Towards the end of the 1840s, early settlers started  the first Melbourne Golf Club, which played over  the western slopes of Flagstaff Gardens down to Flemington Bridge, and over the Maribyrnong River. As Melbourne’s population expanded, the rudimentary course was abandoned, and the club moved to a site near the Elwood Bluff. Permanency was difficult, and its next home was near the present Melbourne Cricket Ground. Considering this early exposure to golf in Melbourne, why did it take until 1891 when the club played at East Malvern to get fully organised? Equipment shortages – both clubs and balls – probably contributed significantly. However, all eyes were on the goldfields, and one can only imagine the madness and distraction of that time. Whatever the reasons, golfing momentum was lost, and this mirrored what took place in Sydney. Joseph Johnson’s The Royal Melbourne Golf Club – A Centenary History (1991), sheds light on the events that led to a more permanent state of affairs with Melbourne Golf. The author notes:

It was at St Andrews in 1890 that the plan to form The Melbourne Golf Club most probably originated. On a visit back ‘home’ a group of Melburnians, including John Munro Bruce, Thomas Finlay and Thomas Brentnall, foregathered there for a few days’ golf. When the conversation turned to the lack of golfing facilities in Melbourne, Finlay threatened to wind up his affairs in Australia and return to end his days in Scotland if he could not get golf in Australia.

On 22 May 1891, an inaugural meeting of enthusiasts was held in Scott’s Hotel, Collins Street. Thirteen gentlemen attended and subsequently formed The Melbourne Golf Club. Within five weeks, Bruce cabled Royal Eastbourne Golf Club in England for 30 sets of golf clubs, and members were informed that land had been acquired at East Malvern. Most club literature points to the location as Caulfield, perhaps taking the name of the nearby railway station. By today’s standards, the golf course and playing conditions were crude: hitting out from potholes in the adjoining roads, and many of the golf holes traversing roads. These roads acted as hazards, for players were not allowed to ground their clubs. Poisonous snakes also made things a little tense at times. Notwithstanding, for a membership predominantly of Scottish ancestry, the sight of a fairway lined by golden gorse must have tugged at their heartstrings.

In 1895, The Melbourne Golf Club successfully applied to have the prefix ‘Royal’ added to its name, becoming only the second club to be honoured outside the United Kingdom – Royal Bombay being the first. By 1896, the club commenced its search for a new site. Brighton, Kooyong, Port Melbourne, Fisherman’s Bend and Glenhuntly were all considered, but Sandringham, a suburb of plentiful heathlands, was selected in 1898. Establishing suitable infrastructure and golf course construction was laborious, which in part explains why Opening Day did not take place until 27 July 1901. The Royal Melbourne Golf Club’s move to the Sandbelt set a precedent for many Melbourne golf clubs. The Lieutenant Governor, Sir John Madden, was accorded the honour and ignominy of making the opening tee shot – he missed the ball completely on his first attempt. A faded photograph shows him as the only one not laughing.

The Sandringham course was upgraded twice before 1910, but by the mid-1920s, trouble lurked in the form of expanding suburbia. Land was sold off, and the club made known its intention of moving a short distance to Black Rock. In tandem with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews, Royal Melbourne Golf Club president, L. K. S. Mackinnon, secured the services of Dr Alister MacKenzie to visit Melbourne, and design what is now the West Course. It opened for play in 1931, and in the following year the East Course, designed primarily by Alex Russell, came into being.

After Royal Melbourne departed its East Malvern home in 1901, the layout was utilised by a group of existing members who formed the Caulfield Golf Club. Plainly, relocation could never be expected to suit everyone, as ease of travel was still some years away.

In 1908, the Caulfield Club relocated to South Oakleigh and became the second Melbourne Sandbelt club. Today, it is known the world over as The Metropolitan Golf Club. But initially, there was a great deal of fuss surrounding the club’s name. Alexandra, Eastern and Oakleigh were considered, as was its standing name, Caulfield Golf Club. A new name was thrown into the ring: the Australian Golf Club. Sounding grand, this captured the members’ imaginations. Articles were prepared, and the name was incorporated and registered by the Attorney General. The Victorian Golf Association was informed, and everything seemed to be progressing to plan. That is until the Sydney-based Australian Golf Club protested fiercely on account of taking the name of a golf club already established. The Caulfield club relented, possibly due to the threat of legal action. Following a series of meetings to decide its club name, and despite the name ‘Oakleigh Golf Club’ finding support at one meeting, the membership eventually settled on The Metropolitan Golf Club. The ‘other’ golfing MacKenzie – J. B. MacKenzie – and C.W. Chapman are listed as the initial course architects, but credit is skewed towards MacKenzie for his input with bunkering and general course layout. Another to assist with design and construction was G. C. Morrison.

The Royal Melbourne Golf Club had once inspected Fisherman’s Bend, and their professional, Richard Taylor, even fashioned out a trial course. On account of the time invested by the club, and the land’s sandy subsoil, the final decision not to proceed with this site must have been irksome. Apart from its less than salubrious surrounds, further justification was the lack of organised transport to that part of Melbourne.

However, a group of men led by the redoubtable Bill Meader was undeterred by all the negatives that made Royal Melbourne nervous about Fisherman’s Bend some six years earlier. The body laid down roots in 1903 and Victoria Golf Club was born. The progression from its early days, complete with greens grassed with carrot weed and trefoil has been noteworthy. Some members of Royal Melbourne joined Victoria Golf Club as their second course. The years at Fisherman’s Bend were reputedly happy ones for Victoria Golf Club, which remained there until moving to Cheltenham in 1927. Messrs William Meader and Oscar Damman designed the new Sandbelt course. Meader further demonstrated his golfing intellect in his capacity as secretary of the Victorian Golf Association between 1907 and 1932. A key historical landmark for Victoria Golf Club was Dr Alister MacKenzie’s visit in 1926, and his subsequent bunkering report. Today, the bunkering aspect of this club, positional wise, is of an unusually high standard.

Woodlands Golf Club was originally known as the Mordialloc Golf Club – having taken its suburb’s name in 1913. An early Melbourne professional, Rowley Banks, laid out the first nine holes.

When club secretary, Hunter Rogers, undertook an aerial survey of the ‘Mayfield’ Estate isolating all topographical features, he was the first Australian to attempt such work. Mick Morcom, greenkeeper at Royal Melbourne, was commissioned to report on the conditions of the greens, which were just rolled natural grass. He counselled the club upon proper manuring and other treatments. By 1917, Sam Bennett, had completed the second nine holes

In 1924, a name change was mooted. Someone came up with ‘Woodlands’ but it was discovered that the Railways Commission was considering the name as a station on the Glen Waverley line. Pleasingly for the golf club, the secretary of the Commission was talked out of the proposal, and so in 1925, the Mordialloc club adopted its current name of Woodlands Golf Club.

Golf really came of age in Melbourne in the 1920s. The Commonwealth Golf Club was established in 1920. Five years earlier, 11 enthusiasts formed the Murrumbeena Golf Club, playing over a six-hole course at Carnegie. Only seven days later, the club changed its name to Waverley Golf Club. Shortly afterwards, sufficient land was leased in Glen Iris for a 12-hole circuit near the present Alamein railway station. In the course of the round, one ‘heroic’ hole had golfers playing across a deep cutting in the line. It was time to move to the Sandbelt. Seeking a freehold property in South Oakleigh, 85 acres were purchased south of Centre Road. Although extra land was acquired over time, Commonwealth’s original land deficit accounts for it being among the most narrow of all Sandbelt layouts. Club professional, Sam Bennett, was responsible for building the first nine holes, and did so under this constraint. Commonwealth owes a debt of thanks to an early club captain, Charles Lane (1923–33), who made an amateur study of golf architecture. He travelled abroad extensively, and returned to make the finishing touches to Commonwealth’s greens and bunker design. Lane himself carried out much of the construction work, and was often spotted stripped to the waist digging the bunkers.

The Peninsula Country Golf Club opened in 1925 after formation in 1922, when Tower Golf House Co. Ltd. outlined ambitious plans for a residential golf property. The initial layout consisted of 11 holes only, but boasted tennis courts, a croquet lawn, putting green, and a house for its professional. Tower Golf House was soon turned into a private golf club, and following the addition of seven extra holes, play on the full-sized course began in 1926. The North and South Courses of today were not part of the original complex, except for six holes on the South Course. A new freeway built in 1960 meant that another site was required, and this was the catalyst for building two new courses designed by Sloan Morpeth. A fine golfer, and willing administrator, Morpeth was Commonwealth’s secretary/manager between 1930 and 1963.

Kingston Heath’s progenitor club was the Elsternwick Golf Club, formed in 1909. By the end of the First World War, the Elsternwick club was looking to relocate. The club was fortunate to have among its membership a man of vision, Stanley Dutton Green, who had made it his business of keeping abreast of golfing trends in the United Kingdom. He corresponded with two of the greatest golfers known – J. H. Taylor and Harry Vardon. Vardon, a six-time Open Champion, cautioned Green about building a course that was too short. As leading players, both he and J. H. Taylor spoke with great authority on how courses in Britain had been rendered too short in response to the arrival of the modern rubber-cored ‘Haskell’ ball. The ‘gutty’ was no more, and Vardon counselled Green to aim for a layout of sufficient length to ‘stand the test of time,’ and it is no coincidence that title of the club’s history, The Test of Time (1981), by Stewart Williams is derived from his advice. When Kingston Heath, designed by Dan Soutar, opened for play in 1925, it was the longest championship course in Australia, and was awarded a bogey (par) of 82 by the Victorian Golf Association. Nine holes have subsequently been reduced to par 4s at various times: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 11th, 16th, 17th and 18th. This would make Kingston Heath’s layout today a par 73, but 72 is the figure. MacKenzie made his mark on Kingston Heath in two ways: planning its bunkering and reducing the 15th hole from a 222-yard bogey 4 to an outstanding bogey 3. Before his whirlwind visit, the green was positioned ‘blindly’ well below and behind the present one.

Yarra Yarra Golf Club’s history extends back well before making its way in 1929 to East Bentleigh. First, as the Eaglemont Golf Club, formed in 1898, its golfers played over land depicted by Arthur Streeton of the Heidelberg School, in his acclaimed painting, Golden Summers (1889). The club departed Mount Eagle in 1911, and under a new entity known as the Yarra Yarra Golf Club purchased just over 91 acres at Rosanna.

By the mid-1920s, it was time to look towards the future, and in 1927, the club bought land in East Bentleigh. Alex Russell, MacKenzie’s Australian partner, is credited with a fine layout, notable for its lenient width. Of surprise to many, MacKenzie was called upon and, indeed, did submit a design in response to receiving surveyors’ maps. To the degree that this plan was incorporated into Russell’s finished work will always be open to debate. Sadly, record keeping was sketchy. However, in recognition of Russell’s on-site work, the club later bestowed Life Membership upon him, and perhaps this serves as a valuable clue to the extent of Russell’s contribution. Not a single hole has remained unaltered from Yarra Yarra’s initial 1929 layout.

Dandenong Golf Club was formed in 1904, and moved to several places around Dandenong, including one property known as ‘Kingswood’ on the banks of the Dandenong Creek. In 1931, the club changed its name to Kingswood Golf Club, and six years later moved to its current Dingley location. Four Gartside brothers were among its membership, owning land partially utilised as market gardens adjoining their cannery. After negotiating an equitable leasing price, the club gained access to 120 acres of gently undulating sandbelt country. Shortly afterwards, Mick and Vernon Morcom were appointed as course architects. On opening day in 1937, the Kingswood layout was the second longest in Australia.

The following year, 1938, marked the opening of Long Island Country Club in Frankston. Once known as the Long Island Estates Pty. Ltd., and home to the Frankston Racecourse between 1860 and 1920, the club has a proud link to the racing world and many famous racing identities have played here. In 1933, the opinion of golf architect Alex Russell was sought in relation to whether a golf course and full-scale country club could be viable. On the first question, he was in no doubt, and gave a glowing report on the suitability of the land as golfing country. However, Russell expressed doubts as to the financial viability of a country club, and he cited the case of Peninsula next door, which he was led to believe was experiencing some financial hardship. The club was hopeful of obtaining the services of Russell to design their course, but he wrote and informed the club he couldn’t spare the time. Gordon Oliver and Russell Lucas laid out the course, while Vernon Morcom was responsible for upgrading the course in the mid-1940s.

Huntingdale Golf Club was established in 1941 when land that the Melbourne Hunt Club had previously occupied from 1887 to 1929, became available. Eastern Golf Club in Doncaster opened for play in 1924, and by the late 1930s, was anxious to move south to the Sandbelt. Dams and trees were problematic, good players were leaving or being poached, and many felt that Eastern had outlived its tenure. By then, motor travel was an accepted form of transport. The move well south to the Sandbelt region was not quite of the same magnitude contemplated by Royal Melbourne when it eyed off Fisherman’s Bend, but it was significant, nonetheless. Noted English architect, C. H. Alison, won the tender to build the new course for 100 guineas, and he did so without setting foot on the terrain. Clearly, local assistance was needed for his master plan to be carried out. Course curator, Sam Berriman, implemented Alison’s plans, and his modifications improved them. Detailed surveys of the property by M. G. Dempster, cabled to Alison’s office in England, were critical to the viability of the project. Berriman and Dempster were just two of the many unsung heroes of the Melbourne Sandbelt in the early days.

In 1937, a group of regular visitors to the Brighton Municipal course formed the Brighton Golf Club. By 1947, its membership had expanded sufficiently to justify local golf architect, Sam Berriman, designing them a golf course in Dingley. A distinction of the new layout, opened for play in 1949, was its configuration of holes. Lower Dandenong Road separated two parcels of land – 60 acres (12 holes) to the south, and 40 acres (6 holes) to the north. Southern Golf Club was born. Crossing the Springvale Road intersection during the round posed less of a threat in Southern’s formative years, compared to the early 1970s, when there had been narrow escapes for players. After protracted negotiations between the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works and Southern Golf Club, the Board took control of the six holes, and made available land abutting the existing main paddock. Peter Thomson and Michael Wolveridge designed the replacement holes between 1977 and 1979, and revamped some of the original ones in the process. Southern is a golf course of contrast: flat and bereft of trees in one section of the course, and undulating, wooded terrain elsewhere. Pleasingly, the two golfing extremes are becoming harmonious. The now defunct Southern Golf Club holes have been incorporated into Spring Park Public Golf Course across Lower Dandenong Road. They are still a treat to play, in spite of a predictable downturn in conditioning.

The final Sandbelt club to be formed was Spring Valley Golf Club in 1948. Initially, as the Forest Hills Golf Club, Dandenong, it played over a layout redesigned by Mick and Vernon Morcom in 1931. The course was reputed to be a good one, although by 1945 its condition had deteriorated. Plans were made to move to the Sandbelt, and in 1947 a 70-acre property in Clayton South was targeted. But there was a problem. Vernon Morcom advised the club that 125 acres was required to build a modern golf course, and that 70 acres was insufficient. The hurdle was overcome when nearby landowners (five in all) were dragged into negotiations to make up the shortfall. Vernon Morcom was appointed to design the new course, for which he was paid a fee of 150 guineas. Morcom calculated that the new 18 holes could be constructed for £500 per hole. The original property was known as Spring Valley Estate, and Spring Valley seemed the natural choice for the club name. Play commenced upon the new layout in 1951.