Jeremy Howe, the Collingwood premiership defender, arrived at Victoria Golf Club for an 8am shotgun start in a sponsor’s event, barely awake and certainly not warmed up.
“I got out of the car and rolled about six putts on the practice green. Four went in, so I thought, that’ll do – don’t need any more than that,” said Howe, a keen golfer, who plays off an impressive handicap of just two.
Standing on the first tee, directly beneath the gaze of Victoria’s stately clubhouse, the footballer felt obliged to lower expectations.
“I told the boys, ‘Just so you know, I haven’t actually hit a ball yet today.’”
Jeremy Howe after his outrageous tee shot at Victoria Golf Club.
His playing partner, Andy Bowen – well known in golfing circles as a single-figure handicapper who stripes it – stepped up first and carved his tee shot toward the trees. A modest beginning.
Howe was up next. He pulled a four-iron, aiming simply to find the fairway and survive the opening hole, which is a tricky short par four.
Instead, he produced the shot golfers spend a lifetime chasing.
“I absolutely flushed it,” he says. “It landed eight feet short of the pin, trickled up … and then just disappeared when it got to the left edge of the hole.”
From the tee box, there was confusion.
“I said, ‘I think that’s in.’ Nobody believed me. They were like, no chance. I kept saying, ‘It’s in – I’m telling you.’”
A staff member drove down to locate the ball. It wasn’t on the green. Not long. Not short. It wasn’t visible in any of the bunkers that surround the green.
Then came the yell.
“It’s in the hole!”
A hole-in-one is rare. A hole-in-one on a par four – known as an albatross – is almost unheard of.
Cheers echoed across the course. Players several holes away stopped mid-swing.
“A mate who started on the 13th said they heard blokes erupt,” Howe laughs. “Everyone just went ballistic.”
And so Howe, better known for his leaping marks than his green play, carved himself a place in Victoria folklore.
Australian golfer Minjee Lee puts in front of the clubhouse. Credit: Getty Images
Victoria Golf Club, the latest in this masthead’s series on the state’s private golf clubs, has 123 years of history and tradition.
It prides itself on being progressive; women were admitted as members from 1925, 60 years before state premier John Cain forced the Melbourne Cricket Club and other men-only clubs to do the same.
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It has hosted an American president – in 1998 George H. W. Bush shared in the tradition of a “short drink” with members on the short 16th hole while he was in town for the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne – and has staged eight Australian Opens (four men’s and four women’s).
The late Peter Thomson, who won five British Opens and was a life member of Victoria, once said it had a “special character”.
“It is not necessarily the quality of the course, or the accommodations of the buildings that distinguishes [clubs like Victoria],” Thomson once said.
“It is more essentially the membership, past and present, and the file of achievements over such a period of decades that creates such a tradition.”
That membership includes US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, Australian Cricketers Association boss Paul Marsh (who previously ran the AFL players’ union) and many other prominent members of Melbourne’s sporting and business community.
Astonishingly, Marsh has also had a hole-in-one on the first.
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It was a slam dunk (meaning the ball didn’t bounce on the green before going in the hole).
“It was one of the best golfing moments of my life,” Marsh said.
Victoria sees itself as a community club; 70 per cent of its members live within a 10-minute drive of the club’s front gates.
“The members describe it as their sanctuary … [a] very local community and a big part of their life … it’s home for them,” club captain Bruce Peacock said.
Thirty per cent of the club’s 1300 members are women.
“We actually have the highest percentage of women members in the sand belt which we benchmark ourselves against,” said CEO Warwick Hill-Rennie.
Marsh agrees: “One of the club’s greatest strengths is its inclusivity and its social nature.”
Mostly, the club and its members have operated harmoniously, but there was a fracturing of the peace in 2022 when an internal dispute over governance decisions turned personal.
Antonie Els, a South African-born hospitality executive, was recruited in 2021 as general manager with a mandate from the club’s board to secure the club’s future while preserving its history.
“I’d never worked with a board with such a diverse skillset and so clear about where the club had misstepped and what was needed to secure the future, as the one that appointed me back in 2021. The challenge was how to marry the history of the club with a new age of business,” Els told this masthead from his home in New Zealand, where he has since relocated with his wife.
Former general manager Antonie Els.Credit: LinkedIn
“Balancing heritage with modern governance is never simple. Change can be uncomfortable.”
The dispute involved Els and a prominent Melbourne lawyer, who was a long-standing member steeped in the traditions of the club.
The lawyer declined to be involved in this story.
Tensions began to boil over midway through 2022. According to three sources familiar with the matter, the issues involved compliance, particularly inside the clubhouse, rather than sweeping reforms.
“Regardless of differing views, I had a duty to ensure we operated within the rules and in line with the constitution and bylaws. That wasn’t about control – it was about accountability,” Els said.
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Divisions emerged. While formal governance structures were in place, a small but influential group of members carried considerable informal authority.
Supporters saw Els as professionalising operations at a club unaccustomed to scrutiny. Critics viewed the changes as unnecessary interference.
Els believes resistance to his leadership gradually became more personal.
“I was conscious that being an outsider – and not Australian – may have heightened sensitivities,” he said. “In traditional institutions, trust is everything, and it takes time to build.”
According to official correspondence from Victoria Golf Club to its members, Els and two members lodged complaints concerning the lawyer and another member.
Following an independent investigation, the board determined the pair had breached the club’s code of conduct and issued reprimands, which they accepted.
More significantly, the board found that statements made by the lawyer to Els constituted conduct “unworthy of a member” and proposed to suspend his membership for 12 months – a sanction that was never finalised after the lawyer commenced legal action alleging he’d been denied procedural fairness.
In documents lodged with the Federal Court and obtained by this masthead, the lawyer sought an injunction to restrain the club and its directors “from making any finding … whether the Applicant is guilty of conduct unworthy of a member of the VGC, or from suspending or purporting to suspend him … otherwise than for sufficient reason, in accordance with the Constitution, bona fide, and in accordance with the principles of natural justice”.
“I was conscious that being an outsider – and not Australian – may have heightened sensitivities,”
Antonie Els, former general manager
Victoria Golf Club’s written response to the claim reveals that a total of five complaints were made by the three complainants.
They accused the lawyer of breaching the code of conduct’s principles of integrity and mutual respect.
The case went to court-ordered mediation and ended with a confidential settlement reached without admissions of liability. The settlement required the lawyer to withdraw proceedings, accept a reprimand and provide Els with a written apology, which has been seen by this masthead.
“Dear Mr Els,” the apology said. “I refer to a meeting held between you, me and the club captain at the golf club on 28 June 2022 during which I made some comments that you have said caused you distress and anguish. If what I have said or written has caused you distress or anguish, I apologise to you for that.”
Els said he accepted the apology, though he believed it did not fully reflect the seriousness of the circumstances.
The club’s insurer contributed to legal costs, bringing an end to a dispute that had quietly consumed months of internal attention.
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For Els, the episode became a defining professional test.
“It was a period that demanded composure and resilience,” he said. “My responsibility was to uphold standards and protect the culture of the club, even when that came at a personal cost.”
Ultimately, he chose to step away.
“There are moments in leadership when you have to weigh what is sustainable,” he said. “Leaving was not an easy decision, but it was the right one for my wellbeing and for the long-term stability of the organisation.
“I stand by how I conducted myself,” he added. “Leadership requires accountability and integrity – particularly when circumstances are challenging.”
Club officials regard the legal fight as a dark chapter in an otherwise proud history, and say the club has moved on.
Everyone other than Els remains a member.
Howe, who lives locally, is now looking to become a Victoria Golf Club member. On the day of his outrageous tee shot in front of the clubhouse, he didn’t get to celebrate in the traditional way.
His group piled on birdies, finishing 14-under – a score so outrageous rival teams jokingly accused them of cheating.
“The beers appeared pretty quickly after that,” said Howe, who missed the post-round celebrations because his wife, Kahlia, was “as crook as a dog” and needed reinforcements at home.
Collingwood teammate Lachie Schultz stayed behind to enjoy the celebrations.
“I was apparently the talk of the place and didn’t really get to live in it,” Howe says.
“If I was ever going to have one [a hole-in-one], to do it on the first hole, first swing, right in front of that clubhouse – that’s pretty special.”
Victoria’s clubhouse is looked upon with much envy from other clubs around Australia.
“There’s not a better place to have a beer in golf than our terrace,” president Bert Savage said.
Maybe one day, Howe will get to experience it again.
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