After 70 years as a respected and much-loved part of Victoria’s sporting and community landscape, Cranbourne Golf Course closed following its final day on Saturday 28 February.
The final day was fully booked, with morning and afternoon fields filled. A farewell lunch followed, giving members one last chance to say goodbye.
For long-time members of the private club, though they had learned of the closure about two years ago, the end was still deeply and inevitably emotional.
“It was very sentimental,” member Steven Baron said.
“Very emotional. But that’s life.”
Steven joined the club 37 years ago and travelled from the Bayside area for decades to play at Cranbourne. His decision to join Cranbourne was deeply connected to the club’s history and its origins as a place of inclusion.
According to the history archive, Cranbourne Golf Club was formed in 1951, following discriminatory practices against the Jewish community by a significant number of Victorian golf clubs.
After identifying suitable land in the rapidly developing Cranbourne district, the construction began. Assisted by renowned architect Sam Berriman, curator of the Huntingdale course, the fairways took shape over two years. The course was officially opened on 9 April 1954.
“When I joined the club 37 years ago, if I wanted to join one of the member clubs near where I live, I was living in Cheltenham at the time, there was anything between a 2- and 6-year waiting list, but I could join Cranbourne straight away,” Steven recalled.
“I was happy to join because of the heritage of the club, the design of the course, and the members who were there. I’ve been very happy to travel that distance all that time to play at a great club.
“You’ll find that back when I joined 30-odd years ago, most of the members didn’t live anywhere near Cranbourne. They would travel out there, then it was on the freeway to a very, very good golf course, but more importantly, a terrific community of people who are members.”
Though the Golf Course started with a Jewish origin, Steven said that the membership of Cranbourne Golf Club wouldn’t have been more than 20 per cent Jewish.
“It’s a golf course that had no restrictions. It was welcoming everybody, whether you were Chinese, you were Japanese, or Vietnamese,” he said.
Speaking about the closure, Steven said it was very sentimental that the circumstances were such that it had to close.
“I can understand why, with the diminishing membership and the costs of maintaining a golf course, like everything, the cost of living is going up,” he said.
“But the fact that the club did everything it could and placed every member at another golf club was a wonderful thing.”
Approximately 250 members have transitioned to Huntingdale Golf Club, while others will go to Southern, Keysborough, Settlers Run, Sandhurst and Patterson River Golf Clubs.
Darren Walker from Narre Warren South, a member since 2004 and former club captain, said he was absolutely shattered when he heard the closure news.
“I was captain of the golf club at the time. And it felt like the rug had been pulled out from underneath. They’re getting too much down a dead-end sort of alleyway,” he said.
“The golf club has probably struggled financially for most of the time that I’ve been in, but we felt like coming out of Covid, we’re in a position to hit the ground running a little bit more golf. Participation was increasing. Membership was increasing.
“There were opportunities for us to do some things to kind of shore up the financial future of the club, and sort of the next thing we knew, it was all out the window.”
Darren was one of the members who transitioned to the Huntingdale Club, and he had already been playing there since January.
“Part of what you learn in life is to learn from what’s happened, but try and look forward to it with as much optimism as you can,” he said.
“It’s a different environment. It’s a different club. It’s a different set of people, but there are some familiar faces. It’s a fantastic golf course.
“Life goes on. Probably always going to be that regret that we didn’t manage to keep Cranbourne Golf Club going.”
Darren said the Cranbourne Golf Course maintained an exceptionally high standard.
“Day in, day out, Cranbourne’s up to a very high standard,” he said.
Across its history, Cranbourne earned a respected place in Australian golf, hosting two Australian Amateur Championships in recent years, a Victorian Open, and a host of Victorian pennant finals, while also supporting junior development, competitive club golf, and a strong social culture.
The club also produced elite players, including David Micheluzzi, now competing internationally, and hosted national tournaments in recent years.
But beyond the well-maintained course, trophies and championships, both long-time members spoke most passionately about the people they met there.
Steven recalled playing alongside members in their 90s who continued walking six kilometres a round.
“For them, the closure was very sad. Now one has joined another club because if he stops playing golf, physically and mentally, it’s not good for him. But the fact that he’s out there twice a week playing golf is fantastic,” Steven said.
For Darren, some of his strongest memories revolve around the “Saturday 20”, a long-running weekly tradition where regulars would each put in $20, winner takes all, before shouting drinks for the group.
“My experience of golf is that it’s much more of a leveller than it is an elitist thing,” Darren said.
“Private golf clubs, I think, are probably not well understood that they’re looked upon as being sort of the elitist environments, wealthy people or something like that.
“I know some wealthy people through the golf club. I also know a lot of a lot more people who are just everyday Jacks and Joes who play golf because they enjoy the challenge and because they like the community aspect of it.”
He said for some members, the discipline and structure of regularly turning up to play had provided stability and direction in their lives.
“Like everywhere else, there are people who are good humans and less good humans, but golf is an equaliser,” he said.
“It brings everybody under the same sort of level. And if you’re part of that particular family and that particular community, then, you’re always a part of it.”
Both Steven and Darren’s stories with the golf club echoed what Cranbourne Golf Club Chief Executive Officer Andrew Kenny said in a farewell media release to the public.
“This club had meant different things to different people —competition, friendship, opportunity, belonging — but what unites those experiences is the strength of the community behind them.
“That legacy will endure long after the last putt is struck,” he said.
