Yarra Valley Country Club: Golfers share thoughts as Bulleen club closes after 50 Years

Golfing mates have enjoyed one last round at the Yarra Valley Country Club after 50 years of good times. We joined them as they sank their final putts.

After more than 5000 rounds from playing twice a week for 50 years, Percy Empey knows his way around Yarra Valley Country Club.

And it was fitting that Mr Empey, a foundation member, landed the final putt on the greens of the Bulleen golf course on its final day of action.

The 84-year-old was among a group of about 75 loyal golfers who had a final round at the club on Thursday after it closed after the landowners decided not to renew its lease.

He described it as a “sad” day, but said he had many happy memories — including a hole in one on the fourth hole in 2008.

But other golfers didn’t hold back when asked how they felt about their local course shutting down for a likely residential development spearheaded by businessman Bruce Matheson and developer Linked Solutions.

Eltham’s Brad Davis is “pissed off”, while club stalwart and competition sponsor Paul Robertson in his flames-themed outfit is “devastated” and wants to “drink the joint dry”.

Yallambie’s Trevor Williams, 76, feels like he’s lost the thing he looks forward to the most every week.

“I’m really pissed because this is the only real activity I have, I can’t go back to ‘younger’ sport, and older people don’t have this facility in this area any more,” Mr Williams said.

“We do this two to three times a week, it gets us out and we can exercise, and I don’t know where we go from here.”

“You drive into this golf course and it’s like nowhere else in Melbourne, with trees, the river and all the rest of it, it’s isolated and it’s lovely.

“This is an affordable golf club for a whole heap of guys who just want to have fun, play and enjoy each other’s company, now its gone and it’s sad, but what can we do about it.”

Others echoed the group’s thoughts back at the clubhouse, with Heidelberg’s Rodney Maher describing it as “close, handy, very reasonably priced and picturesque”.

Golf competition director Keith Eddison reflected on a funnier moment when he once saw a frustrated player drown his golf bag and clubs in the course’s dam.

He said the everyone’s friendly nature and being a “smaller” club had made it so valuable to the community.

“It’s the camaraderie of everybody, that’s been the thing that’s so good about the club,” he said.

“If someone hasn’t got a playing partner, you just say ‘come play with us’, and you can’t do that at big clubs.

Alphington’s Rod Heath, decked out in the club polo shirt, took the day off work for one final round.

He said playing at the course over 20 years had helped him make some great friends who he otherwise wouldn’t have met.

“One’s 20 years older than me, one’s 30 years older than me, but we’ve become great mates, and golf does that to you,” he said.

“It’s such a beautiful tract of land, you wonder why you can’t come out here and keep playing.

Club manager Peter Frost said the closure was “a sad day” for the club, which also offered live music, tennis, squash and bowls facilities.

But he also said it was “no surprise” to members and staff that the club would eventually close for the redevelopment of the site.

“If we didn’t have the support of our landlord, we wouldn’t have been here five years ago and that’s what got us through to our 50 years,” he said.

“There is a lot of history, but they (the members) have come to the assumption that history is to be remembered, not lived.”