Golf course was race track

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 462, 17 November 1992, Page 11

Golf course was race track

Raetihi 100 Histories of the town

Situated on the highway midway between Raetihi and Ohakune, the club was established in 1926 as an amalgamation of the Ohakune Golf Club which at the time had 22 members, arid the Raetihi Golf Club who had 31 members. The former played a 9hole course on a Lakes Road farm and the latter on Ciochetto's farm in George Street, Raetihi. The present course is on land originally acquired by the Waimarino Racing Club which cleared a track of a chain in width around the boundary and planted a row of Pinus contorta trees, the remnants of which still remain the 15 th and 16th fairways. The Racing Club went into liquidation in 1926 and the 95 acres was purchased by the Golf Club for $1500.

The initial development was of 9 holes then 12 holes with the full 18 being opened in 1946. Initially the land was

in stumps and fallen logs. Areas were let to market gardeners and the convention was that in the course of a round

members returned to the clubhouse with a quantity of sticks, tree roots etc. picked up during the round. The original clubhouse was of modest dimensions. In 1955 the club purchased the Makaranui School and

1.5 acres of land with it. The school had served and continued to serve as a very adequate clubhouse for 22 riotous years. In 1962 the present clubhouse was built. The first clubhouse, by then an implement shed, was moved to its present po-

sition in the centre of the course, and with an addition, was sold to the Waimarino Pipe Band for $200, chainsawed in half and removed to Rochfort Park, Ohakune where it still stands. The greens were reticulated the same year, 1962.

A trin. r room and storeroom were added to the present clubhouse in 1965 and a major extension to the first floor was added in 1976.