Hickory golfers turn back the clock on the Bellarine

Players from around Australia came together for the Victorian Hickory Golf Championships. Photo: Golf Society of Australia.

The history of golf came to life on the Bellarine last weekend, as the Golf Society of Australia hosted the third Victorian Hickory Shaft Championships at Queenscliff and Barwon Heads.

Players from across Australia swapped modern clubs for wooden shafts in the two-day event, which began at Queenscliff golf club on Saturday with a historians’ forum with insight from club president Brad Teal before a round in the Canadian foursomes format.

The event finished with the championship at Barwon Heads Golf Club.

In hickory golf, players use traditional wooden-shafted clubs, replicating the equipment used before steel shafts became readily available in the 1930s. Players also dress period costume, creating a unique sense of golfing nostalgia.

“It’s a very different experience,” Golf Society of Australia president Kim Hastie said. “It’s just another way to play golf and a real step back in time.

“Everyone really embraces it and they really go to a lot of trouble.”

Hastie said bringing the championships to the Bellarine was an opportunity to showcase courses away from Melbourne’s traditional sand belts, while giving players the chance to experience two historic clubs.

“We’ve hosted it [at Barwon Heads] once before, and we’re always looking for different venues,” she said. “We wanted to make it a two-day event and support another local club.”

The hickory variation has its roots in the Golf Society of Australia itself, which was founded in the early 1980s with the aim of researching, documenting and preserving Australian golf history. The society’s first major event was a nine-hole Hickory Day at Royal Melbourne in 1983.

More than four decades later, hickory golf remains a key part of the society’s work.

“It’s just a nod to the past,” Hastie said. “Golfers tend to be traditionalists and there’s just a real nod to what our forebearers did.”

“We’ve got quite an active group down here in Australia.”

In Saturday’s play at Queenscliff, Hastie and partner John Kelly won the gross event on 85 points, while Lex Johnstone and Suzanne Brown took out Sunday’s honours at Barwon Heads with 77 and 89 points respectively.

Hastie said the event was about much more than the scores.

“The camaraderie and social side of it is also a huge part of it,” she said. “Everyone just has a bit of a catch up and sees what other hickory clubs people are playing with.

“We couldn’t be happier and we’re very grateful to the clubs looking after us so beautifully.”