Hardcover
188 pages

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Contents

Born in 1849, Robert Balfour-Melville descended from a noble Scottish family that included generations of prominent St Andrews golfers. Immigrating to the colony of Victoria in 1877, Balfour-Melville sought his fortune in outback Wilcannia and the sugar fields of Tintenbar in New South Wales before settling down as a governmental and commercial auditor in Melbourne. Robert was a founder of Geelong Golf Club and an honorary office holder in the early days of The Royal Melbourne Golf Club. In 1895, a momentous year for Robert, he became that club’s first life member and won the Victorian Golf Cup, which at the time was regarded as the amateur championship of Australasia. As a sports administrator, Robert Balfour-Melville was later a founding councillor of the Australian Golf Union. Along the way, Balfour-Melville introduced Sphairistikè (lawn tennis) to the Melbourne Cricket Club – long regarded as the country’s first lawn tennis club. Surviving to the ripe age of 97, Robert Balfour-Melville lived out his retirement in Melbourne’s bayside Sandringham – in a house named ‘Strathkiness’ in tribute to his Caledonian origins. The elder statesman’s latter-life golf observations were illuminating and full of interest. Similarly, his long-hidden scrapbook of photographs and press clippings uniquely documented the emergence and development of golf in Australia.