Shepparton

Shepparton Golf Club started out with a rather rudimentary course of “nine sandscrape holes” in 1922, though the club mentions “early golf in Shepparton” prior to that date “on Catholic grounds and farms around Knight Street, barker Avenue and Clive Street,” close to where Notre Dame College is now located.

The course was extended to fourteen holes in 1926 before a further four holes were added six years later when extra land was acquired. More than thirty years then passed before a new layout was designed by Sam Berriman, after another tract of land had been purchased. The total area to play with was still tight, extending to no more than 90 acres in total.

The new clubhouse and course were then unveiled in 1959. Twenty years later, an ambitious plan to construct a boutique on-site motel came to fruition. It then took until 1999 for the club to complete a 10-year program to upgrade the putting surfaces from sand scrapes to grass greens.

Highlight holes include the short par four 6th, with a blind tee shot before the fairway veers left to the green; the long par four 10th, rated stroke index 1 and also doglegging left; and the 352-metre 18th, with out of bounds along the right side of a fairway that backs on to the local cemetery.