History
When young Harris Woods brought a newly acquired golf club home to Fairlight in 1901,
he and his brother Cam started hitting golf balls in the fields surrounding Fairlight House...
Their developing enthusiasm for the game led them to map
out three golf holes, and then to suggest their friends George J
Wilkinson and Arthur Hilliard join them. Watched by bemused
cows and curious neighbours, the four would play their golf
with much laughter and argument, using their own golf balls but
sharing the one club.
the west of Farrell’s paddock, and in May 1908 the first 18 hole
layout on the present site was opened.
After a year or two the group had grown to 12. They moved one
mile north to Farrell’s paddock and continued to play regularly on
a six hole layout.
Some of the greatest golfers to walk the Manly fairways were
playing their finest golf in the years between the First and Second
World Wars. They included Jim Ferrier, Eric Apperly, Harry
Hattersley, Winifred Tregloan and Enid Clements. Manly teams
were enjoying success in inter-club competitions.
On 6 May 1903, the golfing group held a meeting to form a club
of 12 members and named themselves -the Manly Golfers.
November 1905: The Australian Golf Union accepted the
application from the Manly Golfers to become affiliated with
the AGU.
May 1906: A meeting of the Manly Golfers changed their name
to “The Manly Golf Club”
August 1906: It was agreed that women be admitted to playing
membership of the Club, and in September that year 16 ladies
were duly elected.
The two men now known as the club’s Founder Members, Dr
Rowley Pope and his brother Norman Pope, acquired land to
November 1924: A new clubhouse, designed by members Eric
Apperly an