The first home of the McLaren Vale Golf Club was on the property of Alexander C Johnston, just south of the township of McLaren Vale.  It’s ironic that over 100 years down the track, the McLaren Vale Golf Club still has its home on a property linked to a Johnston; A.C. Johnston’s grandson, Ian, is married to Robynn, grand-daughter of Ashbourne course builder, Harry Meyer.

It is even more ironic that when the club looked at possible closure in 1958 when asked in 1957 to move from its rental premises on the Oliver property just north of McLaren Vale, it was the cricketing friendship of Ian’s father Lex Johnston, with Harry Meyer that had a major bearing on the club moving to its present home.

There are some of us old enough, and lucky enough, to remember Ashbourne’s once particular charm…where we only played during the winter months as the course still was a far cry from becoming one for all seasons …where our clubhouse was a little green shed which made the most of the great outdoors…where the peaceful atmosphere was often disrupted as members tried to extricate themselves from the bracken that grew to the very edges of the fairways…where the phone never rang…and of the haunting feeling when darkness came, our only lighting that of the glow of the barbecue fire.

Come down our drive to golfing heaven!

The club continues to prosper on a course that just keeps improving with age.  We have Alexander Johnston to thank for introducing the game of golf to McLaren Vale.  We have his son, Lex, as one of those responsible for the move to Ashbourne and the continuance of the club, then his son Ian and now his son Robert, for the manner in which the course is now presented for us lucky enough to be members of The McLaren Vale Golf Club.