Carved out of natural bushland at the foot of Mt Abrupt near Dunkeld, Grampians Golf Club’s beauty has never been in question but its water security was only five or so years ago.
The Club needed more than just run-off water from the mountain above so Club stalwart Darren Gordon reached out to water diviner, Alison Overall, leading to the discovery of an artesian bore.
“She could actually divine water using two metal rods,” Gordon remembers.
“I drove her around the course, she says, ‘there’s quite a bit of water here’. She walks down to the practice fairway, the old rods [react], so we actually found water under the golf course.
Overall – a former member at Grampians – had given the Club water security.
“I’m a lot better water diviner than I was a golfer,” she says.
Grampians’ undulating 18-hole layout was built with the help of local soldier settlers and opened for play in 1964.
“They had working bees up here where they’d get 50 to 100 people and almost half the town would come out and that was their social outing for the weekend,” says Gordon whose grandfather was part of the Club’s initial committee.
In October 1967, late golf legend Peter Thomson – having already won his five Open Championships – played an exhibition match at Grampians.
His opponents were four-time Victorian Open winner Guy Wolstenholme and, according to a poster displayed inside the clubhouse, "two other international professionals."
The prize purse was $400 and Thomson prevailed, setting a new course record of 71.
Convincing a five-time major champion of today to play in an exhibition at a small regional Victorian golf club is almost unfathomable.
Thomson – who died in 2018 – returned to Grampians in 1992 to mark the opening of a new irrigation system and again in 2014 for the Club’s 50th anniversary when he planted a small tree near the 18th scrape.
In October 1976, sitting Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser hosted then Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew at the Golf Club for an understated day of golf.
Fraser had family ties to the Western District and his mother-in-law was a founding member of the Golf Club.
Grampians is a sand greens course which is probably the only reason why it doesn’t garner more recognition as a fantastic layout.
“I reckon it’s the best sand scrape course in Australia just because of the location,” Gordon says.
“The location, why wouldn’t you want to play golf here?” adds Ladies President Kerren Collins who also runs the Club’s unofficial women’s Facebook group.
The course sits on a sandy base, so it drains beautifully.
“You hear of the sandbelt in Melbourne, well, there’s more sand out here than in all the sandbelt in Melbourne,” Gordon says. “We go down about 20 metres of sand.”
Grampians’ couch fairways come alive in spring and summer while the views persist year-round.
Playing the sharply uphill par-five second, golfers track their ball’s flight against the backdrop of Mt Abrupt. Playing the downhill fourth from the highest point of the course, you can see for dozens of kilometres to the west.
The Club has close to 130 members – each of whom can vouch for the course’s amazing flora and fauna.
“Kangaroos sit and watch us play, we hit them occasionally, emus, stump-tail lizards,” says Club secretary Heather MacGugan.
Snakes sometimes leave a trail of movement across the scrapes.
Pictured (from left): Kerren Collins and Heather Macgugan.
Inside Grampians’ clubhouse, a framed picture lists 62 bird species native to the area and, in summer, members jostle for a spot on the verandah to watch their feathered friends descend on a bird bath.
The clubhouse itself is a hotchpotch of parts from former churches, halls and other sources.
“If you have a look at the different rooflines, you can tell all the different buildings,” Gordon says.
Only a select group of members has a key to get into the clubhouse though the bar – pre-coronavirus – was a hive of activity on weekends.
There’s an honesty box for green fees and a ‘fine box’ for members’ post-round entertainment.
If a member plays a particularly bad shot on the course or commits a misdemeanour, they can tip money into the fine box after the round for mercy. The more money the offender puts in, the less likely his or her playing partners are to tell other members about what happened, or, at least, that’s the idea.
“We just load up on them anyway,” Gordon says.
There are no plans to change the jovial atmosphere at Grampians but some, including Gordon, would like the course to eventually transition to grass greens.
“I’d love to go to grass greens but I reckon that’ll have to be a change of generation,” he says.
“It’d be awesome.”
