From Concept to Foundation…

In 1947, there were about 100 members who each paid an annual subscription of 1 Pound to the Forest Hill Golf Club. They also paid daily green fees to play at the Forest Hills public golf course at Dandendong. The club had a syllabus of competitions and through affiliation with the Victorian Golf League, entered three teams in a pennant competition played between various public course golf clubs. Apart from a few occasions when they were given priority on the tees, the members did not receive any special consideration on the course.

Forest Hill was a good layout. It had been redesigned in 1931 by M.A. Morcom, the green keeper at Royal Melbourne, and his son Vernon, the greens keeper at Kingston Heath. But Forest Hills was not on sand and just below the surface was clay.

In 1945, the Forest Hills course was in poor condition. It had suffered from the shortages caused by six years of war. Shortages of manpower, machinery, and spare parts; of materials and fertilizers and of customers and cash. Infested with onion grass it could be dry and hard in summer and muddy in winter. All that was accepted as unavoidable in war time but, with the return of men and women from the services and the expectation of the return to peace time conditions, the Forest Hills members wanted something better.

To join an existing private golf club was costly and involved a long wait. And there was a strong feeling among the members that they wanted to continue their friendships within a club by playing golf together on a course of their own.

The view in 1949, looking north-east across the land on which parts of the 15th, 16th and 12th fairways were built.

Early in 1947, the committee of the Forest Hills Golf Club asked the President, Mr Philip Courtney, to look for suitable land and he began searching in the eastern end of the sand belt. The Captain, Mr Jack Leech, also started making inquiries.

By June 1948, the new course venture was nearing the point of no return and there were signs of waning enthusiasm. Forty-six members had each paid three guineas to join the new venture. When it was time to pay deposits on the land, they were asked for 12-10-0 Pounds as a first installment on a debenture. Despite repeated reminders and extensions of time to pay, thirteen members including two members of the committee did not comply. Their memberships were terminated and their entrance fees refunded.

It was disappointing and unexpected set back. It says much for the courage and resolve of the remaining foundation members, and particularly the trustee, Philip Courtney, Jack Leech and George Manley, who carried on committing themselves to the legal and financial obligations of starting the new club.

Agreement on the land was finally made with the five landowners and the members chose the name Spring Valley because the Dunlop property was known as Spring Valley Estate and was s o called because of the springs and valleys in the area.

And so, with 33 foundation members, a committee, a constitution and the security of very suitable land, the search for new members and the development of Spring Valley began.