Local legends at the nineteenth

Dale Brunsdon has played 61 straight club championships at Macksville, since an 'old' ankle injury forced him to hang up his tennis racquet at 26.

Last year would have marked number 62.

"But uncle Arthur (arthritis) caught up with me," Dale explains. Still, he's determined to win that battle, and is out on the course again most weekends.

One thing that's never faltered is his encyclopaedic memory; Dale is the fount of all knowledge when it comes to the Macksville Golf Club.

For instance, he remembers when the course was a six-hole affair on the other side of the railway tracks. The course was positioned on Angus McLeod's property, and Dale still has a copy of that original lease agreement for the course and its clubhouse.

Back then the bowling club's home was in North Macksville, before it amalgamated with the golf club in 1969.

You also used to be able to knock a ball around on the swampy ground where the Macksville Aquatic Centre now sits.

"And I still remember that old clubhouse up there," he says, pointing to a black and white photo mounted above us.

"I was playing golf the afternoon it burnt down in 1960."

It was Christmas Eve, and Dale was a member of the local fire brigade.

"We got the call that evening to say the clubhouse was on fire," he said.

"There was no reticulated water back then, only the dam and a water tank out the bank which we used to put it out. Job done, we went home again.

"Then about 1.30am Christmas morning we got the call again. And this time the flames were successful."

If golfing success is measured in trophies, then Dale can only attest to being successful on one occasion. But when you've played a game as long as Dale has, success takes on a whole different shape.

His stories are a triumph of the game itself, and a testament to being in winning company.

"Although you do get the occasional bloke you only want to play with the once."

Dale fondly recalls one memorable excursion to a Dorrigo Open Day.

There'd been a seafood night at the Macksville Country Club the evening before, so breakfast was a rather splendid affair of prawns and bubbly atop Dorrigo mountain.

By the time the group hit off at the first tee they were already well-lubricated, euphemistically speaking.

The first chap to swing found nothing but air for all his effort.

"And he turned and said 'that's the first effin' time I knew that Dorrigo mountain was six inches shorter than what it appears to be'," Dale mirthfully recounts.

"So that set the tone for the rest of the day."

At this high note in the conversation I turn to my right to ask a few questions of the reigning club champion, Allan Clarke.

With an impressive record of 32 championship wins over the course of six decades, Allan is the undisputed king of the club - a title which he'll no doubtedly roll his eyes at.

"I've never looked at the board," he says. "I'm not into that ... but that doesn't mean I'm not competitive."

Allan first picked up a club with intent at age 15.

"I didn't play cricket or football - I got asthma. So it was a good way of being out in the fresh air," he said.

It didn't take long for him to find his swagger, though. The next year (1977), Allan skipped through C and B Grade and won his first A Grade club championship at the tender age of 16.

The talent appears to run in the family, with both his younger and older brothers taking their turns as club champion.

"And my son nearly won it a few years back too," he said.

The only other bloke that used to give Allan a regular run for his money was local legend Brian Burns.

Incredibly, Allan managed to win one of his 32 championships over the past 44 years with a sore shoulder, which later turned out to be a broken arm - a story he recently told Andy Maher and Mark Hayes on Golfing Australia's podcast Inside the Ropes.

You can listen to episode #190 here, featuring US Masters Runner-Up and back-to-back Australian PGA Champion Cam Smith.

But if you ask Allan to choose a standout year for him, he'll tell you 1989 and 1991: "the years my daughter and son were born".

Like a fine wine, he appears to have improved with age, with Allan ratcheting up his seventh straight win at the 2020 championships. Before the recent handicap changes, Allan was sitting on +1.

Getting him to open up about his technique or his game is like wringing blood from a stone. But he does admit to one strict pre-game warm-up routine: some liquid luck before each round ... and a few on the go.

"I won a golf bag and it has an esky in it - perfect to keep beers cold," he said. "It gets very hot out there so you've got to cool down somehow.

"When I was a young bloke it was all about belting the ball and winning.

He might be tight-lipped about his accomplishments, but Allan is generous with his tips when taking on juniors at the Macksville Country Club.

The club started up a junior clinic last year, with 22 kids attending.

"The majority had never picked up a golf club before," he said.

"It was a learning experience, but it was really good to see little ones out here hitting balls again.

"Hopefully they all come back this year. It would be great to get a junior comp going again and have them all move up through the ranks - that's how I got started."

As I walk away from the clubhouse to another engagement I can hear that the party's just getting started. And I'm left to wonder how many more great stories are just a few beers away.

Next time.

Part 2: The Welsh family pioneering the Nambucca

Search continues for spear fisherman washed off rocks