When husband and wife, Adrian and Rachel Bromage, saw an opportunity to take over the nine-hole golf course in the small East Gippsland town of Metung, their interest was all about water.
It was shortly before the arrival of the pandemic and the Bromages were already designing Metung Hot Springs a few hundred metres from the golf course which, at the time, was known as Kings Cove Country Club.
“We needed somewhere to, for want of a better word, I’ll say ‘dispose’, but it turned into a really good story about [water] reuse,” Adrian said.
The Bromages grew up in East Gippsland and were married in 2000.
Adrian had made a name for himself in Perth in the late 1990s playing Australian Rules football for East Fremantle and, in 1998, won the prestigious Sandover Medal, the West Australian Football League premiership and the Simpson Medal for best on ground in the Grand Final.
He had played golf in Metung many times though it wasn’t until Adrian paid a visit to the golf course in 2019 that he saw both a business opportunity and a chance to revitalise a course and club that was in trouble.
The Bromages knew they would need somewhere to get rid of excess water from the Hot Springs and the golf course was dry.
“We were in the midst of a drought, the fairways were nearly done, the greens were just surviving,” he said.
Kings Cove had a shareholder model for its members and visitation from green fee golfers was low.
Adrian and Rachel began having discussions with Kings Cove about taking over the operation of the club with an option to buy it.
Negotiations lasted more than a year and after receiving approval from the shareholders, they took over on July 1, 2022, and Metung Country Club was born.
Everything was going to plan, and they got another stroke of luck on the very first day of operation when Canadian greenkeeper Clint White walked through the door looking for a job.
White’s wife had been given a job transfer to Gippsland and he had made the difficult decision to walk away from Royal Melbourne Golf Club after spending 10 years in what he described as a “dream gig” on its course maintenance staff.
“I was expecting to retire there,” White said.
“[Adrian and Rachel], they said to me it was like I fell out of the sky for them.”
White’s resume couldn’t be ignored, and he was brought in as Metung’s course superintendent and went to work straight away.
The condition of the course was a far cry from what he had become accustomed to at Royal Melbourne.
“It was a shambles,” White said.
“When I first showed up, the greens, they were a disgrace, they were covered in mould.
“They used to use really heavy dye on them, and they were pretty much blue, so we stopped doing that and I started doing needle tyning, lightly scarifying the greens.
“I’m so happy with how they’re presenting today. It would blow your mind to see photos, how it was a year ago and how it’s presented now.
“I’ve really implemented things that I used to do at Royal Melbourne. Everything from bunkering, green preparation and taking care of fairways.
“I’ve just been doing a whole bunch of tiny things which start adding into a big difference.”
Earlier this year, Royal Melbourne’s superintendent Richard Forsyth was in Metung and stopped by the course to catch up with White.
“He was really, really impressed,” White said. “He reckons they were the best fairways in Australia.”
It was the ultimate validation for White’s work on the fairways.
“It just boosts the confidence and [makes you] feel really good about yourself that you’re doing something right,” he said. “Coming into next season, I’m going to tell people to take their shoes off, because they’re going to be that beautiful.”
With the acquisition of extra green and fairway mowers and a course staff which had quickly grown from two to five, White had the resources he needed to make a real difference.
The rough was cut down so golfers weren’t wasting time looking for errant golf balls and a series of ponds were built on the right side of the 2nd hole for water treatment.
“We’re bringing all the water up from the Hot Springs, putting it through a filtration plant, out into that ornamental stream which is our cooling stream and then it adds to the existing water supply from there,” Bromage said.
The good news for Metung is that it now has a water supply it can’t keep up with.
“That’s going to be a real strength of this place going forward is we’re always going to have water,” Bromage said.
Tree removal has made the water features at Metung more visible, particularly the lake left of the 2nd hole which can be seen from the clubhouse.
Metung’s irrigation system has also been transformed with more than 100 sprinkler heads replaced.
Country courses often have very few bunkers if any, but Metung has 22. White has gone from bunker to bunker, a week at a time, removing sand from the face and bringing it down to the base.
“I’ve had members say, ‘how did you add all the new sand?’ And I was like, ‘I didn’t, I’ve taken out three truckloads out of that bunker,” White said.
The improvements to Metung are best demonstrated by the rapid growth in rounds played per year since the Bromages took over.
In the 2021/22 financial year, about 6,000 rounds were played. Last financial year, that figure had grown to 15,000.
Bromage attributed part of that increase to greater awareness of the fact Metung is a public access course anyone can play.
“They’d never had a social presence so there was always this perception it was a private club,” he said. “We’ve obviously taken the opposite tact where we want to open it up, we want to improve it.”
Two sets of tees on each hole allow for 18-hole rounds though 85 percent of visitors last financial year played nine holes. The long-term goal is to see 25,000 rounds played per year.
“We need it to work in conjunction as a recreation facility for our Hot Springs,” Bromage said. “We want to present our course in the best possible light where people feel privileged to get on the course.”
The resort-style layout, designed by Ted Parslow, has seven holes on its main paddock and two more holes on a separate piece of land to the east.
The standout holes begin with the dogleg right par-5 2nd. The water treatment ponds guard the right side of the fairway, and the tee shot is in some ways easier from the back tee because it makes the lake left of the fairway more difficult to reach.
The par-5 4th hole stretches to 563 metres and is among the longest golf holes anywhere in Victoria. A trio of cross bunkers in the lay-up area add to the interest of the hole.
Perhaps the postcard hole at Metung is the downhill par-3 5th, which is guarded short and right by sand.
The uphill par-3 8th hole features a green like a reverse-redan although it doesn’t slope from front to back.
Metung has enough undulation to provide interesting golf without being a difficult walk and is certainly among the best public access nine-hole courses in Victoria. Though its appeal extends beyond the fairways.
Significant investment has been made to renovate the clubhouse with new furniture, paintings, carpets and a deck which looks out onto the 9th green.
Dinner inside the restaurant used to be a weekend-only affair. Today, the kitchen is open seven nights a week during the summer holidays. The lunch menu is typical of most golf clubs while dinner is more refined with dumplings, calamari salad and curries among the options.
“Our dinners will take on different varieties depending on the seasonality and what’s happening at that time of the year,” Bromage said.
“There are people from the Hot Springs that are coming up to lunch, there’s people from the community that are coming in for lunch. It’s a beautiful outlook. People are coming in for that dining experience without playing golf.”
The ‘nine and dine’ concept isn’t new for golf clubs and is one which will be a strong focus for Metung, particularly during daylight savings time. Another proven concept for golf clubs but one not limited by the seasons is reciprocal playing rights.
Metung has plans to partner with courses on the Mornington Peninsula, particularly those which offer accommodation, though its boldest ambitions lie in Japan where onsens can be part of the golf experience as a place where golfers unwind after their round.
“There’s a couple of awesome hot spring golf courses in Japan so that international link would be our long-term vision,” Bromage said. “[We are] offering a destination that goes beyond the golf. It’s about the experience.
“Part of our reasoning for the name change to Metung Country Club, we see it as more than just a golf course.”
The Hot Springs places Metung Country Club in a great position as an appealing stay and play destination.
Metung Hot Springs opened for business in November 2022. It boasts 10 on-site glamping units – each with a private deck, bathing barrels, an ensuite bathroom and king size bed – which are perfect for couples.
Day visitors can also access spa treatment and communal geothermal pools set on a hill overlooking the Gippsland Lakes. In October 2023, the Hot Springs expanded its amenities, opening a new pool and sauna, and the site can now cater to 150 visitors at a time.
Staying at the Hot Springs costs a pretty penny, so the Bromages have devised a plan to offer golfers and families affordable stay and play golf packages.
A series of properties on the Hot Springs estate will eventually open, allowing golfers to book their accommodation through third parties like Airbnb.
“When we’ve got a holiday house that they can come and stay in that’s more affordable, that’s when we’ll start to really push that group golf package as well,” Bromage said.
The town of Metung has long been a sleepy holiday haven for tourists from Melbourne without a reputation for good golf. But that is slowly changing.
Rather than comparing itself to Lakes Entrance and Bairnsdale Golf Clubs – which are considered the premier 18-hole courses in East Gippsland – Metung Country Club wants to work with both to create a golf destination worth driving several hours to get to.
“We want to make this a community hub,” Bromage said. “People come and stay in East Gippsland, and they’ve got two or three really nice courses to play at.”
FACT FILE
LOCATION: Kings Cove Boulevard, Metung, Victoria.
CONTACT: (03) 5141 2327.
WEBSITE: www.metungcountryclub.com
DESIGNER: Ted Parslow (2012).
PLAYING SURFACES: Bentgrass (greens), Wintergreen couch (fairways).
COURSE SUPERINTENDENT: Clint White.
GREEN FEE: $30 (nine holes), $40 (18 holes).
MEMBERSHIPS: There are four membership categories available – Golf, Under 40, Country and Youth. The Golf Membership costs $550 per annum and includes golf seven days a week, reciprocal access to affiliated courses and use of practice facilities.
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