CURLEWIS GOLF CLUB
It was a chilly autumn evening in 2015, yet there was a strange, aggressive heat in the air.
An inquisitive crowd of nervous Curlewis Golf Club members packed the Geelong West Town Hall as the fate of their beloved course hung in the balance.
The water recycling plant that had once seemed the club’s saviour, had become a financial millstone around the membership’s collective neck.
Without resolution, this little piece of golfing heaven on the Bellarine Peninsula had only days remaining before the bank padlocked its gates.
There were rumours swirling, including one of a last-minute pitch from nearby 13th Beach Golf Links, but the only defined option outside closure was an offer from Lyndsay and David Sharp to take over the course and its debts.
This wife-and-husband team – behind a growing and successful hospitality empire headlined by Jack Rabbit Vineyard – had preached the importance of a range of entertainment options as the key to the Bellarine’s prosperity as a holiday destination.
The club, they said, was to be a key plank in
