‘Rolls-Royce in the car park’: The class war over a soon-to-be-halved golf course

The soon-to-be-halved Moore Park Golf Course has rejected suggestions it is a playground for rich interlopers as it fights the state government’s plans to cut nine holes to create a new public park.

Meanwhile, the Herald can reveal former Victorian Labor premier Daniel Andrews, a keen golfer, believes Premier Chris Minns’ decision was not “particularly smart”, and would have made more sense if the course was being cleared for housing.

Golfers criticised the proposal to transform half the championship course into parkland. Credit: Edwina Pickles

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, a long-time supporter of reducing the golf course to nine holes, told a council meeting on Monday night the Moore Park Golf Club was not used by locals from the surrounding area but by wealthy outsiders.

“Last time [this issue came up] there was the most amazing campaign from golfers from the north shore and the eastern suburbs, who really like this course,” she said.

“They drive their very expensive cars… When I was at a meeting of the community board just a week ago, there was even a Rolls-Royce in the car park.

“So it’s not for people of Redfern and Surry Hills and Waterloo and Green Square. This is being used by people who drive to Moore Park, park in the park and play golf.”

Moore Park Golf Club president John Janik gave the Herald a breakdown of course users’ postcodes for 2023, which he said was compiled by the golf course operator through a survey. When combined with membership data, Janik said 35 per cent of players came from the City of Sydney, 15 per cent from Randwick, 14 per cent from Waverley and 9 per cent from Woollahra.

Just over a quarter of players came from elsewhere in the Sydney metropolitan area, including 9 per cent from the inner west and 10 per cent from the north shore.

“There’s no rich people,” Janik said. “We’ve got bricklayers and secretaries and school kids. They’re not coming in a Rolls-Royce, that’s for sure. They’re coming by public transport… It’s a working-class course.”

Janik said many people who travelled to Moore Park for golf came to use the driving range. He knew the Rolls-Royce in question. “It’s very, very rare. It was in the driving range,” he said.

Premier Chris Minns and Lord Mayor Clover Moore announced the move to convert half of Moore Park Golf Course to a new public park in October.Credit: Jessica Hromas

Independent councillor Yvonne Weldon said her four-year-old grandson plays golf at the club with his uncle, and so she knew first-hand the course was attended “not by people who use Rolls-Royces but rather people that use Holden”.

“It is a public course, it’s not the Royal Sydney,” she said.

A spokesperson for Moore noted the golf club’s data was not verified. “Regardless of where golfers come from, the lord mayor remains committed to returning part of this precious inner city public land to open community use available to tens of thousands of people,” they said.

The Herald has confirmed Moore Park Golf Club does not pay council rates to the City of Sydney - nor does it pay to lease 45 hectares of public land. Rather, its operating agreement with Clublinks returns joining fees and annual membership fees to the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust. About $1 million in members’ fees each year is returned to the Trust, plus much more in general revenue from the golf precinct.

The furore over Sydney golf clubs, and who plays where, ignited last month when Minns announced the state government would repurpose half of Moore Park Golf Course for a public park from 2026. He said increasing housing density in nearby Zetland and Waterloo meant residents needed green open space open to all, not just golfers.

But that was disputed by Andrews, the recently departed Labor premier of Victoria, who rubbished the NSW government’s decision on the golfing podcast State of the Game late last month.

“Someone’s decided that you can’t have Moore Park and more housing, and I don’t think that’s a particularly smart decision to make,” he said. “I don’t think there’s too many golfers in the NSW cabinet to make a decision like this.”

Andrews, a keen golfer, said it would have made more sense to replace the nine holes with dense housing, given the pressing need, instead of another public park.

“I don’t see how a park gets you more housing. It doesn’t, it just means you have less golf, and a golfing community that’s pretty upset,” he said. “I know a thing or two about upsetting the golfing community. But in any event, I think my motives might have been a little purer than these.”