We are proud of our people: the founding members who first played across open paddocks, the champions whose names fill our honours boards, and the volunteers, staff, and members who keep the club going strong today. Take a look through our history and meet the people behind the club — there’s a good story here, and we’re still adding to it.
While Masterton Golf Club is among the 20 oldest golf clubs in New Zealand, with golf having been played on the gentle hills of Lansdowne, overlooking the town, for more than a century its beginnings, though, were a little out of the ordinary. When most New Zealand clubs of the 1890s were founded by men, here it was a small group of local women who first took to the game. In 1897 they played across the paddocks of the Williams family estate, to greens set out among grazing sheep — the only mowers available at the time – and over time their enthusiasm led to the formal establishment of the club in 1899.
By June 1899 the game had well and truly caught on. The Wairarapa Daily Times announced on 24 June 1899 that “Golfing in the Masterton District will open at Lansdowne this afternoon,” and two days later reported that a club was being organised and that its first practice had taken place. Golf spread quickly across the district, too: the first known interclub match in the Wairarapa was Masterton against Featherston at the Lower Valley course (thought to be played on Mr Carne Bidwell’s property, “Rotoawai”) on 15 July 1899, with the first match play at Lansdowne itself following on 22 September.
Within a few short years the membership had grown many times over, with women’s golf in particular surging — at one point nearly matching the men in number, remarkable for the era.
As Masterton Golf Club grew, its players too,began to be noticed around the country — none more so than the club’s most celebrated woman golfer, Mrs Guy Williams, whose golf carried the club’s colours to great heights at home and abroad, and inspired women and men alike.
"Golfing in the Masterton District will open at Lansdowne this afternoon"
Wairarapa Daily Times, 24 June 1899
The early game was played under conditions that would surprise a modern member. Fairways were cut by haymower and the greens fenced to keep the sheep off, and ten local rules applied — among them one that allowed a “ball touching dung to be lifted without penalty”.
In the early days getting to the course was an expedition in itself. There was no suburb of Lansdowne, no proper roads, and the town still sat south of the Waipoua River, so a round meant a journey of two or three kilometres uphill over open countryside. Small wonder that play was set to begin at two o’clock in the afternoon. It was not until April 1908 that the road up the hill was finished and for the first time motor cars appeared at the clubhouse.
The present clubhouse opened on 9 May 1931 at a cost of about $3,788, replacing the 1908 clubhouse and the sheds that had come before. An upper social room was added in 1937 and enlarged in 1951, and a major rebuild followed in 1971 — assisted by a $5,100 donation from the trustees of the by-then defunct Riverside Golf Club.
For its first four decades the course depended entirely on rainfall. The first watering system, fed by a dam built beside the 4th hole with the help of the Wairarapa Catchment Board, came into use over the summer of 1949–50, and a modern automatic system followed in 1973–74.
The course grew up alongside the club. What began as a nine-hole layout on around 32 acres of rented farmland was played and loved for nearly twenty years before a long campaign to secure more land bore fruit. During the 1920s it was extended from its original nine holes to a full eighteen, following a plan by Wellington professional Arthur Ham — chosen after A. D. S. Duncan and the club’s own professional, Ted Douglas, had each been considered.
As equipment and greenkeeping advanced, the course matured and its par gradually settled: 79 in 1900, reduced to 75 in the 1930s, to 73 in 1951, and to the challenging 71 it stands at today — a par that demands accuracy and rewards good scoring, with views that make even a wayward round worthwhile.
From greens mown by grazing sheep to an automatically watered eighteen, much has changed since those first rounds across the Williams family paddocks. Yet the essentials endure.
More than 125 years on, golf is still played on the same Lansdowne hills the founders climbed, over the course Arthur Ham shaped in the 1920s — now a testing par 71 that still rewards the accuracy those early players prized.
It remains one of the country’s oldest clubs, proud of the pioneering women who started it all and of every golfer who has since called Lansdowne home.
1897
A group of local women, led by Mrs N. Beetham, play the first games of golf at Lansdowne.
1899
The first reported golfing at Lansdowne, announced in the local paper on 24 June.
1902
The first recorded annual meeting of the Masterton Golf Club was held.
1907
The club decided to build its first clubhouse, a structure of around 1,300 square feet.
1908
The hill road opened and the first car appeared at the club.
1914–18
Play slowed as members served overseas; tournaments continued, raising money for the patriotic fund and Red Cross.
1927
The club bought its first tractor — a Fordson — for $374, on an interest-free loan from member Joe Jameson.
1931
A new clubhouse was erected at a cost of around $4,000, funded partly by members' personal guarantees.
1934
A major drainage programme was launched, beginning decades of steady course improvement.
1945
With the war over, a programme to redevelop the greens and fairways got underway.
1950
Twenty-four women were first allowed to play on Saturdays.
1952
A putter once owned by 1893 British Open champion Willie Auchterlonie was brought to Lansdowne and is still played for.
1956
Ron Claridge was appointed the club's first professional.
1958
The Ladies' section is formally established, with its own committee and competition calendar running alongside the men's fixtures.
1963
Bob Charles, who developed his game on Masterton's fairways as a boy, becomes the first left-handed golfer to win a major championship, taking the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
1965
Membership peaked at an all-time high of 351 full members plus 176 in other categories.
1968
An April tornado caused widespread damage; members rallied to clean up the course.
1971
A $105,000 contract delivered substantial extensions and alterations to the clubhouse.
1973–75
A course watering system costing over $36,000 was installed and bedded in.
1981
Eddie Jaspers became the club's first paid secretary-manager, ending 80 years of volunteer administration.
1984
Bruce Middlemiss set a course record of 64.
1985
Course, buildings, plant and machinery were valued at more than $1 million (up from under $11,000 in 1931).
1994
Bob McDonald, a pro of international reputation, took up residence as Club Pro.
1997
A Board of Management under chairman Alan Sadler replaced the old committee structure.
2004
The All Teed Up pro shop began operating at the club. (Year to be confirmed.)
2018
The clubhouse undergoes a major internal refurbishment, modernising the bar, kitchen and function spaces while retaining the building's original character.
2019
A new maintenance facility was built, upgrading the club's greenkeeping base.
2020
With golf permitted as exercise through the pandemic, the club saw a notable rise in membership (since eased back).
2022
After around 35 years keeping Lansdowne in top condition, long-serving greenkeeper Robin Macklin retired.
2022
The club undertakes a full governance review to meet the requirements of the updated Incorporated Societies Act, including a revised constitution and new policy suite.
2023
Brownbutter opened as the club's café and quickly became a popular fixture. (Year to be confirmed.)
2024
The club marked its 125th anniversary, recognised in November 2024.
For well over a century Masterton Golf Club has produced and nurtured golfers of national and international standing. Foremost among them is Eileen “Mrs Guy” Williams, the club’s first star, who won the New Zealand match-play title six times and helped found the New Zealand Ladies’ Golf Union. The club also shaped T. H. (Bill) Horton, the finest iron player of his day and a two-time New Zealand Amateur champion; John Hornabrook, the great character of the 1930s who twice won the New Zealand Open; and — most famously — Bob Charles, who learned his golf and his celebrated putting at Lansdowne, won the New Zealand Open as an 18-year-old amateur in 1954 and the Open Championship in 1963, and remains the club’s Patron today.
Read more about these players and their achievements, along with our more recent XXXX on our Hall of Fame page.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
All of the information given here has been gathered from two excellent histories of the Masterton Golf Club: Norman Cameron’s “Seventy Five Years of Golf: 1899–1975″ and Jim Wallace’s “The Course on the Hill: 100 Years at the Masterton Golf Club”.