YOU don’t turn 125 too often. Very few do.
So, there’s plenty of cause for celebration at one of Sydney’s iconic golf clubs, Killara, this month.
A refurb of the golf course a couple of years ago has worked wonders.
Now the north shore club is looking at improving their clubhouse as well with a multi-million dollar refresh certain to be well received by membership.
Besides celebrating with a special series of red and white wines to commemorate the Quasquicentennial (125 years), the club has also been studiously preparing to launch a special beer to mark their anniversary.
A group appointed as ‘tasters’ have taken their task very seriously too and when they do decide the beer will have a special name connected with one of the club’s legends.
That’s another story though as the club has plenty of special celebrations planned.
One exciting thing members can look forward to is a major refurbishment of their clubhouse, which although charming and well-maintained, will be updated to make the most of some special views over the golf course.
A recent refurbishment of the Killara course has it in superb condition.
Killara’s recently-appointed general manager Josh Madden has proven a great addition to the club, with a background steeped in golf and spending his past six years at Wembley Golf Club, a 36-hole course in Western Australia, which is among the busiest in the land.
While Killara is a stark contrast to that, Madden is excited about the future of a club that is so steeped in tradition and offers so much more than golf.
There’s also tennis, bowls, squash, snooker, bridge . . . Killara has the lot and its no idle boast that those who have joined Killara Golf Club over the years find it a happy home and they usually stick around.
Even their resident professionals like the late, great Dave Mercer and his former apprentice Greg Hohnen, who now boasts 50 ears at Killara, have become part of the fabric of this great club.
But be warned, a win in the Saturday afternoon competition can be an expensive exercise.
That’s because the winners of the three grades usually shout the bar – yes, that’s right, not for an ace from one lucky shot, but for winning a competition that is difficult to win at the best of times.
“We’ve had members who have waited years for this privilege,” says Madden.
“They are more than happy to stand up and buy everyone in the house a drink while they boast about their win.
“It’s just a terrific experience to be involved in.”
Club president Rob Crittenden agrees:
“It’s a great course – and it’s even better now,” he said.
“But the thing that makes Killara great is definitely the camaraderie.
“Being in the bar for the presentation after golf on a Wednesday or a Saturday is just an amazing experience.
“The good will and the camaraderie is something special.
“A lot of people say that is what they rate most highly about our club.
“Sure, they love playing the course – but really Killara has the whole package . . . and that’s what makes it so special.”
The Killara clubhouse is soon to undergo a multi-million dollar refresh.
Women’s president Karen Wood, a Killara member for 32 years endorsed Crittenden’s comments:
“There must be something special keeping me here,” Wood told Inside Golf.
“It is a friendly club in every area.
“Even when my kids were little they would come here and Greg Hohnen (50 years as club pro at Killara) knew them by their first names and that even made them feel pretty special.
“I think that carries over through the whole club.
“We’re very welcoming and we try hard to make it like that.
“We’ve been running women’s beginners’ program since 2008. You get a group of women who start their golfing journey together, early and they form really strong friendships.
“And that carries through for the rest of their time at the club . . . and that’s a great basis to work from.
“A lot of the members also have family connections to the club.
“And being a local club, you end up with a lot of connections through other areas well.
“We have an excellent junior program which includes cadets and a variety of scholarship holders who play regularly.
“There’s special events – both golf and social – and opportunities to represent our club in the junior inter-club competitions.
“Some of our local schools do golf lessons here.
“There’s a mixture of people of different ages and abilities and that’s centred around the club.
“Sundays is now our busiest day – husbands and wives and friends and groups and our Friday twilights are also busy when we play nine holes and have a barbecue afterwards.
“It’s all very relaxed and happy.
“Those sorts of things make a difference to everybody – they’re all a part of something bigger.”
Wood says one of their favourite lines at Killara is “a club for life”.
“And that’s true here,” she says.
“There’s a lot of bridge played here as well as the tennis courts, bowling green and the progression is there as you go through the various stages.
“The snooker table and squash court are also used regularly.”
Wood is excited about the proposed changes to the clubhouse.
“This will make it easier to look over the course,” she said.
“It is an old-fashioned design and we are not planning to knock it down and start over again. It is basically a refurbishment but will open it [the club] up to the course a bit more and make the rooms more adaptable to have different functions here.
“Besides making things easier on staff and everybody – it will be more user-friendly.
“It will take some time but will be fabulous once we get it all done, for sure.”
The recent course changes have been well-received.
“It’s beautiful. The greens are bigger but that doesn’t necessarily help you,” said Wood.
“We hosted Division I grade here last week and they were glowing in their praise for the course. They loved it.
“When you get feedback from people who haven’t played here or haven’t been here for a few years we found their feedback was wonderful.
“We widened the fairways a little; we cleared some growth around the greens and opened them up a bit.
“The course now looks wonderful – and it’s a tough challenge.”
A premier club born from humble beginnings
IT is widely regarded as one of Sydney’s premier golf clubs, yet Killara Golf Club had the humblest of beginnings.
According to a special book printed when the club turned 100, in 1999, the Killara seed was ‘germinated’ in 1899 when a small group of people gathered beneath a canvas cover spread between two trees in what was then an outlying suburb of Sydney.
They were there to inaugurate a golf club.
A year later this group had purchased land in Killara and with a perfect blend of friendship, enthusiasm and sound business sense that became the hallmark of the club, Killara Golf Club was born.
Naturally, the club and the course have seen many changes since then. From dairy paddocks, orchards and sheds sprung tree-lined fairways, dams and a clubhouse.
The official opening of the Killara clubhouse in 1909.
What began as a nine-hole course on 14 dusty hectares, grew to 18 holes on 50.5 hectares of parkland with substantial buildings and facilities.
This was not simply natural progress but the result of careful planning and a lot of dedication and hard work by members and staff.
When Killara Golf Club began, golf was a relatively new game to Australia, so this club has played its part in our storied golfing history.
For instance, Killara was the first club to own its own land.
The Killara Shield, donated for an inter-club match, began in 1920, remains the oldest golfing event on the Golf NSW calendar.
The Ex-Service Members Association, formed in 1922, was the first such association in Australia and the annual Killara versus Newcastle golf match is believed to be the oldest continuously held inter-club event in the world.
When the NSW Ladies Golf Union began, it was the Killara ‘associates’ who became founding members.
The post CLUB OF THE MONTH: Killara celebrates a ‘Quasquicentennial’ – 125 years and going strong first appeared on Inside Golf. Australia's Most-Read Golf Magazine as named by Australian Golfers - FREE.