GOLF ON THE PENINSULA

Flinders Golf Club is the oldest on the Mornington Peninsula; indeed it claims to be the oldest club in Australia on its original site. It was formed in 1903 with the first subscription two shillings and sixpence per annum, and by 1905 it had 155 members. Most of them were probably men, but the excellent History page of the Flinders website www.flindersgolfclub.com.au does include some women in the early photos.

Golf on the Port Phillip side of the Peninsula was established with the birth of the Mornington Country Golf Club in 1904, followed in 1907 by the Sorrento and Portsea Golf Club which changed its name to the Sorrento Golf Club two years later. Portsea Golf Club was established in 1925. That was probably all the golf course development until after the Depression, World War II and post-war reconstruction of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Since the early 1960s the number of courses and clubs has increased steadily.

The member-owned Rosebud Country Club began in 1962. Local Shire Councils established courses at Rosebud Park (now Carrington Park) in 1960, at Devilbend in 1975 and at Mount Martha. The Navy built a 9-hole course at HMAS Cerberus. Privately-owned courses such as Carlogie (now Eagle Ridge), and Limestone Valley (now The Dunes) combined club memberships with green fee availability. (Some like Sorrento Downs have come and gone - the members formed the basis of The Rye Dunes Golf Club - now The Dunes Golf Club). Courses built on housing developments began with The National, Cape Schanck (now RACV) and Mount Martha Valley (now Safety Beach GC) in the late 1980s. The newest courses have been Moonah Links in 2003 and St Andrews Beach in 2005. (In 2008 St Andrews Beach is no longer operating, subject to possible new ownership.)

GOLF IN THE HILLS
Privately owned golf courses were established in the 1920s and 1930s in the northern part of what have become Mornington Peninsula District Women’s Golf Incorporated (MPDWG) and the men’s Peninsula District Golf Association (PDGA). Courses at The Lakes, Montuna, Warburton and Emerald were played by local golfers, and in 1946 the Beacon Hills and Montuna Golf Clubs were set up, the latter adding Berwick to its name in 1998.

THE GROWTH OF THE MPDWG Inc
(This material was compiled by D. Hardie and M. Ward in the year 1995 from research into Minutes, Records and Year Books up to that date, and information received from various sources.)

The earliest evidence of our Association can be found in the Mornington Country Golf Club Associates’ Minute Books from 1953 to 1958 when Dolly Pyke was Secretary of Mornington CGC Associates. At that time only four clubs – Flinders, Mornington, Portsea and Sorrento – were involved, and all business relating to the everyday running of the Association was done through Mornington.

So if you were President and Secretary of Mornington you were also President and Secretary of the Association. Captains from the other three Clubs would come to Mornington to meetings, and so it all began.The Peninsula District Golf Association was formed in 1960, with women as Associate Members.

The Mornington Peninsula District Golf Association Associates was officially formed by the unanimous decision of Peninsula District delegates attending a meeting on the 11th September, 1967.  The District became an Incorporated Body on the 22nd February, 1989.

HOW COUNTRY DELEGATES WERE FIRST ADMITTED TO THE VLGU COUNCIL
In 1970 the VLGU (Victorian Ladies’ Golf Union, now Women’s Golf Victoria WGV) divided Victoria into 6 areas, and each area was invited to send an Observer to the Council Meetings.If you can imagine six country ladies all very active in their own Clubs and District Associations, sitting at the VLGU Meetings, able to hear but not allowed to speak, as about 25 Melbourne Members discussed and voted on what should or should not be done in the 280 Country Clubs, it really was ludicrous.At the end of 1970 the six ladies thanked the VLGU and said if the Country could not have their own elected Delegates we would have to start a Country Council. In 1971 we became Delegates.

At the end of that year we realised that it was not possible for six people to cope with about 43 Clubs each, so we asked to have our 6 areas divided into 2 Sections, and double the number of delegates. The request was granted.I knew Ruth Kinsella very well and asked her to represent Peninsula and South Gippsland, while I would take East and West Gippsland, and we would help one another. It became a very happy and successful arrangement.

(Signed: Marion Dwyer)