What happened was this: Kerri-Anne Kennerley was invited by a friend to play in a charity golf tournament at the Ocean Club in the Bahamas, part of the Duke of Edinburgh Cup, a global series of events that raise millions of dollars for children and which has, as its major prize, golf at Wentworth and Windsor Castle, and a dinner with our man the Duke.
And, being a pretty tidy 18-marker and golf addict who had honed her game at The Australian with Gary Barter among others, our Ms Kennerley up and won it. You beauty! And there was a post-round celebration that would have made Australia proud.
The prize was a motza: airfares, accommodation, three rounds of golf including one at the fabulous Wentworth, and a black-tie dinner at the family home at Windsor Castle.
There were butlers and people in red coats, and guards in interesting hats. There were succulent roasted meats and the wine was served in goblets.
And there was, of course, the Duke of Edinburgh, Edward, a nice one, son of the old Duke of Edinburgh, Phillip, and Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth, another very nice one.
And, of course, our Ms Kennerley was there, seated next to his lordship, or whatever we call him, Edward, the 15th in line to the throne and very healthy odds with Ladbrokes to be the next King. 
“He’s a lovely chap – charming, delightful, very normal,” according to Kennerley. “He’s not a huge golfer, loves his tennis. But when he took up the title that was his father’s, he took on the charity, too. And they make lots of money for the kids. And it was just a wonderful few days and a great fun evening.”
Just for posh people, though, right? Kennerley scoffs as if to say, we’re Australians, mate. We don’t do posh.
“It’s just a golf day that’s super fun and raises a lot of money for charity,” Kennerley says. “It’s very cool to be involved in. There’s functions and lunches every day.
“And the golf was so cool. You play the fabulous Wentworth and Windsor Castle’s own course, known as the Royal Household Golf Course at Windsor Castle. It was just very cool, though I certainly didn’t win.
“The big black-tie dinner, we just had the best time ever. It’s one of those experiences that money can’t buy. And they’re starting a qualifying tournament in Australia, and I stuck my hand up to give them a hand.”
Which is how we came to be at Long Reef GC on Sydney’s northern beaches having a hit with Kennerley, her sister Jan Keogh, and my mate “Blacky”, Greg Black, a former water police who once piloted Kennerley and friends around the Whitsundays on a big white boat.
Kennerley says she got into golf in her 50s “just to annoy my sister, Jan”.
“She married somebody who was a golfer many years ago. And you know what golfers are like; they come back from playing golf, and they’re talking you through every shot, hole by hole. And I got a bit bored of that. But I also thought, well, I better give it a crack,” Kennerley says.
Defending Australian Open champion Cam Davis casts a watchful eye over fellow The Australian member, Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s short iron in 2018. PHOTO: Getty Images.
And the golf bug – along with the golf-travel-and-have-a-cracking-time-with-your-pals-in-exotic-locations bug – bit Ms Kennerley deep. She tried to play five times a week but her work – as one of Australia’s most famous broadcasters and winner of three Gold Logies – rarely allowed it.
But today she does play and practise enough to be an honest 18.1 marker with a solid little swing that elicits a tidy little draw. And while she does admit to a competitive streak, we do forget to find our golf balls on occasion as we roll around having a yarn.
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One of her lessons for golf, and probably life is: “It doesn’t matter how badly you play, it’s always possible to play worse.”
And so we golf and gossip and talk so much we’re chipped by a cranky Irishman who told us we were two holes behind. Well, one of the holes was a par-3, and he was in a three-ball, two of them scooting about in a cart. And we were having fun and a yarn playing golf on a Tuesday afternoon, the worries of the world in another universe. But, point taken, cranky-pants.
Kennerley’s golf yarns are good enough to play slow for, particularly her interviews with Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and Gary Player.
“Jack was a lovely man,” she says. “I interviewed him at a function at The Australian when they had him over to redesign the course. And he said, ‘So many of you members have been saying that I should make the course the toughest test possible’.
“Then he looked around the room and said, ‘But you know, I don’t see anybody in this room that’s getting any younger’.”
She met Tiger Woods before the Australian Masters in 2009 and says he was “lovely and polite”. Another granted an audience with the great Eldrick was footballer Harry Kewell, “who was so nervous before meeting Tiger he could barely speak,” Kennerey reports.
Kerri-Anne Kennerley loads up on the 18th fairway at Long Reef GC. PHOTO: Matt Cleary
We agree that Greg Norman’s prickly reputation with media is warranted, and that we know veteran working journalists who really, really don’t like him.
“But he was never anything other than completely giving of his time with me,” Kennerley says. “And he’d do anything to promote Australian golf.”
And Mr Player? “An absolute pocket rocket,” laughs Kennerley.
“He was 88 or something and he came out to Kooyonga Golf Club in 2023 to help the club celebrate its 100th anniversary. He won his first Australian Open there [in 1958]. And he turned up and ran the show. ‘Get me your 10 juniors now! We’ll have a clinic!’ People went scurrying. They had to get kids out of school.”
We talk shop of her time on the board of Golf Australia. We talk of the schism between Golf Australia and Golf NSW. She wants to know the mail on Chris Minns’ “ridiculous” attack on Moore Park.
Kerri-Anne Kennerley makes pure contact on the 18th fairway at Long Reef GC. PHOTO: Matt Cleary
She wants to know what Golf Australia magazine is doing to promote women’s golf. She wants to help us with future magazines, promoting women and girls. Promoting golf.
“When I was growing up, girls just never played golf. It just wasn’t a thing. It’s just how it was,” Kennerley says. “But now there are so many avenues. Women can sometimes be hesitant to join what they perceive to be male-dominated clubs. But it’s not the case.
“If you’re just getting into it – whatever age you are, and man, woman, boy, girl – I would say play a lot of public courses and go out and have a few lessons. You have to learn the right way from the beginning. And stick with it, find your people – and have fun!
“Because that’s the game – you can have so much fun with golf. It’s one of those sports that whether you’re 10 years old or 90, you can play this sport. It’s a great walk. There’s great camaraderie. And anywhere you go around Australia, you can go somewhere by yourself and meet some fabulous people.”
One of those, if you’re lucky, would be Ms Kennerley herself, who is about as much fun to have a hit with as Robin Williams. Maybe not that much fun. But pretty good fun.
Another who’d be perhaps less fun though a pretty cool talking point, is the Duke of Edinburgh, Edward, who – if you practice a lot and enjoy a day out at Commonwealth GC on May 26th – will host you for dinner at Windsor Castle, with the red coats and goblets, and all that.
Sound good? Kennerley’s estimate for the green fee (though details are yet to be announced) is $1500. The funds raised go to a long-time Australian charity, the Duke of Ed, a “global youth development program for ages 14-24, offering a framework to build life skills like resilience and leadership through self-chosen activities in volunteering, skills, physical recreation, and adventurous journeys, leading to an internationally recognized certificate that helps with future education and employment.”
Top of that you can play a group one Sandbelt course that’s been renovated by Tom Doak and Brian Slawnik’s Renaissance Golf Design and which Golf Australia magazine has rated 25th in the land with a bullet.
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And you’ll contest an event which offers, as its major prize, a trip for two to England to play golf Wentworth and the royal course at Windsor Castle. There’s a heap of functions, long lunches. And then, of course, there is the almighty feast in the grand old dining hall in which you can dress up like an extra – or even supporting actor if you’re sat next to The Duke – in Downton Abbey.
Kennerely says the top-two players win the invite.
“It includes airfare and accommodation,” Kennerley says. “You can register your interest at the website. I just wanted to give people a little taste.
“Now, did you see where my ball is?”
To register interest in the Duke of Edinburgh Cup event at Commonwealth GC on May 26, email: dofecup@dukeofed.com.au. And check out www.dukeofedinburghcup.com.
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