Championships, chicken runs, the odd condor … and have you met the club cat?
If you’re serious about that elusive perfect swing, you’ll find good company at the Manildra Golf Club. But it’s not just for the diehards – the club’s here for anyone who likes a social hit, prefers stories to scorecards or just enjoys a great roast dinner.
Written by Manildra Matters Roving Reporter in Vol 22 December 2025
Manildra Golf Club Committee members (left to right): Kurt Thompson (Captain); Deanna Mackay (Manager); Richard Gosper; John Miller (President); and Shirley Miller (one of Manildra’s best cooks). Not there on the day: Adam Francisco, Hugh Gibson, Mitch Gibson, Chris Gosper, Nathan Holcroft, Mick Reynolds and Grant Williams.
​Not a lot happens in Manildra without volunteers. The golf club is no different.
“The course, the clubhouse and surrounding gardens – everything has been built by volunteers and is a testament to local community spirit,’ says Club President John Miller.
“This was recognised in 2000, with a Golf NSW Spirit of the Club Award.
“Given that we were competing against all 350 clubs in NSW, we were very proud to go down to Sydney and receive this award on behalf of Manildra – of course, we all paid our own way.
“ This spirit was on display once again after the 2022 floods, when so many volunteers showed up to help clear the course, rebuild fences, signs and greens; even deal with the snakes and goannas.”
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The course was designed by Al Howard, a PGA professional and respected course architect
With only a few modifications, the course is still played as he designed it. It’s a deceptively-challenging 9-hole sand greens course (using the same teeing areas for both front and back nines if you’re after 18 holes) interspersed with sparse wide dry fairways and trees.
You can play or practice on the course anytime you want for $7 per player and FREE for juniors - just use the Honesty Box if the clubhouse is closed.
There are also competitions throughout the year from serious championships, Chicken Runs at 9am every Sunday which are free for kids, and Twilight matches on Wednesday evenings during daylight saving.
The latter are popular with families after work – one evening in October saw 28 golfers on the course.
Jack and Lachlan Thompson, Will Gosper, Angus Griffith, Charlie Nash and Knox Allcorn (are you reading your Manildra Matters guys? :) will tell you the Club puts effort into fostering up-and-coming talent.
There are well-attended junior clinics several times a year, the Club helps junior players attend golf camps and there’s no end of more-experienced players to provide advice.
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The clubhouse itself was an old Army hut transported lock, stock and barrel from Cowra in 1949... with Robin ‘Jack’ Gosper sitting on top to cut tree branches in the way
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It’s open Friday, Saturday and Sundays and offers the best roast dinners in town (Yup, I said it. Prove me wrong :)
The lunch on Sundays (a roast chicken reward after a Chicken Run) is great for families and the kitchen also opens after Twilight matches on Wednesdays during daylight saving.
The Club’s cook Shirley Miller and her helpers Montana Hunt, Lincoln Eagleston and Chloe Reynolds love serving up meals for locals and visitors.
There’s a great range on the menu, with favourites such as steaks, burgers, schnitzels and pasta.
Specials are planned around seasonal produce available, and all the meat comes from Magic’s Meats, now Manildra Butchery.
Large group bookings are appreciated and walk ins always welcome.
Giving as good as it gets in the community
The Club Cat - CC
Rumour has it that the Golf Club is the place to be on Halloween and New Years Eve, but it gets a good workout throughout the year.
The community makes use of the Club, with regular bookings coming from: local schools; other sports clubs; councils and other government agencies; businesses such as the Manildra Group and Ag training services; and anyone wanting a venue for a celebration.
Through fundraising activities (such as the Annual Sooty Duncan Charity Day) and free use of facilities, the Club also provides support for community groups and causes such as:
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Beyond Blue
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junior golfer development
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local schools, charities and other sports clubs
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Manildra & District Improvement Association (MADIA)
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Manildra Matters
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NSW Cancer Council
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Rural Fire Service
Angus started at age 13. He’s now 15 and a competitive golfer who represents Manildra in state and national competitions: “I started going after school with a friend, just to see what it was like and got hooked. You have your bad days, and then those days when you clobber the ball just a metre off the hole and it gets your head back in the game. It’s good to play Twilight matches with my Dad on Wednesday afternoons, and I like playing with the older Club members because they make my game better."
Crazy or combat ready? You decide.
You’ve got to be a bit crazy to think you can put a 4.27cm ball into a 10.8cm hole a few hundred metres away using just a stick with a little paddle at the end.
On the other hand, maybe golfers just have the resilience and fortitude to endure 80 imperfect shots to get that one perfect one.
Consider this: golf was invented by a bunch of tough, unyielding people living in some of the most brutal conditions in the world (Scotland) just to have some fun. So, you know, it’s not for the faint-hearted.
Are you up for the challenge?
You’ve got to be hungry for precision because even a millimetre of error at impact can send the ball metres off target.
You’ve also got to co-ordinate your whole body to make a single, balanced, highly-technical movement during which you turn your head in the opposite direction to where you’re aiming (so your brain has to remember the target and all the angles along the way) before you hit the ball. Here’s Angus (above), one of the Club’s youngest members, giving us a demo of that one movement.
You have no team mates to rely on – just a lot of friendly opinions.
You need mental strength to maintain focus and patience, and resilience in the face of frustration, pressure, even self-doubt.
And you’ve got to keep it all up for a few hours - a round of 18 holes of golf can last about 4 to 4.5 hours if you’re playing in a foursome.
You have to adjust constantly, often without much margin for error.
You’ve got to enjoy battling nature itself (think wind, rain, temperature, grass, slopes, trees, leaves, morning and afternoon sun, birds, snakes, kangaroos, goannas) and the laws of physics.
easy.
Heading 6
Meet Corrie Price, daughter of Lovel and May Rubie who helped get the Club up and running
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“I used to meet Mum and Dad down at the showground, after they played golf,” says Corrie. “There was no clubhouse. In those days, in a small country town, you were lucky to have a roof, so we used to sit on a log around a fire.”
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Corrie remembers when the building was brought over from Cowra: “It had the most beautiful paintings of animals on the walls, because at one point it was probably used as a nursery or childcare facility. The paintings are still under there.”
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Her father Lovel was a founding member of the Club and president from 1956 to 1960.
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“Dad loved the game but was only an average player. So, he poured his passion into the Club. As it says on his plaque, he was a committee man, president, patron and a life member. He also volunteered at boy scouts and the local tennis courts.
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“Mum on other hand was a champion golfer and an A-grade tennis player. She won the local golf championship in 1948 as an associate member.”
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(For our younger readers: In those days, women could not become members. In fact Dee’s mum, Beryl Leitch, remembers women having to drink outside the club house. Those were the days, hey? :)
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In an amusing twist of fate, none of Lovel and May’s children played golf.
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“I only ever played one game of golf, with my husband Eric,” says Corrie.​ “I belted the ball so hard it ended up in the cattle yards next door and took Eric about six hits to get it back on the course.
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“My passions are reading, embroidery and a bit of painting. I love the work of indigenous painter Albert Namatjira who paints trees.”
That’s something Corrie and her Dad did have in common – a love of trees.
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“On what would have been his 100th birthday, my husband Eric and I spread Dad’s ashes under this tree – which he called ‘the artist’s beauty’ – as well as on the tee closest to the clubhouse and over on the sand greens.”
A little bit more about the club's history
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1924 - Dick Parker came to Manildra to manage the local bank and had the first set of golf clubs seen in town ... he helped start the club and was its first president
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1925 - permission given to the Show Ground Committee to build a nine hole course ... a five-gang horse drawn mower was used to create it
1939-1946 - Club went into recess during WWII
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1949 - Clubhouse (once an old Army mess, then POW hut then childcare facility) was transported from Cowra
1950 - first time the Club made a profit, thanks to six-penny and one-shilling poker machines
1958 – Club officially registered and granted a liquor license
1959 - 21 June - Club officially opened by the President of the Western District Golf Association
1980s - Upgraded – now four poker machines, a pool table, dining and bar facilities
2008 – irrigtation put in, thanks to The Rural Centre that designed it and a volunteer workforce that installed it.
2012 -Middle section of clubhouse added and the Memorial Garden built
2016 – again through voluntary help, the verandah was built, with help from local Bruce Reynolds who also built the furniture
2020 – children’s playground installed with a grant from Golf NSW
2025 – coming soon – tennis, netball and pickleball courts
The mighty condor IMAGE SOURCE: https://www.cascada.travel/blog/wildlife-in-chile-where-to-see-a-condor
Get to know the birds in golf
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Albatross - a score of three strokes under par
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Birdie - a score of one stroke under par
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Chicken Run - a short, social golf competition (usually 9 holes), played on afternoons or evenings after work, where the prize was traditionally a chicken and you got home before dinner.
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Condor - a score of four strokes under par
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Eagle - a score of two strokes under par
