Cathedral Lodge & Golf Club, Australian golf’s most exclusive enclave, is assembling an all-star cast for its TV debut next month.
[Course photography by Gary Lisbon]
The fog always lifts. Just ask the privileged folk at Cathedral Lodge & Golf Club in Victoria’s High Country, two hours north-east of Melbourne. It’s become a bit of an autumn tradition for early risers to enter the gates of the sprawling property and wait patiently above the first tee for the pea-souper to slowly rise from the fairways. Like a cloche, the haze lifts to unveil a tantalising treat for those first off – a course that, fittingly, matches the bravado of its designer, Greg Norman.
Spectacular canyons, flowing streams and an abundance of wildlife suddenly appear in the distance as the sun breaks through. It’s nature at its finest and encapsulates a mystique few courses can match.
“When the sun comes up at Cathedral, you see the whole countryside change around you,” Norman says. “Whenever I’m back, I go to the highest point of the course and just stand there and take it all in – the feels, the smells and the sounds. You’re immediately connected to the environment around you.”
Next month, Cathedral Lodge & Golf Club will lose the fog and much of its mystery when it opens its gates for the country’s newest golf tournament, the Cathedral Invitational. Incredibly, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman will be among the headline acts in the pro-member event that promises to put this uber-exclusive patch in the public eye, and the 200-strong township of Thornton on the map. ▶ ▶ ▶
It might sound odd to describe the 14th-best golf course in the country as a bit of an enigma. Yet for much of the golf population, Cathedral Lodge & Golf Club remains just that. Its mystique is preserved by the club’s Augusta National-like membership model, a private ‘home away from home’ for affluent families lucky enough to have scored an invitation. While many hold memberships at other golf clubs, Cathedral is where they go for the true red-carpet treatment and, like the club’s inspiration, a golf experience like no other.
Such hospitality is all part of the dream that investment banker David Evans is living out after years of attending the Masters saw him fall in love with what golf’s hallowed turf offered beyond all the glitz, glam and green jackets.
“It really all started when I watched Tiger Woods win the Masters in 1997 with my father,” Evans recalls. “As I learnt more about Augusta National and its membership, it gave me an appetite to do something similar in Australia.”
Stage one of Evans’ vision was to build an American-style country club for family, friends and business associates. He engaged Norman, who he’d invited to a football luncheon while in the role of chairman of the Essendon Football Club, to design a course on his property that hugs the banks of the Goulburn River. But this wasn’t a copycat request of the place that, ironically, would haunt Norman for much of his illustrious playing career. That would be just plain cruel.
“At no point was David asking me to replicate the holes of Augusta National,” Norman tells Australian Golf Digest. “What he wanted me to replicate was Augusta’s feeling and atmosphere, the uniqueness of the place and the exclusive nature of how the club is run.”
Cutting through swathes of canyonland, steep valleys and creeks in Evans’ own backyard, the Great White Shark was able to come up with a layout he describes as “quintessentially Australian”.
The second part of Evans’ dream was to get a tournament up and running. He started with a modest 18-hole pro-member event that last year was taken out by 2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy. Now, five years after opening the gates to those closest to him, Evans is drawing back the curtains for the entire world to take a peek.
The Cathedral Invitational has been added to the Australian summer of golf schedule straight after the conclusion of the Australian Open. It’s genius timing, if not for being able to ride on the coattails of the summer’s strongest field, for being able to showcase Cathedral Lodge “with its best clothes on”, Evans says in reference to the course’s optimum summer conditioning.
“I looked at the whole thing about 12 months ago and thought, Well, there’s no time like the present,” he adds. “There is a void in Australia right now, as far as comparing the Australian tour to what it was when I was growing up. So, I thought there was an opportunity to create a really special tournament for Australian golf and to attract some of the best golfers in the world to a really good venue that would also help tourism in regional Victoria and regional Australia.”
The two-day, invitation-only affair will be broadcast on Fox Sports. The first day’s action will include Cathedral members, while day two will be open to the viewing public, albeit capped at about 3,000 spectators due to infrastructure limitations.
“We’re genuinely excited to welcome patrons and give them an opportunity to see the course and obviously watch some wonderful golf,” Evans says.
Snaring Scott and Leishman gave the inaugural event immediate clout, as have the signings of Kiwi star Ryan Fox and defending champ Ogilvy, Wade Ormsby and Marcus Fraser. If their schedules allow it, they could even land 2022 Open champion Cam Smith and Major winner Minjee Lee, too.
“I’ve got to say, Golf Australia and the PGA of Australia have been wonderful to deal with,” Evans says. “They understand the vision and obviously they’re as keen for it to be successful as we are. I truly believe, if we do it right, the Cathedral Invitational will be a staple on the Australian summer of golf calendar moving forward.”
Channelling Seminole
Purist fans may have picked up on the comparison. There’s another pro-member event that’s made headlines around the world in recent years. Dubbed the most competitive pro-member in golf, Seminole Golf Club’s star-studded offering immediately follows the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic and welcomes a roll call of the sport’s top players every year.
Much like Cathedral, the Juno Beach layout in Florida, which some rate as legendary architect Donald Ross’ finest work, has proven too tempting to resist for the likes of Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas, not to mention many of the game’s most influential powerbrokers.
It’s a template Evans hopes to replicate with the same level of success.
“I’ve looked at the Seminole event very carefully and have enormous admiration for what they’ve done,” he says. “It’s obviously a wonderful golf club, and they have established a wonderful history and tradition around their members. There’s no question I’ve picked up a lot of the ideas for our tournament off the back of what the Seminole guys have done.
“It’s fair to say that the pro-member event we started three years ago has definitely allowed us to get to this point in the development of the Cathedral Invitational. The question I’ve got to work out in the future is what role it continues to play. Ultimately, what we’re really looking to do is create a 72-hole event, which hopefully will be a significant event on the Australian golf calendar and a boom for tourism in this beautiful part of the world.”
As for the members, they’re “all in”.
“This tournament will become something truly special, and I’m fascinated to see how the best golfers in the country handle the course,” says the club’s legendary left-hander, Nick O’Hern.
Adds former AFL star and devoted Cathedral member Brendon Goddard: “All the members are big advocates for what ‘Evo’ is trying to create here, to the point where a group of members have funded the prize pool for previous events.”
Evans said the excitement within the club is palpable.
“We’ve built a wonderful group of members who are really providing a collegiate approach to building on the club’s culture and events,” he says. “We have a few key professional golfers in our membership, too. Guys like Paul Sheehan, who is our club captain, and Nick O’Hern. Those two gentlemen, along with Paul [Gow] have played a very significant role in helping set this up to where we are today.”
A completely different viewing experience
Fox Sports Golf Show host Gow, a regular playing guest of Evans, can be excused for going missing during this year’s telecast.
“I’m going to play!” he shouts, equal parts rapt and nervous of the challenge that awaits the veteran.
“I was actually David’s playing partner for the very first pro-member event at Cathedral and I just fell in love with the place. I have remained good friends with everyone at the club since. Just the way they treat you here, I mean, it’s like I’m back on the US tour, to the point where it’s almost embarrassing,” he jokes. “The best bit, though – your guests get the same treatment.”
Gow said viewers at home can expect a high-quality offering come tournament week, shot and packaged differently to what they’re used to seeing with the network’s weekly tour coverage.
“From a broadcast point of view, it’s going to have a more light-hearted approach and we’re going to get better access to the players in between shots,” says the former tour pro. “We’ll be able to go to players and get them to articulate what shot they’re about to play and why they intend on playing it. Viewers will get a real insight into the mind of a professional golfer and, perhaps, pick up a few handy tips along the way.”
Evans is leaving no stone unturned for a tournament he hopes will match the quality of the course hosting it. Australian tour pro Matt Jager, the club’s director of golf, has played a key role in managing the logistics. Evans has also brought in some valuable operations experience in the form of Peter Johnston, tournament director of the popular Kooyong Classic tennis event.
“I think where things have gone awry for Australia in past attempts [to get tournaments off the ground] is when people have just gone holus-bolus into something, because these things are not cheap to do,” Evans says. “So, what I’m doing this year is taking baby steps to make sure we get everything right. I’ve got a great team working extremely hard.”
The ‘red dot theory’
‘Course record’ has been a hot topic of discussion among the membership in recent weeks. Any course boasting five par 5s, five par 3s and a reachable par 4 or two leaves itself wide open for an attack from a bunch of pros who play golf for a living.
“There’s been talk about what the course record could be by the end of this tournament,” Goddard admits. “The layout always feels really gettable but it almost always finds a way to bite you back in the end. A lot will depend on the weather, of course.”
Last year, Ogilvy and Bryden Macpherson shot three-under over 18 holes in tough, windy conditions to force a playoff. “I’d expect this year’s winning score [over two days] will be about 10-under,” predicts Goddard.
But if Cathedral has a defence, it’s its wicked green complexes.
“It’s a dramatic test from tee to green and then the challenge really begins,” O’Hern warns. “The subtleties to the putting surfaces will leave many shaking their heads in disbelief.”
Goddard revealed some members, in an effort to counter the difficulties of green-reading at Cathedral, have employed the ‘red dot theory’, a trick of the trade used by caddies around Augusta National. The idea there is all putts break towards Rae’s Creek (where Rae’s Creek passes behind the 11th green is said to be the low point of the entire property). Goddard has scoped out the low point at Cathedral, and now a distinct red dot is placed on a portion of the green on every hole in his course guide, indicating the direction that putting surface should break. “It helps – a bunch of us swear by it,” he says.
The secret is out
Gow is adamant the Evans family is onto a winner and that attracting big names in the future won’t be a problem. “When people get here, they will fall in love with it,” he says. “Even for someone who has been around for as long as I have, I still feel intimidated in certain golf-club environments. Not at Cathedral. It’s such a warm and inviting place.”
Gow, who champions public golf courses and the important role they play in attracting local communities to the sport, believes there is room for more facilities like Cathedral Lodge & Golf Club, for families and those who desire a premium experience in their downtime.
“We don’t have enough country clubs in Australia,” he says. “Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge advocate for public golf. I’m often rocking up to public courses on a Sunday afternoon to have a bash. It’s the lifeblood of our sport. But at places like Cathedral, kids can go horse riding, swimming and fishing.
“The food and beverage is always amazing. Facilities like this have everything a family wants and allows them to spend more time together.”
O’Hern concurs.
“My wife, Alana, never took up golf until we joined Cathedral Lodge & Golf Club – and that may be the ultimate compliment to the club because she’s seen it all.”
So, what’s the secret to Cathedral’s unwavering appeal? According to Goddard, it’s what it’s not that makes it so alluring.
“From the moment you enter the driveway, it just doesn’t feel like a golf club,” he says. “It feels more like a home. There’s a lot to be said about that for all golf clubs moving forward.”
As nice as the feedback must be for David Evans and his wife Sonya, if you think they’re sitting back and lapping up the applause, think again.
“There is pride, sure, but it’s a personality fault of mine to not rest on my laurels,” Evans says. “[Just like in the business world] when I’m out on the course, I’m always looking for ways to improve or what needs to happen next. I never really allow myself time to sit back and smell the roses. After all, there’s still a lot to be done.”
• The Cathedral Invitational will be played from December 5-6 at Cathedral Lodge & Golf Club, located in Thornton, Victoria. Tickets for the final day can be purchased at cathedralinvitational.com
