As a much younger man working in the inner Sydney suburb of Surry Hills, the most accessible and enjoyable round of golf I could find before or after work was at Moore Park Golf.
Course architect Eric Apperly, who did the routing for both New South Wales and Kingston Heath, completely rebuilt the course after World War II, transforming the undulating landscape from a barren, sandy links into a parkland layout by planting hundreds of trees across the property. Most of these remain today as part of the foundations of the current course.
In the early ’90s, safety issues with surrounding roads and the construction of a three-storey driving range – on what was the rollercoaster-like fairway of the 1st hole – led to another major redesign, by Ken McKay. In more recent times, James Wilcher, who created Pacific Dunes in NSW and The Cut in Western Australia, has made additional changes.
One thing that hasn’t changed at Moore Park in the 98 years since Clark laid out the original nine holes is the course’s public accessibility. Back then the layout was known as the Moore Park Municipal Golf Links and its popularity was immediate as there were many golfers who could not afford the membership fees of the growing number of Sydney’s private courses. Moore Park was the first public course in New South Wales and, while the Moore Park club has boasted a membership for many years, its popularity as a public access course has remained constant.
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