Prime Minister Bruce opens the Victoria Golf Club

It was blowing a gale on the afternoon of May 14, 1927 when the Prime Minister of the day, Mr Stanley Bruce, later Lord Bruce Viscount of Melbourne, strode to the first tee at Victoria Golf Club.

Mr Bruce was keeping a promise he had made to the club that he would drive the first ball and officially open Victoria Golf Club’s new course and clubhouse at Cheltenham. There were nearly 1000 people gathered around the first tee as the Prime Minister and Mrs Bruce, our club president, Mr W.L. Baillieu and the reigning Australian ladies champion, Miss Mona MacLeod, prepared to play their part in an historic moment in Australian golf.

Mr Bruce teed up and then tugged firmly on the brim of his hat as he stood and faced the gale howling into his face up the first fairway. His hickory-shafted driving club sent the ball boring unerringly into the wind and arrow straight for a distance of 160 yards. In the large gallery around the first tee stood the club’s proud founder, Mr Billy Meader, surrounded by a group of club stalwarts and they, more than anybody, appreciated the symbolism of the Prime Minister’s opening shot. They and their predecessors had worked for years for this moment.

Their dream had come to fruition and Victoria Golf Club, Cheltenham, was "in play". Mr Bruce’s shot into that sand-laden gale was roundly applauded by the gallery and as the four players walked down the fairway with the crowd behind them, Mr Meader watched with a happy smile on his face, and with moist eyes. We wonder if he recalled the moment he stood alone in the old Scotts Hotel downcast and discouraged at the lack of response his first attempt to form the club had met.

The opening of our new clubhouse was one of the main news items of the day and the Australian Broadcasting Commission broadcast the speeches at the opening ceremony. The event of the day was nine holes of stroke play with members and their guests using both sides of the course.

Unfortunately the score of the Prime Minister and Mrs Bruce was not recorded, but the day’s winners were Mr and Mrs R.D. Dosseter and Mr and Mrs R. Ramsay with nett returns of 41. The best gross score was 45 by Mrs F.H. Wood and Northern member J.M. English with 45. Our president, Mr W.L. Baillieu and Miss Macleod returned a nett 47 from their four handicap. In A Section the results were: 41 Mr and Mrs R.D. Dosseter (10), Mr and Mrs R. Ramsay (11); 42 Mrs F.H. Wood, J.M. English (3), Mrs and N.R. Hart (11); 44 Miss V. Leggo and J.T. Neighbour (11); 47 W.L. Baillieu, Miss Mona Macleod (4); 49 A.F. and Mrs Brash (7). B Section: 40 Miss V. Burgess, E.D. Barden (6); 43 Miss S. and L. Doyle (9), Mrs Bidstrup, H. Lyall (10).

Before the Prime Minister performed the official opening ceremony with his excellent tee shot from the first hole he was entertained at lunch by the club’s directors. Mr Bruce and his party arrived promptly at noon where he was met by Mr Meader and the club’s hierarchy and conducted on a tour of the spacious new clubhouse. After Mr Bruce had completed his clubhouse inspection the official party moved into the entrance foyer where a "surprise" was sprung on the unsuspecting Mr Meader. On the wall opposite the entrance doors hung a curtain and after Mr Baillieu had eloquently outlined the huge contribution Mr Meader had made towards the Victoria Golf Club he drew aside the curtain to reveal a striking photographic enlargement of the club’s founder.

The portrait of Mr Meader still hangs there as a constant reminder to us all of his single minded determination. Mr Baillieu declared that it would hang there for all time.

Mr William Lawrence Baillieu joined the club in May 1921 after a long and successful political career which started with his election to the Legislative Council in 1901 as the representative for the Northern Province. He was a successful banker and financier, and after his election to the presidency of the club in 1926 held office until 1930. He died in 1936 aged 77.

With the unveiling ceremony over, Mr and Mrs Bruce were then entertained at luncheon by the board and after Mr Baillieu had proposed the toast of the Prime Minister, Mr Bruce explained how he had come to Australia with his father in 1889. On board the ship were hundreds of golf clubs in the care of Hoylake professional Dick Taylor, who Mr Bruce Snr had encouraged to make the trip to Australia. On his arrival Mr Bruce senior immediately set about helping form the Royal Melbourne Golf Club and the Prime Minister said he was delighted to see the game expanding because the qualities necessary for success in golf were identical to those needed to build a nation. He heaped more praise on Mr Meader, who, it was well known, was the dynamic force behind the ambitious enterprise and who had seen his efforts crowned with complete success.

The chairman of the Victorian Golf Association, Mr W.J. Carre-Riddell, spoke enthusiastically about the course and described the clubhouse as the most beautiful of its kind in the Commonwealth. The issue of the now defunct Table Talk weekly magazine of May 19, 1927, reviewed the opening day in these terms: "Curiosity of the acutest variety was mixed with the deepest intelligent interest after reading the flamboyant accounts of what was being done, and the actual thing more than came up to the expectations of the hundreds who were present. "The wonderful new bungalow clubhouse, sumptuously fitted and apportioned for the every comfort of members and associates, is the greatest of its kind in Australia, and when it is said that the links which it crowns is as worthy of it as the layout of the clubhouse, nothing further need be added. The bringing into being of this, the most pretentious golf club in Victoria, has been an immense work. "No one but an enthusiast of the rarest order, and one gifted to a very unusual degree, could have done the massive work that was carried out by Mr Meader, the founder of the Victoria Golf Club and honorary secretary since its inception 24 years ago. "Unmeasured and unstinted was the praise that Mr Meader had heaped upon him on Saturday by the Prime Minister (Mr Bruce), the president of the club, Mr W.L. Baillieu, the directors of the club and visitors.

Naturally he was gratified at the appreciation his success merited, but to him the main reward was the great thing that he was mainly instrumental in bringing to the golfers of the Victoria Golf Club.