Heatherdale Social Golf Club

A History - 

Heatherdale Social Golf Club

The Heatherdale Social Golf Club was formed in 1995 by Richard Bland and Peter Junkaris. Both had been playing in the Westpac Social Golf Club and Richard had the idea of forming something similar to accommodate their friends and the Heatherdale Hackers, a group which had emerged principally from the Heatherdale Tennis Club from about 1988. Richard canvassed his idea among his family and friends, two of whom, Sam Murphy and Peter Mason joined Dick and Junkie to form the Founding Committee.

Dick anticipated about a dozen regulars would leap at the opportunity to play golf on good courses on a regular basis. The tennis club was approached to see if members were interested in participating. Given that most of the Hackers were active tennis club members, this formalised the association between the two clubs and importantly, gave the fledgling golf club access to some initial publicity via the tennis club newsletter. It also gave the golf club a pseudo "home" which was thought could prove to be useful for AGM's and some functions such as barbecues and family days. A number of tennis club members took up the opportunity including Andrew Bray, the incumbent president and the tennis club donated the Club Championship Perpetual trophy, to be displayed in the tennis clubhouse.

Junkie had been as busy as a one-legged man in an arse kicking contest in contacting various golf courses and had arranged a schedule for the first 12 months. The initial event was held at Rosebud Country Club on October 15th, 1995 with some 24 players participating, Junkie winning the A Grade event and Rob Puser being our inaugural B Grade winner .

The club consolidated over the following twelve months with membership swelling to 45 and full entries for nearly every event. A computerised handicapping system was designed and instituted by Sam to track member's scores and handicap movements. Dick co-ordinated the issue of an informative monthly newsletter, incorporating a page by the mysterious Otis. It was soon realised that the club would be turning over well in excess of ten grand of other people's money over a year so a need was identified to ensure the club was accountable to its members. President Dick reluctantly called a meeting. At the initial committee meeting over pizzas, Chinese takeaway, a few beers and a couple of reds, a set of rules both for the club's running and day's play were agreed to and a charter for the club was struck. These were drawn up and presented by Dick while the other committee members threw in their two bobs worth between drinks. Accounts were also presented and Paul Jackson, accountant and miserly businessman, had agreed to audit the clubs books prior to AGM. It was also determined that formal committee meetings would be kept to a bare minimum although the practice of getting together for beer & pizzas was to be encouraged.

The club conducted its first weekend golf trip in October 1996 with the Heatherdale Hacker's Cup being contested over two rounds at Cobram-Barooga by some 28 players. Wives, girlfriends etc swelled the numbers to some forty adults plus about a dozen kids making the trip. A fine time was had by players, partners and kids alike and the steadiness of Michele Murphy took out the title from Michael Bland who absolutely choked after establishing a big lead after the first round. A President's dinner was held on the Saturday night with the inaugural Club Championship trophy being presented to Tony Hayhow. Various certificates were also presented to some members in recognition of outstanding misdeeds through the course of the year.

In the summer of 1996/97, the club extended its playing roster to include four afternoon fixtures so that in the better weather, the club was offering events on every second week. In addition to this, a matchplay competition was instituted which has proved highly successful. Subsequent years saw the establishment of an annual pairs event, the Founders Cup at Ringwood, the (almost) annual President's V Captain's Trophy with the first event being highlighted by a bus trip to Trafalgar. In 1999 the Masters at Keysborough was instituted with our President being the initial winner and in the same year the inaugural HSGC Presentation Night was conducted, another successful event. In 2000 Gordon Tevelein co-ordinated the first Winter Cup at Tatura, won by Peter Bartlett. 2002 saw the introduction of the Heatherdale Easter Cup, played at Corowa, a popular Easter holiday destination for many Heatherdale hackers & associates. In 2002, we went electronic with the publishing of the club's Internet websitewww.hsgclub.com, which was initially designed, developed and managed by Rob Puser .

That's it in a nutshell so far. Hopefully this history will continue for a long time to come as the Club develops and improves on the foundations already laid. We hope you enjoy playing a big part in it.

Cheers,

Dick, Sam, Junkie, Mase

Founding Committee - HSGC