BOTHWELL
(RATHO FARM) Golf Course
Situated just outside the township Ratho Farm proudly boasts their claim as Australia’s oldest golf course… and perhaps the Southern hemisphere.
It’s an 18-hole layout over farmland, complete with old wooden post and rail fences and gravel roadways, with many greens not being able to be sighted from the tee beds.
Tim and I played the course with Megan and Grant Purton in March 2021 in a friendly two-ball best-ball Stableford competition with the perpetual Ferton Trophy awarded to us after a two point win. Both teams played well and Tim and I were very lucky to come from behind to claim the win after trailing for the first 15 holes. We agreed to come together again on the March long-weekend 2022 to defend the trophy on a course of Tim and my choosing – with the condition that the course we choose has never been played by any of us four before.
