For generations of Cromer residents, the golf course has occupied a broad stretch of the suburb between residential streets, bushland and the Narrabeen Lagoon catchment. In 2026, the club behind those fairways is marking 100 years since its beginnings.
Cromer Golf Club traces its origins to 4 August 1926, when a group met in Manly and formed the Cromer Syndicate to establish a golf course. Manager F.W.A. Eagar was authorised to buy 105 acres at South Creek on Narrabeen Lake for £11,750.
A course built through uncertain years
The venture encountered financial trouble early. According to the club’s published history, Cromer Ltd was in difficulty by mid-1927 and the property was sold to builder Max Cooper for £19,000.
Cooper went on to establish Dee Why Golf Links Ltd. Club records say the layout expanded to 18 holes within three years, although other historical accounts date completion of the full course to 1932. The club was formally opened on 8 June 1929.
The name changed with the decades. Dee Why Golf Club became Cromer Country Club in 1940 before adopting the Cromer Golf Club name in 1955. The club’s published history also records periods of financial pressure, management changes and alterations to the course.
Growing alongside Cromer
Much of modern Cromer developed around a golf course established when the surrounding district still contained extensive undeveloped land. Historical accounts describe the area as largely bushland before residential growth accelerated in later decades.
The course remains an 18-hole private championship layout, with creeks, ponds, native vegetation and bushland forming part of its setting near Narrabeen Lake.
Its connection with South Creek also stretches back decades. A council floodplain study recorded a weir at Cromer Golf Course that had once allowed the club to draw fresh water for irrigation, although the facility was no longer being used for that purpose when the study was prepared.
Women build a longer history on the course
Women’s golf has formed part of Cromer’s competitive life for decades. Golf NSW records the club among metropolitan women’s grade winners as far back as 1963, with further Grade Three victories in 2016 and 2025.
More recently, Cromer has run a 16-week Women’s Cygnet Golf Program for new and less-experienced players. Golf Australia says the pathway is designed to build skills before participants move into social or competitive golf, with some going on to club membership. The program also uses the club’s short-game practice facilities.
The club stretches beyond a round of golf
Modern Cromer Golf Club now accommodates activities beyond competition golf. Club material promotes functions, corporate golf days, coaching and hospitality, while health and performance services based at the club include rehabilitation, clinical Pilates, massage therapy, osteopathy, functional fitness and golf-specific training.
Further clubhouse changes have also been proposed. Cromer News previously reported an $890,000 development application involving works to the pro shop and buggy-storage areas, along with a proposed golf simulator studio.
Fairways within a wider green landscape
The golf course also sits within the broader South Creek and Narrabeen Lagoon landscape, where waterways, bushland and recreation areas run through the developed suburbs.
Nearby Dee Why Wetland contains a remnant Sydney Freshwater Wetlands ecological community and acts as a wildlife stepping stone between Dee Why Lagoon Wildlife Refuge and the Narrabeen Lagoon catchment. The wetland is separate from the golf-club property but forms part of the wider environmental setting around Cromer and South Creek.
Council planning for the South Creek corridor identifies environmental, recreational and sporting values across the network of reserves. Golf, walking, cycling and bushland recreation all feature within the wider catchment, with Cromer Golf Course identified among its recreational areas.
A new century begins
Cromer enters its second century with new leadership. Jason Atkins took over as general manager in July 2026 after eight years at Pymble Golf Club and nearly three decades working across golf and hospitality.
A century separates the meeting that created the Cromer Syndicate from the club operating on the site today. Nine holes became 18, Dee Why Golf Links became Cromer Golf Club, women’s competitions and introductory programs became part of club life, and the facilities around the course expanded.
Cromer changed around the course just as significantly. Yet the land acquired beside South Creek in 1926 remains devoted to golf 100 years later, making the centenary part of the suburb’s history as much as the history of the game.
Published 30-Sept-2026
