NSW Golf Club Cocktail and Awards Evening - 31st January 2020 NSW Golf Club La Perouse

Speaking Points – FINAL

      NSW Golf Club
Cocktail and Awards Evening

       31st January 2020

       NSW Golf Club

          La Perouse

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FULL SPEECH
Thank you for your warm welcome. I would like to acknowledge
that we are here today on the land of the traditional custodians of
this land, the Gadigal and Bidjigal peoples. In acknowledging their
deep connection to this land and its waters, I pay my respects to
Elders past, present and emerging.

Here at La Perouse, the Indigenous community has an unbroken
connection to this land that stretches back over 7500 years. There
are families still living in this area who trace their family line back
into the era known as BC – ‘Before Cook’. The easy availability of
fish and other food sources from the sea played its part, as well as a
ready supply of fresh water located below the 17th hole. Tonight, I
can see why the 19th hole is so popular.

Dennis and I are delighted to be Co-Patrons of the NSW Golf Club,
a Club which has a distinguished history in NSW. It also has a
tradition - from its inception - of Vice Regal patronage, the first ball
being hit by the then Governor-General, Baron Stonehaven, when
he opened the Club in 1928.

The ball now sits proudly in the Club lounge. More recently,
Governor Hurley, now Governor-General, and Governor Bashir,
have each been Patrons of this Club.

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Being a Patron is quite an august position to have and neither of us
take the privilege lightly. For my part, I consider it important if not
fundamental that, as Patron, one has an understanding of the
patronal organisation.

Your Club, of course, is an extremely august organisation: its
history is well documented; its course is feted around the Australia
and around the world - rated No.1 and in the top 50 respectively.
Its alumni include Greg Norman and Adam Scott, still members of
the Club. Its visitors have included at least one President of the
United States, Bill Clinton.

The Club from its earliest days has had a wonderful history of
community engagement.

In the 30s, a Depression-era camp community of unemployed men,
women and families, sprung up, just a golf swing’s distance from
this Club. Called Happy Valley, so established did this community
become1 it had its own Vice Regal visit in 1931 by Sir Philip Game
and Lady Game. The Club was particularly solicitous to the
community at Happy Valley. To save the residents having to walk
across the course to get fresh water, the Club decided to run water
down to it; members collected funds for Christmas gifts for the

1 Happy Valley was the largest and best known unemployment camp, situated in the sandhills of La Perouse
in Sydney’s south. At its height, Happy Valley, which operated from 1930 to 1939, included 130
encampments and 330 people. http://laperouse.info/blast-from-the-past-happy-valley/
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children; and allowed those who were flooded in the great rains of
1932 to move to higher ground.2

When the collier ship, the Minmi, was shipwrecked3 on the rocks of
Cape Banks the night following the coronation of King George VI in
1937, the ship’s distress flare was first thought to be part of the
celebrations.4 As help arrived, the pyjama-clad crew - tragically
minus two5 - were brought ashore here, along with the ship’s bell
and clock, also on display in the Clubhouse.6

The Club has become an Environmental Leader in the preservation
of the Eastern Suburbs banksia scrub.7 And always, there are those
who have served the nation in the defence forces.8

But none of this has told me what this game of golf is. So being a
lawyer I went looking where lawyers usually go to find out how the
world works – to the law reports. And there, not surprising to me
at least, I found not only the answer to that but the answer to at
least one of those strange expressions that populate this game:

2 75th Anniversary History, page 68
3 Parts of the wreck are still to be seen
4 Golf at La Perouse 75th Anniversary History (2003), page 66
5 One drowned, one suffered a heart-attack.
6 On display in the Club
7 Provided information by General Manager by phone. 28 January 2020
8 Golf at La Perouse – History provided from 75th Anniversary edition 2003. In 1935 the 4th Hole was also

reclaimed and in later years, land surrounding, for coastal forts. In 1942, the Army commandeered the full
golf course for the rest of the war. The Honour Board is on display in the Club is on display. AIF cup is also
played.
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‘pars’, ‘birdies’, and ‘eagles’. From my legal research I now know
what a ‘cut’ is and I know a lot more about the game of golf.

The case I found was brought by the PGA against Casey Martin, a
professional golfer who first qualified to play on the PGA tour in
1999.9 In 2012, he qualified for the US Open. Casey Martin suffers
from a neurological condition10 and wanted to use a golf buggy
between tees in the PGA tournament.

The PGA Tour Organisation said he couldn’t use a buggy because
the rules said players had to walk between each hole. The US
Supreme Court said he could use a buggy and so didn’t have to
walk between the holes. But lawyers don’t operate in binary ‘yes’
and ‘no’ terms, except when cross-examining. We like to cogitate
over words and meanings, historical roots and precedent. The real
point in issue was not whether he could use a golf buggy. It was
the proper construction of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 9292
words later and despite a powerful 4758 word dissent from Justice
Scalia, the answer was yes, he could use a buggy.

Justice Scalia, witheringly summed up what the majority had
decided in these terms:

9   Casey Martin qualified for the US Open in 2012.
10   In 2019 Casey Martin had an accident resulting in the loss of his leg.
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‘We Justices must confront what is indeed an awesome
        responsibility. It has been rendered the solemn duty of the Supreme
        Court of the United States … to decide “What Is Golf?” I am sure
        that the Framers of the Constitution, aware of the 1457 edict of King
        James II of Scotland prohibiting golf because it interfered with the
        practice of archery, fully expected that sooner or later the paths of
        golf and government, the law and the links, would once again cross,
        and that the judges of this august Court would someday have to
        wrestle with that age-old jurisprudential question, for which their
        years of study in the law have so well prepared them: Is someone
        riding around a golf course from shot to shot really a golfer? The
        answer, we learn, is yes. The Court ultimately concludes, and it will
        henceforth be the Law of the Land, that walking is not a
        “fundamental” aspect of golf.’

So now I know.

Congratulations to those who have reached 20, 30, 40, 50 and 6011
years of membership. Longevity of this extent is an indication of the
many great friendships this Club has engendered.

The profile of women in golf continues to rise on the back of
Australia’s successful women golfers such as Carrie Webb, Jan

118 people in total to be presented by HE (for 40, 50, 60 years) – but presentations will also be made to 20,
30 years members
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Stephenson and, last year, Hannah Green12 and we look forward to
many more champions as more women play competitively,
including from this Club where membership stands at about 18%
and is growing.

This year is an especially auspicious year in the Club’s calendar
with the inaugural Women’s Trophy event to be played on
Thursday, 27 August 2020; to be contested annually. It will come as
no surprise to you that our joint view is that, not only can and do
women play a full role in every aspect of society, it is important that
that is both as recognised as and is as normal as the role played by
men.

The Junior, Men’s and Women’s teams have all had success in
various competitions over the last two years in particular,
indicative of the talent the Club attracts - and which continually
adds to its prestige. You have every reason to be proud of your
Club and of its magnificent course.

Thank you again.

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12 Last June, Hannah Green from Perth was just the third Australian woman – behind Jan Stephenson and
Karrie Webb – to win a major championship in winning the Women’s PGA Championship (US)
https://www.golf.org.au/2019-the-year-in-australian-golf/
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