A local golf club will showcase over 100 years of its history in November.
Eastern Golf Club was formed in 1909 as Middleborough Golf Club, renamed as Box Hill Golf Club in 1912, and re-established in Doncaster in 1924.
One of the club members, Dr Ian Monks, has undertaken extensive research and has been able to correct many mistakes with earlier accounts.
It had been claimed that Middleborough Golf Club was formed from members of the Surrey Hills Golf Club, now Riversdale Golf Club, and also that Box Hill Golf Club folded at the start of World War 1.
“Both claims are simply not true. Working with Andrew Baker, South Australian golf historian, on the continuity claim, I was able to dismiss the link to Surrey Hills, and the newspaper reported the club’s continued activities until early 1919 when the leased land was taken back for housing,” Dr Monks said.
“Publication had been aimed at June 2024, the 100-year anniversary of the opening of the club at Doncaster. The fire that destroyed the clubhouse in 2023 stopped that and added another chapter to the book.
“Huntingdale Golf Club, which split from Eastern moving from Doncaster to Oakleigh in 1941, were working towards a similar timeline. However, the discovery of the link to Middleborough Golf Club changed their plans as well.
“We went ahead and celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Doncaster opening with a game of golf using 100 plus old hickory clubs.”
The book has more than 450 indexed pages, includes nearly 500 illustrations and lists over 600 references.
“It sourced many of the early Australian newspapers held on the Trove online database and 50 years of Eastern Golf Club magazines. Recent reports by consultants and photographs by many members of the club have also been used,” Dr Monks said.
The Eastern Golf Club moved from Doncaster to Yering in July 2015.
“The reason for the move was that the course at Doncaster had become too short for modern equipment,” the Eastern Golf Club member said.
“Local adjoining residents were unhappy with golf balls entering their property. Most golfers are right-handed and tend to slice, and the course ran anti-clockwise exposing the adjoining houses to sliced shots.
“Access to water was an issue. This was at the end of the millennium drought.”
The book introduces the founding members of the club and many early champion golfers, both men and women.
Two golfers played against Babe Didrickson Zaharias, who was named the greatest female athlete of the 20th century, and their stories and the matches are retold.
18 pages are devoted to the hijinks of the AIF Cup run for ex-servicemen at Eastern on Show Days in September each year from 1928 to 1939 and again in 1953.
Fields of over 500 and 600 completed 18-hole play on these days.
Dr Monks said they are now planning to publish the book in November following the opening of the replacement clubhouse in October.
“Golf histories and in general sporting club histories can be very dry reading as there is a great deal of repetition year-on-year,” he said.
“The book segments the history into discrete periods and has been generously sprinkled with anecdotes. It is written in an easy style for the golfer and non-golfer alike.”
