 million, would take eight to 10 years, and provide members and visitors with a golf course comparable to any in regional Queensland.
As a measure of its popularity, Noosa last year hosted 77,000 rounds of golf by members and visitors, and there is a waiting list of those wishing to become members. Club competitions are played every day except Friday, and visitors are able to secure a game every day of the week.
Noosa has a proud record of developing young players, with a comprehensive junior program first launched a dozen years ago and progressively managed by enthusiastic professionals Adam Bowditch, Andrew Egea and Jimmy Douris.
The club was one of the first to introduce a Cadet category of membership, where kids under 13 pay only $100 a year for full access to the course and its practice facilities, and are entitled to attend a clinic, conducted by Douris, each week at no extra cost.
It’s no real surprise, therefore, to see two juniors – Bronson White and Maddison Kelly – take out last year’s club championship honours.
The golf shop – once the domain of legendary long-hitter George Bell and popular pro Mark Tickle, who ran it for nearly 40 years – has been operated for the last 11 years by professionals Anthony Edwards, Shane Healey and Scott Olander, who have built it into one of the biggest pro shops in Queensland.
Like many regional clubs, Noosa Golf Club is a popular community meeting place and favoured venue for a night out. Its Legends Bistro offers lunch every day, dinner from Wednesday to Friday, and its trivia nights – on the first Wednesday of each month – are almost always booked out. There’s a happy hour each day from 4pm.
Harris, a former vice president and general manager for the past 14 years, believes Noosa’s success is largely linked to the quality of its staff – most of whom have served long tenures at a club noted for the friendly, welcoming service of its people.
He points to former president Arlene Penlington’s seven-year term of office, Gayna Ryan’s 15 years as treasurer, Tamara Giles’ 15 years in administration, her husband Tony Giles’ 11 years as bar manager and head chef Tony Rogers’ 12 years in the kitchen.
“My two kids have worked here,” Harris said, “and Tammy and Tony’s two kids worked here, as well. They all play golf together. It’s a real family affair.”
Noosa Golf Club
46 Cooroy Noosa Road, Tewantin, Qld 4565
(07) 5447 1407
www.noosagolfclub.com.au
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