Bathurst Golf Club is the third oldest golf club in the Australian state of New South Wales.

It is situated some three hours west of Sydney in a region where gold was first discovered in Australia.  

Future Open Champion Roberto De Vincenzo unearthed a golden vein of form shooting a course record on a visit to Bathurst, while fellow Open championship winner Kel Nagle enjoyed playing the course regularly.

However in recent years it has been local heroes Peter O’Malley and Gavin Coles who have put Bathurst Golf Club on the map, with O’Malley winning three times on the European Tour and collecting seven other victories in Australia and New Zealand, while Coles is a five-time winner on the Web.com Tour in the States.

John Payne has lived in Bathurst and has been a member of Bathurst Golf Club for over 30 years.   

 And with special thanks to John he informs us Bathurst Golf Club enjoys a golfing heritage just as rich and rewarding as Australia’s first goldfields.

HISTORY by John Payne

Bathurst Golf Club is the third oldest golf club in the state of New South Wales.  The club was formed in 1894, after the Australian Open famed duo of The Australian in 1882 and Royal Sydney in 1893.

The present Bathurst Golf Club course was developed in 1934 and cut out of native bushland on the western outskirts of the Bathurst township.

Off the blue men’s tees the course measures 6,065 metres and plays to a par 71, while it measures 5,239 metres off the ladies tees and plays to a par 72.  Slope ratings of 136 (blue tees) and 132 (white tees) place Bathurst Golf Club well up among the most challenging courses in the country.

While Bathurst may be located well inland from Australia’s largest city of Sydney, its fame has managed to attract major golf championships and also visiting Major Champions.

As well, Bathurst Golf Club has a proud history in nurturing local talent in Peter O’Malley and Gavin Coles who progressed to perform superbly on the world golfing stage.

In 1941, Bathurst held its first Professional Open event with a purse of £26/10, with Eric Cremin, already a double Australian PGA champion, winning the event.

The first major event hosted by Bathurst Golf Club was the staging of the 1950 New South Wales Close Championship, won again by Cremin,  with 1934 Australian Open winner Billy Bolger finishing runner-up.

In 1951 the club accepted an offer from Australia’s first-ever Major Champion Jim Ferrier (1947 US PGA Championship) to play an exhibition match. Later that year Ferrier returned, this time accompanied by then Open Champion Max Faulkner and Dai Rees, who would finish runner-up in four Open Championships and go on to captain five GB & I Ryder Cup sides.

The appearance of so many of the then leading players in the world resulted in a visit in 1953 by Argentinean great Roberto de Vincenzo who would capture the 1967 Open Championship, but also lose the 1968 Masters in bizarre circumstances.

De Vincenzo blazed around Bathurst in just 63 strokes.

And the interest De Vincenzo’s visit generated resulted in the club hosting champion South African Bobby Locke and legendary Australian Norman von Nida in 1955 , when they played an exhibition match in the company of local champions Don Payne and New South Wales Country champion, Stuart Robinson.

At the time Locke was one of the greats of the game, having captured the 1949, 1950 and 1952 Open Championship, and was runner-up to Peter Thomson in the 1954 Open Championship. Locke secured a fourth Open with his three shot win over Thomson in 1957 at St. Andrews

Of interest, it was Locke who coined the phrase:  “You drive for show and putt for dough”.   He displayed that on the day, shooting a 68 to Von Nida’s 73.

The 1960 Centenary Open Champion Kel Nagle had played the course frequently in the sixties and seventies as an honorary member, visiting Bathurst because of his interest in the trotting industry which has a strong presence in the district.  He is now golf’s oldest living Major winner, being some five months older than De Vincenzo.

Nagle, who had won the 1949 Professional Purse at Bathurst, was so fond of the course he was invited to write the foreword for the club’s centenary yearbook. (See his words below)

In 1990 Bathurst hosted the Australasian Tour’s New South Wales Open Championship, won by Ken Trimble, also a former European Tour player and now Head Professional at Concord Golf Club in suburban Sydney.  Bathurst’s own Peter O’Malley was a proud runner-up.  Remarkably Kel Nagle, aged 70 at the time, made the cut in this tournament, but understandably faded in the final rounds.

Bathurst also has hosted a number of New South Wales Country Championships.

The club proudly boasts two members who have gone on in recent times to make their mark on the international golf scene.

Three times club champion Peter O’Malley, the son of 12 times club champion Don O’Malley, enjoyed a very distinguished career on the European Tour, winning three events and amassing career earnings of €6,790,000.

Highlight of O’Malley’s wins on the European Tour was denying overwhelming crowd favourite Colin Montgomerie, wearing that now famed but since retired Saltire pullover, to capture the 1992 Bell’s Scottish Open, playing the final five holes of the Kings Course at Gleneagles in seven under par for a 62.

Gavin Coles, also  three times Bathurst club champion, currently plays on the Web.com Tour (formerly the Nationwide Tour), where he has had five wins for career earnings of $1,381,000.  Gavin also had three years competing on the PGA tour where he had four top 10 finishes, and earned $1, 663,000.  Playing in the Sunday Competition in December, 2012 Gavin shot an astounding 11 under par 60, which included a bogey on the last hole!

It is interesting to note that both O’Malley and Coles regularly ranked at or near the top of their respective tours in driving accuracy, possibly a result of their formative years on the Bathurst course where driving accuracy is paramount.

I have sourced much of the information about the club’s history from Frank Farrugia’s History of the Bathurst Golf Club: Our First 100 Years.

THE COURSE by Bernie McGuire

One of the unusual aspects of Bathurst Golf Club is that the course is located alongside a prison, or to be precise the Bathurst Correctional Centre, a minimum security facility for male prisoners.

Not that this causes any alarm for golfers but then there was a humorous incident I can recall when former Australian Open winner and now TV analyst, Wayne Riley caused a stir among inmates by hitting balls into the centre during a practice round ahead of the 1990 New South Wales Open.

I can also remember Ken Trimble holding on to defeat overwhelming home grown hero, Peter O’Malley, and then no sooner had Ken been photographed with the trophy and the heavens opened.

The course is laid out in a quintessential Australian rural setting of gum trees and native bushes and where wildlife abounds.

There is three par fives, two on the outward nine and the wonderful 15th on the inward half.

The shortest of the four par threes is the 123-metre eighth hole, while the longest is the downhill 193-metre 16th.

The first hole at 368-metres is a great opening test with no bunkers around the green, but a deceptive-looking plateau before the green where local knowledge really comes into play.

The course gets a little tighter at the short downhill 298-metre par four, fourth hole which is 16 index on the card.

The first of the par threes is the 190-metre fifth hole, while the sixth, a par four of 390-metres, takes you back in the direction of the clubhouse before you play the seventh that runs alongside the first, with a bizarre-looking wood carving adjacent to the tee.  This carving, depicting a man swallowing a golf ball, was made by some members from the trunk of a dense, wide pine tree which stood on the spot for many years.  It was known as “The Gobbler”, in reference to the thousands of wayward drives that it had gobbled up over the years before it was finally removed.

One of the best holes at Bathurst Golf Club is the 123-metre eighth hole, and the shortest hole on the course.  It requires a short iron over a creek to a relatively large green with five bunkers. It is ranked the easiest hole, but it’s a hole that still deserves respect, and also a hole that continues to reflect that being short doesn’t always mean a lack of strength.

The outward nine opens with the most difficult hole, a long par four of 408-metres that runs alongside the Mitchell Highway, the main artery through Bathurst.

When you stand on the short 305-yard par four 11^th, the Bathurst Correctional Centre is now in full view to your immediate left.  It can be a time also to reflect how fortunate you are to be on the opposite side of the barbed wire fence and enjoying your ability to find your  way freely about a marvellous golf course.

The 158-metre par 3 13th needs an accurate shot to clear a dam in front and the judiciously placed array of bunkers which surround a large green.

The uphill 333-yard par four 14th is a wonderful hole.  It’s very tight off the tee, with a second shot to a sloping green protected by a number of bunkers.  A par here is a great reward.

Those familiar with the town of Bathurst will know that it is famous for the staging each October one of the highlights of the V8 Supercar Series, a 1,000 kilometre race on the nearby Mt. Panorama Racing circuit.

It is standing on the tee of the longest hole on the Bathurst course, the 514-metre par five 15th, that reminded me of one of the famed straights at Mt. Panorama and that is Conrod Straight.   Both ‘drives’ are downhill all the way but with your golf ball needing to first avoid overhanging trees and finding a landing area somewhat wider than its racing strip neighbour.

However in contrast to Conrod Straight, it is now uphill and avoiding a fairway bunker to an elevated green. Whether you walk off with birdie, par or bogey, take a few seconds and stand at the back of the green and look back on a super golf hole, and forward to an excellent view of the Blue Mountains to the east.

The 16th, the longest of the club’s par threes at 193-metres, is downhill and skirting the prison compound, as does the downhill par four 17th , before you find your way to the 391-yard par four 18th.

There is a strand of pine trees on the left side that blocks the drive if pulled, and eucalyptus trees ready to trap any errant drive on the right.

All that’s left is a mid-iron to a green sloping from the back, but with two deep bunkers and bringing to an end a wonderful golfing experience.

KEL NAGLE’S TRIBUTE TO BATHURST GOLF CLUB – 1994 CENTENARY BOOK

A drive over the Blue Mountains, some 2 ½ hours from Sydney, brings one to the city of Bathurst and the Bathurst Golf Club. 

Bathurst in the autumn is beautiful with the leaves turning red, orange and gold, whilst in the Spring the countryside is painted in the fresh green hues of the trees and fields.  They are my favourite times.

 I have had a long association with the Bathurst golf club over the years, winning the Professional Purse in 1949, later playing in the New South Wales Close Championship in 1950 and, not so long ago, the New South Wales Open Championship in 1990. 

I consider the Bathurst Golf Course one of the best country courses you could wish to play on. 

It is undulating and presents a nice challenge to all golfers of every grade, while the view from the 15^th tee and the green is a delight.

* Here now is a hole-by-hole pictorial tour around Bathurst Golf Club – all photographs www.golfbytourmiss.com