The beautiful Darwin Golf Club, the oldest club in the Northern Territory, is hosting the NT Amateur beginning next week.

The Peter Thomson-Mike Wolveridge-designed 18-hole course has a colourful history, being the third iteration of the club.

Inaugurated in 1930 the first site was near the airport and close to Fannie Bay Jail, where the chief jailer as a keen golfer helped prepare and maintain the course, but Darwin GC was forced to move in 1936 and again in 1974 because of a new freeway construction.

Then after the Thomson-Wolveridge course and new clubhouse were opened in April, 1974, Cyclone Tracey not only destroyed the clubhouse but did significant damage to the course. In 2018 there was further damage to the course from Cyclone Marcus, but Darwin is nothing if not resilient, and today the club is thriving.

Some of Australia’s best amateurs are among the players to enter next week’s championships, to be played over 72 holes of strokeplay.

They include the defending champions Dujuan Snyman from Sanctuary Cove in Queensland and local product Katelyn Rika from Gove Country Club.

Rika, 21, won by 12 shots at Alice Springs last year in her first major victory after a stint in the American college system.

Other prominent players teeing it up include plus-five marker Max Ford from Royal Queensland and Concord’s Blake Phillips (handicap plus 4.9) who recently won the Victorian Amateur in Melbourne.

The championships begin next Thursday at Darwin GC.

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