TALKING POINT: 100-year-old golf course must stay – for the sake of the sport

With 19,000 games played a year pre-COVID-19, the Rosny Park public golf course is key to keeping the sport accessible to all levels of players, writes James Sutherland.

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THE Rosny Park public golf course on Hobart’s Eastern Shore, which is leased and run by the YMCA, is an important piece of community sporting infrastructure in southern Tasmania.

The course has been operating for more than 100 years and is the closest golf facility to the centre of Hobart. The mere existence of the course means that it has served as the introductory point to golf for thousands of Tasmanians across generations.

Before the COVID-19 shutdown, more than 19,000 rounds were played at Rosny each year, and upwards of 12,000 rounds were played last calendar year, with the peak summer months still to come.

After school junior golf day preview. Photograph shows Montana Kennedy 8 of Bellerive Primary and Stephen Weston 8 of Cambridge Primary at Rosny Golf Course. Photograph Eddie Safarik

It must be retained as a public golf facility and indeed the YMCA is very keen to continue managing the course.

However, the Clarence City Council has announced its intention not to renew the YMCA’s lease when it expires in four months’ time (at the end of April) and instead, open up the site for general use as part of its City Heart urban renewal project.

This is disappointing and Golf Australia is concerned that council’s decision was taken in the absence of any adequate consultation with Golf Tasmania and the thousands of users of the public golf course.

As one of only two public golf courses in southern Tasmania, Rosny Park is a vital community facility that provides a low-cost venue for people to engage in sporting activity and exercise.

It gives players, particularly younger golfers, the opportunity to participate in the sport without having to pay club membership and green fees associated with professional golf courses.

Rosny’s close proximity to Hobart and in the centre of the major Eastern Shore population makes it even more important that it be maintained as a public golf facility.

Golfer Harrison Doyle of West Hobart at the Rosny Park public golf course when the future of the course was in doubt. Picture: Zak Simmonds

With a Greater Hobart population now approaching 250,000 and annual growth of

2.4 per cent, Hobart warrants multiple quality public golf facilities to introduce adults and children to the game. Currently the vast majority of all other golf courses in the region are member-based clubs and not generally open to casual or non-member players.

Professionally managed by the YMCA, Rosny Park offers social golfers the opportunity to get a Golf Australia handicap, with the facility also hosting weekly competitions that are non-gender-specific. Competitions are friendly, social and include weekly prizes for performance.

It gives players, particularly younger golfers, the opportunity to participate in the sport without having to pay club membership and green fees associated with professional golf courses.

As well as the many golfers who play at Rosny Park each week, the course is also a key site for the Golf Australia MyGolf (Junior) Golf Program for children aged 5-12 who want to learn to play golf.

These programs have been conducted both in school terms and during school holidays for the past three years for children from all over Hobart.

Golf Australia is also launching adult learning opportunities through the Get into Golf program.

Chief executive of Golf Australia James Sutherland. Picture: Penny Stephens

Golf Australia and Golf Tasmania would welcome a broader discussion as to how the Rosny Park course space could be used even more effectively as a golf learning centre, public driving range, short game or mini golf facilities to attract even more golfing participants.

While our national and state golf organisations are understanding of the core themes of the City Heart project’s vision, we remain extremely concerned about land use changes that would see public-access golf at Rosny Park Golf Course, including highly valued learning opportunities, no longer available to the Hobart population.

As a result, I have written to the Clarence City Mayor, Alderman Doug Chipman, seeking a meeting to discuss Rosny Park’s future as a public golf facility and hope to have these discussions early in the new year.

Golf has long been a mainstream Australian sport that is now enjoying even further growth as the broader community reconnects with sport and recreational pursuits as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, and these are points we would like to pursue with the mayor and the council.

James Sutherland is chief executive of Golf Australia, the sport’s national governing body. He has more than 25 years’ experience in sports administration, including 17 years as chief executive of Cricket Australia, and is an active golfer.