About Bowral Golf Club
Bowral Golf Club is a historic and friendly club located close to the heart of the town and easily reached from Sydney. Our popular club, which dates back to 1901, is blessed with a wonderful 18-hole layout that is considered among the best country courses in New South Wales.
As well as offering a full golfing calendar for our members, the club hosts a number of prestigious competitions, most notably our Jubilee Cup Vardon event which attracts some of the best players in the state. Our resident professional offers game improvement lessons and a fully-stocked Pro Shop complete an exceptional all-around golfing experience. The comfortable clubhouse offers a home away from home to our friendly membership and makes a wonderful venue for functions, special occasions and corporate meetings.
Bowral Golf Club provides a perfect environment to forge new friendships and the camaraderie amongst our members is a distinguishing feature of our clubhouse ambiance. If you are looking to play good golf in good company, or for somewhere to have a corporate golf day, celebrate a special occasion or just have a great day with your friends, then you need look no further. A warm welcome is assured.
Visitors are invited to enjoy the special ambiance of the club. Indulge in lunch or a glass of fine wine while appreciating the warmth of the log fire when toasting the day or sitting on the terrace enjoying the view.
A Brief History
Bowral Golf Club was established in 1901. Initially, it had no playing area of its own and for the first two years members of the new club played by invitation on a private nine-hole course owned by Mr. C. J. Royle, one of the foundation members. After this, play moved to a large area of land opposite the Bowral hospital, part of this land now being occupied by Bradman Oval.
The next site for Bowral Golf Club was on the west side of the railway line. It was a nine-hole course with sand greens on the Merilbah Estate near the Gibraltar Hotel. The club was advised in 1915 that the lease on this land would come to an end. While many clubs might have viewed this as a crisis, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as ultimately it brought Bowral to its present home.
In mid-1917 an area of 36 acres on Kangaloon Rd was purchased from Edwin Boardman and a new clubhouse was completed on this land in June 1919. A nine-hole course was laid out by Club Professional Dan Soutar. In 1920 members were advised that a further 49 acres of land had been acquired to extend the course to 18 holes. The additional layout was designed by Carnegie Clark. In 1950 a further 5.7 acres was acquired and was used for the present 15th hole.
The categories of membership established at the inaugural meeting say a lot about the club and its founders. From the outset, women members were welcomed at the club. The club’s first professional was Sandy Yeoman, a Scotsman. But the longest-tenured and surely the one to have the most impact on the club was Hastings Clark. His father Carnegie Clark, then the professional at Royal Sydney Golf Club, was well known to many Bowral members.
Hastings may not have been so well known when he took up his appointment on 18 June 1934, aged 23 years. But by the time he retired, in July 1982 after a record stint of 48 years’ service to Bowral, it is fair to say he was a club institution!
The club has continued to invest and upgrade its facilities over the years. Major works were carried out on drainage, tree planting, and improvement of tees, fairway shaping and renovation just before the turn of the century.
A major improvement came about in 2001, when at a cost of just less than half a million dollars, the course was fully irrigated. A new bore was sunk near the 15th hole and pumps into the dam. The system at the time was state of the art and as a result the presentation of the course is superb. The club celebrated its centenary in 2001, holding a number of functions throughout the year. Now, well into its second century, it is regarded just as fondly by the local New South Wales golfing community as it ever has been.
An advertisement placed by the club in the magazine Golf Australia in the 1950s stated “Come to Bowral for Exhilarating Golf”. That invitation is equally applicable today. Much may have changed over the years, but the one constant has and always will be the warmth and genuine nature of a Bowral welcome.