Golf was played on the Templeton Domain, which is now known as the Templeton Golf Course, as far back as 1915 when the horse artillery were camped there while training during the First World War. The officers played golf in the off duty hours and several rough golf holes were formed to make this possible. Thirteen years later a number of people begun coming to the area to play golf on the Domain Board ground and they formed their own holes and used sunken jam tins as cups.

 

 

Early in 1931 the number of people using the facilities increased markedly and it looked as if these newcomers were showing a particular interest in the potential for the area. Fearing that these people would take over the lease a meeting was held to discuss the possibility of forming a golf club.

 

On the 13th August 1931 a meeting of 60 persons decided unanimously to form the Templeton Country Club with Mr Van Asch sub letting an area of the land for this purpose. In the first few months the club developed beyond expectations and Mr Van Asch made an approach to the club for them to take over the full lease of the whole Domain area.

 

 

Shortly after formation the club enlisted the services of Harry Blair, the professional from Shirley to design the layout of the full 18 hole course. The fee paid was 5 Pounds and the original par was 74. Much of the manual work was carried out by people on the Depression  Relief Scheme with the only tools provided were a horse drawn mower, a huge roller, and an old draught horse with a truck provided later.

 

 

The first clubhouse was a donated 'whare", a hut on wheels which had been towed behind a threshing mill and used as accommodation for mill workers. The shed had been the scene of a suicide and purchased for a bargain price of 15 pounds. The shed was the centre of social activities with additions in the form of "lean tos" built to cater for the increasing membership. In the early days liquid refreshment in the form of 5 gallon kegs were bought to the clubhouse by members on the luggage racks of cars. The duration of the after match functions depended on the time it took to empty the keg or kegs.

 

 

In October 1952 a decision was made to extend the clubhouse and the Domain Board kindly donated 3 trees from the Acheron area. Somehow 5 trees were knocked down and milled to supply 5000 super feet of timber for the 60 x 20 extensions with the clubhouse opened in June 1952.

 

In March 1958 the building of the green keepers house was completed and additional funds were raised from sale of life memberships to undertake further extensions to the clubhouse which were completed and opened in June 1959.

 

Between 1963 and 1970 alterations and renovations were made to culminate in what is now our existing clubhouse.

 

The course received a number of alterations throughout these formative years, the first of these was in 1957   . In 1960 the committee made a decision to renumber the holes effectively changing the layout. In 1967 a new green on No 7 "Campus" was completed and new greens on No 8 "The Bowl" and No 9 "The Drive" were completed in 1976. The formation of the lakes on No 3 and No 4 are the only other changes to the layout of the course that we enjoy today.