Nomads Golf Club was originally formed in South Africa in 1960 and the full report on this history can be found on their website www.nomads.co.za.
In 1968 Brian Norgarb an ex Transvaal Nomad who had relocated North of the Limpopo, approached the founder of Nomads, Mike Florance to form a club in the then Rhodesia, and received the following reply:
I always expected it and now I know you ARE mad. Do you really imagine that you, man alone and entirely on your own, can create and set up a Nomads club in a foreign country in which you are a recent newcomer? Can you envisage the enormity of the task you are proposing to undertake? The evocation and arousal of interest, the mobilization of a body of members, getting the consent of the various clubs to use their facilities for Nomads events, maintaining the pursuit of perfection characteristic or all Nomads activities, without even mentioning the vast managerial and administrative work entailed in the whole thing. No Brian Norgarb you must be out of your mind.
Brian Norgarb replied,
I would remind you, Mike Florance, that some ten years ago there was another lunatic abroad who set himself the task of doing exactly what I now propose to do in Rhodesia.
In October 1968 a team of some 70 Nomads from South Africa got together with a contingent of 44 local "founders to be" and played their first game at Harare South.
In January 1969 the club received the equivalent of its "charter" and its inaugural game took place at Ruwa Country Club.
Brian Norgarb was its first captain, and the President of the RGU, Guy Molyneux, was guest of honour and was elected the club's first Honorary member. Rhodesia Nomads thus became the 5th Nomads club to be formed in Southern Africa.
During the time the club was under the control of South Africa, two South African National Tournaments were held in the country one in 1972 at Henry Chapman Golf Club (with a field of 360 players) and the other in !977 at Wingate Park GC. For the 1970 South African National Tournament the Rhodesian team chartered its own Viscount aircraft, piloted by one of the team Bernie Van Hysteen. A feature of the team was that its members all wore matching playing kit, white and green. This was the first time this had been done in Nomads and it started a tradition that was subsequently adopted by all other clubs.
With Zimbabwe attaining its independence in 1980, the year's National Tournament in East London, due to political pressure, became the last South African National Tournament were to play in for some years . The 1981 South African Nationals featured a banner for "Absent Friends" on the scoreboard where the names of the Zimbabwean contingent should have been.
This isolation from South Africa led to the formation of a Zimbabwean National Council with its own constitution based very much along the lines of the South African one, with Keith Rodman as the first National Chairman. The Zimbabwe Nomads club Then Became the Mashonaland Club since the aim was to establish Nomads clubs in the other provinces.
In 1982 Zimbabwe held its first National tournament at the Troutbeck Inn Resort with Mashonaland Nomads and visitors making up the field. The first Nationals Coordinator was Doug Pechey, who some years previously had been made an Honorary Life Member Nomads in South Africa.
Three ex Mashonaland/Rhodesia Nomads, Joe Stones a past captain, Graham Lindsay and Len Zeederberg, had moved to Bulawayo. They set about organizing the formation of a club in Bualawayo and in 1984 a promotional visit of Mashonaland Nomads was arranged. This, in turn, led to a meeting at the Holiday Inn on February, 1984 to form the club. Forty men turned up for the meeting, apologies were received from nine others, and together with a further nine who didn't attend, these all went on to become the 58 founder members, with Joe Stones as Captain and Bruce Longhurst as Vice Captain. The inaugural game was played on Sunday,25 March 1984 at Bulawayo Golf Club.
In early 1986 the Matabeleland committee proposed looking into the possibility of forming a club in the Midlands Province. Two separate away games were arranged and contingents of Matabeles travelled to the Midlands to "Show the Flag".
As a result of these efforts a club was formed in the Midlands with 28 founder members.
The inaugural game was played at Alan Lowry Golf Club in Redcliff in December, 1986 and Mike Houston (a previous Mashonaland Nomad) was the first Captain.
During 1996/7 Nomads House was built in Highlands, Harare, thanks to the efforts of Pat Cornish and Kevin Stead. Along standing supporter and sponsor of Zimbabwe Nomads, Tony Varrie from Easterns, also chipped in with a donation towards the building costs. Opened by the National Chairman Ellis Milne on 4th July,1997, the house has been the home of the Mashonaland Club ever since and has been used by various golf societies over the years as well as doing service as an archive and warehouse for Nomads.