Fellow “Niner” Brian Mollet, 86, knows how important the sport is to his mate.
“It’s his passion,” he said.
Cheers: Bill Horn, second from right with mates, from left, Walter De Laps, Peter Neville-Jones, and Brian Mollet (far right) at Portsea Golf Club’s bar after playing nine holes.Credit: Joe Armao
“He’s a good, steady golfer. He doesn’t need help from anyone to get around the course.”
Arthur Relph, who in the early 1920s in Melbourne was already captain of Riversdale Golf Club, founded the Portsea club after stumbling on a paddock while on a walk near his holiday house at Portsea and declared it a splendid site for a golf course.
A 1923 letter from publican and land owner Mabel Cain to Portsea Golf Club founder Arthur Relph discussing the clearing of land. Published in the club’s 75th anniversary history book Within a Bull’s Roar.Credit: Portsea Golf Club
Relph was promptly chased by a bull, but over several years raised funds to buy the land from publican sisters Mabel and Kathleen Cain and to build an initial nine hole course.
Journalist Peter Hanlon, whose history of the club will be serialised on its website across 2026, said the course was carved out of tea trees and gnarly moonah trees.
Club historian Syd Thomson says for most of its history the club struggled financially, with a low local population and stiff competition for members from other Mornington Peninsula clubs.
During World War II, Portsea Golf Club’s membership fell to 40 and three members paid a man to mow the greens. Soldiers based at the adjacent Point Nepean set up trenches and barbed wire and did drills on the fairways.
In 2004, the club was $600,000 in debt and had a membership of 900 when the golf club committee decided to sell 21 blocks of land – that had been used as a practice fairway near Port Phillip Bay – for housing.
It helped turn around the club’s fortunes, bringing in much-needed revenue, as has the new two-storey clubhouse, opened in 2013, which includes a hotel, dining room, pro shop and conference facilities.
Tom Houghton pictured on the Portsea golf club’s current 18th fairway using a horse-drawn mower circa 1947. Published in Within a Bull’s Roar, the club’s 75th anniversary book.Credit: Portsea Golf Club
Now the club has 1300 members, including billionaire property developer Max Beck, AFL players Max Gawn and Tom Lynch and broadcaster Steve Price, but also tradies, teachers and retirees.
Portsea Golf Club president Steve Blunt says it’s a world-class golf club but not elitist and people from all walks of life are welcome.
He says rumours in 2023 that former premier Daniel Andrews would not be welcome at Portsea Golf Club were not true.
“There was an inquiry by a member about a former premier joining but it didn’t proceed, and that was the end of the inquiry,” Blunt said.
Everyone was welcome to apply for membership, “and we have a process that is the same for everybody,” Blunt said.
One of the most famous players in the club’s history, was five time British Open winner Peter Thomson, who died in 2018.
Blunt said the club’s journey has been an incredible one.
“We’re a very eclectic, broad, welcoming and friendly membership. The club is in great shape financially, the course is highly regarded in Australia and around the world.”
Centenary celebrations will kick of at 2pm on January 1 with the flag raising and social event and continue across the year with social and golf events including a cocktail party, a women’s lunch and a community event on October 9.
The club’s annual celebrity Pro-Am tournament featuring Dylan Alcott, Bec Judd, and Archie Thompson will be held on January 4.
For more information see the website portseagolf.com.au
