Surrounded on two sides by the Yarra River and with five billabongs on the property, the course at Latrobe Golf Club is an easy walk, with fairways laid out on river flats that display only subtle land movement alongside the natural water features.
The club can trace its origins to a meeting on 1 November 1939, when five people attended a meeting that had been advertised in the local paper for those interested in forming a golf club. Three of the attendees were golf club members elsewhere and the other two were cricketers.
Following a dispute with the leaseholders, many of the club members decided to leave and play at other clubs, leaving behind fewer than fifty golfers. Another meeting was then convened on 3 March 1948 to form a “new” Latrobe Golf Club and this is now regarded as the founding date of the club that exists today.
Within three years, land was purchased then Sam Berriman, curator at Huntingdale, was called in to design an 18-hole layout, measuring 5,693 metres and playing to a par of 71. The course has been altered since then – the 1st hole was where the current 7th is now – but, apart from resequencing, it’s still largely the layout that debuted on 7 April 1951.
