Nomads Golf was first established in South Africa in 1960, with
Gary Player as the Patron of the club. As its members were drawn from various clubs and played their regular competitions on a variety of different courses, the Nomads name seemed particularly appropriate.
Nomads Golf has flourished in the Republic; it has established clubs in all provinces and it's national championship held annually boasts 550+ players.
The Nomads movement then spread over time to Zimbabwe, Botswana to New Zealand and subsequently Australia. Today there are close to three thousand Nomads spread around our clubs, all committed to our ideals of benefiting the game of golf and, in the process, raising substantial funding for causes that lend support for those less fortunate than ourselves.
In that regard, the role that the Nomads Golf Club plays in our society can best be described by quoting from the Founding President of Nomads, Michael Florance, more than 40 years ago. He wrote:"A long experience in and enjoyment of golf left me, in 1959, with a deeply held feeling that there was room in this game for some kind of association or club for business and professional men to come together in a closely planned and integrated programme of golf, with all games interrelated and offering a continuing thread of interest, and that out of this activity could arise some tangible benefit to two very proper causes: to the game of golf itself, and to those less fortunate than ourselves."
These principles are symbolised by the Nomads badge and logo, a bell crossed by a golf club, reflecting the philosophy expressed in the famous extracts from the Meditations of John Donne (1573-1631):
"No man is an island entire of itself; Each man is a continent, a piece of the maine. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."
The Nomads Golf Club (NZ) Inc. was formed in August 1997 in Auckland and officially launched at the Titirangi Golf Club in December of that year. Sir Bob Charles is the Patron of Nomads Golf in New Zealand.
Whilst the energies of all 17 Founder Members were collectively applied to bringing the Club into being, the vision of the inaugural Club President, Lisle Thackwray, combined with the commitment of Secretary John O'Sullivan, John Philpott, Guy Newlove, Peter Ramsay, Ian Braddock and inaugural Club Captain Mike Gibson, were paramount to the successful establishment of Nomads in New Zealand.