Magazine - Royal Queensland Golf Club Changes in North Shore Project

By Editor in Golf on 4th Apr 2008 7:00

Changes to the Royal Queensland Golf Club may be on the way after the iconic course was included in the boundaries of the Hamilton North Shore redevelopment.

Manager Ross Bishop yesterday said he had discovered the club's inclusion only on Monday when boundaries were announced. "It's something we will have to look at," he said. The Urban Land Development Authority was given planning powers for the area, and 100ha of Bowen Hills, and said the club's inclusion allowed it to participate in the North Shore redevelopment.

That may mean an extension of the course or changing its design.

BP and Neumann Fuels also have depots within the boundaries but have no plans to move. About 30,000 people will move into the two sites.

The Royal Queensland Golf Club was established in 1920 at Hamilton on mangrove swamp land with sand dredged from the Brisbane River, and was only the second golf course to be established in the city of Brisbane. The Club was granted its Royal Charter in 1921 by King George V, with the King's official letter of notification to the Governor of Queensland signed by the very famous Winston S Churchill, then Secretary of State for the British Government, and later the Prime Minister of England during World War II.The famous Scots golf course architect Dr Alister MacKenzie was persuaded to visit Brisbane while on a trip to Australia in 1926, and contributed his renowned design wisdom to a number of holes, and to the greens and bunkering of the course generally. At a farewell function for the great man prior to his departure overseas, he said "Royal Queensland already compares favourably with some of the British Championship courses.

Source: www.news.com.au

Read more articles in Golf, by Editor or from April 2008.