It is one of the first country NSW courses to exist and last weekend golf club members in the Riverina gathered to celebrate 125 years of the Cootamundra Country Club ever since it was inaugurated in 1895.
Clubs from Wagga Wagga, Temora, Harden, Young and Gundagai travelled to our country club for a weekend of golf, prizes and a dinner featuring NRL great Les Boyd and Australian cricketer Greg Matthews as guest speakers.
“Coota Big Bash” as it was themed, the big weekend attracted 114 registered players in a two-person Medley Ambrose split into divisions for up to $4,000 worth of prizes.
The Rusty Bistro was closed for dinner on the Saturday night to accommodate the Big Bash sit-down and two-course meals were served to 14 tables on the night.
With a new head chef at the Bistro and live music on the night, things could not go any smoother.
Boyd and Matthews were sat on stage with Tony Dougherty asking some great questions to the sporting greats, and there was plenty of humour along the way.
Much hard work and months of planning by members occurred to make this past weekend possible.
It was supposed to have its century-and-a-quarter celebration late last year, but restrictions made It impossible to gather large numbers.
According to Cootamundra Country Club member Geoff Black, the plan was always to go big and have an enjoyable weekend of golf and the only way for that to work, was to postpone it to 2021.
First joining in 1982, Mr Black said last year was probably one of the more challenging years he’s ever been through at the club, although it could have been a lot worst.
“Golf NSW made changes last year that you were only allowed to play by two. You had to mark your own cards and you were basically not able to do anything with physical contact,” he said.
“But, surprisingly, numbers never dropped significantly as compared to team sports who were not allowed to carry on.”
Former Cootamundra High School teacher Geoff added that the course is in the best condition he has ever seen, during his almost 40-year involvement at the Country Club.
“Old timers will say the course is at its best condition it has ever been but that’s because of fairway watering throughout the whole place for the last couple of years,” he said.
“With the season [weather] we had too, the grass is greener than it’s ever been.”
Although the golf course has always been 18-holes, the Club used to just be one large house and that has now expanded majorly.
With the absence of fairway watering during previous summer seasons, grass conditions were not optimum and 13-hole competition could only be played through till March.
Sand-green also existed previously and players had to rake before hitting a putt but now the course is grassed all the way throughout.
One other major difference Mr Black observed is the demography changes throughout his time. In his early days, championships consisted of only 10 or 15 participating veterans (over 60 years of age), but today more than half of members are veterans.
A healthy number of juniors used to also play, but today there are larger numbers in sub-juniors who tee off with Janette Harris and Des Rowe on Tuesday afternoons.
And after a successful weekend of golf and celebrations, Mr Black said he is looking forward to 2021 at the Country Club.
“Firstly, I’d like to play better golf myself because that would be good,” he joked.
“There’s a new board this year and more than half of the members are coming up with new ideas. Fresh ideas are always good for the club.”
Christopher Tan