Could the Mudgee men’s open golfing tournament be the “America’s Cup” of sporting competitions in Mudgee?
Seventy eight years old and still going strong, the competition kicked off in 1930, when the secretary of the club, Dr A Distin Morgan, recorded in the minutes that 750 programmes had been printed on blue paper, the club colours and sent to 70 odd clubs. Sixty six players competed over the two days of competition. On the Easter Saturday they played 18 holes in the morning and then 18 holes in the afternoon, had the Sunday off then played another 36 holes on the Monday.
Four trophies presented at that inaugural competition are still played for today. The RH Crossing Cup, presented by the patron of the club Mr RH Crossing, the Moascar Cup, presented by the president Mr RM Kellett, the AIF Cup, donated by returned soldiers for ex AIF members of the club and the JB Thompson Cup, donated by the Mudgee Golf Club to honour Mr Thompson who was a tireless worker for Western Districts.
The inaugural winners were - the Moscaor Cup - M H Kellett who won on a playoff from A Distin Morgan and S R Robbins as they each recorded 159, RH Crossing Cup - A Distin Morgan -5, the AIF Cup - T Fahey 65 nett, who also won the JB Thompson Cup with 133,
The course was prepared by dragging a 20 foot (approx 6m) length of railway line behind a tractor, which “did a good job of leveling some of the fairways.”
Conditions improved over the years and in 1952, there was a mention of some grass greens, with the official opening of the Turf Green Course in 1956 when Kel Nagle competed for a £400 purse with other professionals. Adrian Quist also played in that tournament as an amateur.
Up to 1958, the club had experimented with different time slots for the open. Initially held at Easter, it was held in August and then September before finally settling on the long weekend in October.
The tournament secretary, Mr J Kennedy, wrote “ this 1958 tournament was by far the biggest event ever run by the club, including the 1956 professional tournament and any western district golf association tournament and the tournament committee recommends that the club adhere to the October holiday weekend for the running of its future open tournament.”
Fifty years
This year celebrates 50 years of the October tournament. In 1958 a record field of 170 players competed, playing 18 holes on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday and an extra nine hole event on Monday for “those who finished early”. There were only two grades - A Grade 1-14 and B Grade 15-27.
The winner of the Moscaor Cup was B Grandemange from St Michaels with a score of 147, the Crossing Cup was won by N Weeks also from St Michaels with 32 pts. Harry Gilham won the AIF Cup with a nett 69 and R Browning won the Thompson Cup with a nett 138.
Harry Gilham then combined with his brother Jack, Roy Cox and Boyd Nattrass to win the Criterion Shield. (Ten years later in 1968, Harry’s son Chris also won the Criterion Shield with L and M Consadine.)
Other Mudgee players to feature in 1958 were Ted Jones, Alec Bruce, Dr Barry Cameron, A. Druce, R Browning, David Lester, B Gibbons, R Harvey, F Taylor. Ron Cox, R Paterson and Cyril Blowes. The Greens Cup was won by Mit Loneragan, Keith McCully, Ron Vine and Alan Kellett.
Although C Grade players had been competing in the annual club championships for some years, they were only included in the open tournament in 1974, where they could only win the trophy “provided he has not won any other event, otherwise awarded to next best score”. He had to have a handicap of 28 - 36, but that was changed the following year to 25 - 36.