McLeans Island Golf Club is one of Canterbury's most established golf clubs, set at 800 McLeans Island Road in Christchurch on land that was once old riverbed. What began in September 1964 as a golf section formed by representatives of eight working men's clubs became a full course by the early 1970s, with volunteers sowing greens between 1969 and 1970, planting some 1,500 trees and famously clearing around 125 tons of stones from the fairways by hand.
The club grew into one of the region's biggest — the second-largest golf club in Canterbury by 1983 — and has stood independently as McLeans Island Golf Club since the 1980s. Its clubhouse opened in May 1972 and today houses the club's cafe and bar facilities, while an on-site pro shop looks after gear and enquiries. Men's and women's teams compete in Canterbury interclub golf, and women and juniors have been welcome members since 1973.
Visitors can book tee times online, with green fees published on the club's website and a daily course status panel showing whether the course is open and whether carts, hire bags and trundlers are running. After the round, the clubhouse cafe and bar is the place to settle scores.
Some golf clubs begin with a developer's master plan. McLeans Island Golf Club began with a meeting of working men's clubs. In September 1964, sixteen representatives from eight clubs gathered at the St Albans Shirley Working Men's Club with a simple idea: to form a combined golf section. Out of that meeting grew one of Canterbury's largest golf clubs, which today welcomes members and visitors to its course at 800 McLeans Island Road in Christchurch.
In 1967 the committee decided to investigate building and running its own course. The South Island Federation of Working Men's Clubs backed the idea, and eleven working men's clubs came together to form the Canterbury Working Men's Clubs and Cosmopolitan Clubs Recreational Association. The North Canterbury Catchment Board offered 350 acres at McLeans Island, and the lease was signed in April 1969. When the first golf club committee formed on 13 August 1969, the name McLeans Island Country Club was agreed upon.
Turning old riverbed into a golf course took remarkable volunteer effort. Greens were sown between August 1969 and October 1970, and around 1,500 trees were planted. Stones had to be cleared from the future fairways by hand — by the club's second AGM, some 125 tons of stones had been removed. The clubhouse opened on 27 May 1972, and in 1973 women and juniors were admitted as members.
The club grew quickly. McLeans Island fielded its first interclub team in Canterbury competition in 1974, made its Woodward Cup debut in 1991, and by 1983 had become the second-largest golf club in Canterbury. During the 1980s it stepped out from its working men's club origins to stand independently as McLeans Island Golf Club — the name it carries today. The late 1980s also brought a redesign: the 1st and 10th holes swapped places, and the 3rd became a par five.
Nature has tested the club more than once. Major snowstorms have taken a toll on its trees over the years, and the big windstorm of September 2013 cost the course many more. Each time, greens staff and volunteering members put in a massive effort to have the course playable again — the same spirit of members' labour that built the place.
Today the club runs several men's and women's teams in interclub competition, with a few overall wins to its name and a good recent result from its Over 60s side. Behind the scenes, a committee led by president Chris Collins — along with men's captain Warren Davis, women's captain Sue Collins and course superintendent Jared Wilson — keeps club and course moving.
For visitors, the practicalities are simple. Green fees are published on the club's website, tee times can be booked online, and a daily course status panel shows whether the course is open and whether carts, hire bags and trundlers are running. The clubhouse — the same one that opened its doors in 1972 — houses the club's cafe and bar facilities, and the on-site pro shop handles gear and enquiries at [email protected] or +64 3 359 9768.
Check the forecast before you come — the club links to MetService's Christchurch outlook, and Canterbury weather has written itself into this club's story. Then play your round under trees planted by the founders and finish with something from the cafe and bar. Few Christchurch courses carry this much shared history, and fewer still were quite so literally built by their members.