Perth has the distinction of being the most isolated capital (state or national) in the world. The West Australian capital lies beside the Swan River and is wedged into a coastal strip between the Indian Ocean and Darling Ranges, which means you’re never really that far from anything … including good golf courses. Here we showcase the Top-12 Courses you will find within a 45-minute drive of Perth’s city centre.
1 LAKE KARRINYUP COUNTRY CLUB
Lake Karrinyup continues to improve on its standing as Western Australia’s best layout and Australia’s No.18 ranked course, according to Golf Australia magazine.
With renovations on the back nine’s greens now under way, the original Alex Russell design looks likely to improve on this position in years to come.
Scheduled to reopen for play in October this year, the back nine will have 007 bentgrass putting surfaces to match the outstanding front nine greens that were completed in late 2017. While Mike Cocking of Ogilvy, Clayton, Cocking and Mead is overseeing the recontouring and bunker shaping.
The new grass has taken well on the finished holes and the completion of all 18-holes will further highlight the work completed by Mike Clayton in 2006 to recapture the essence and challenges of the Russell layout.
Karrinyup, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, features multiple blind tee shots and elevation changes that make driving the ball a test of trust that you have selected the right line. And like so many of the great courses, it presents a risk and reward style, with fairways offering width but requiring the correct line if you are to receive a bounding bounce down the hole and the best line to attack the green.
The imposing trees throughout the property and the par-72’s large, rugged bunkers – which appear as if they were shaped by nature rather than man – make Karrinyup a visually stunning course. The firm and fast wintergreen couch fairways offer a terrific playing surface that place a high value on maintaining control over your golf ball.
Measuring 6,531 metres from the tips, it is Karrinyup’s short holes, particularly the 135-metre par-3 12th hole and driveable par-4 14th, that standout and best showcase Russell’s unique design style – which receives rave reviews from the competitors each year when the course hosts the European Tour’s World Super 6 Perth tournament.
Green fees: Interstate and international visiting golfers, who are members of a golf club, can apply to the general manager for a tee time.
2 JOONDALUP RESORT (QUARRY/DUNES COURSE)
An easy 35-minute drive north of the CBD, via the Mitchell Freeway, will have you in the car park at one of Australia’s best golf resorts – the 27-hole Joondalup Resort.
Joondalup’s Quarry/Dune course combination has been one of the nation’s most revered layouts for more than two decades, having claimed a swag of ranking honours from Golf Australia as well as magazines abroad.
In short, first-timers will be in awe of the golf holes that have been crafted across a dramatic and unique landscape by American designer Robert Trent Jones Jnr. The talented Jones Jnr once described his design at Joondalup as “one of the great golf courses in the game.” One round at Joondalup and you might agree as he has been able to combine golfing value with dramatic visuals to create a special layout.
Perhaps the most striking of all Joondalup’s holes present on the Quarry nine. When the vista of the 2nd hole first comes into view it is hard to imagine such a golf hole exists anywhere on the planet … or whether any other comes close. Dominating the landscape between you and the green are two bunkers. The first stretches diagonally across the fairway from the right, leaving a narrow corridor to the left for the longest of drivers to thread their tee shot.
The second bunker is incredible for its shape, size and position. Shaped like a crater on the moon’s surface, the total diameter of the circular shaped bunker – which is cut into the fairway as it rises to the plateau green – easily measures 20 metres across. The flat sandy base at the end of its steep sloping walls covers half that distance.
These two traps are distracting enough that you might not notice that there are five other bunkers on the hole – including four greenside.
The 372-metre par-4 3rd on the Dune course is another fine example of Jones Jr’s use of the landscape. A split fairway comes into play from the tee – the low road is shorter but presents a more difficult semi-blind second shot while the high road (to the left) offers a more conservative route to the green and a longer approach shot.
Green fees: $99 (18 holes, Sunday-Friday); $119 (Saturday); $80 (weekdays for hotel guests); $95 (weekends for hotel guests). All with twin share cart.
3 MOUNT LAWLEY GOLF CLUB
Located just 10 minutes from the centre of Perth, Mount Lawley possess a tranquil setting and classic design that utilises doglegs, small greens and expansive bunkering to challenge players.
The club is currently considering a master plan developed by Ogilvy, Clayton, Cocking and Mead, which focuses on enhancing the best aspects of the original 1928 David Anderson and James Tinlin design. A new spare hole and short game practice area was recently opened to showcase the design firm’s plans and allow the club to test multiple strains of bentgrass to eventually replace the putting surfaces.
Featuring a good mix of short and long holes lined with native trees, the course places a premium on accuracy and shot-making rather than pure power. And, although built on a relatively flat piece of land, Mount Lawley uses what elevation changes it does have well to make players think, rather than just blast away from the tee.
The club has seen significant improvements in conditioning over recent years and is currently celebrating its 90th anniversary as it prepares to welcome the WA Open in October. All of which means the course has rarely looked in better shape.
Green fees: $50 as member’s guest.
4 JOONDALUP RESORT (QUARRY/LAKES COURSE)
Joondalup Resort has three nine-hole loops, combining for three 18-hole combinations. Such is the quality of the golf at Joondalup, it gets a second layout into the dozen courses showcased here.
Although the Quarry nine is arguably Joondalup’s finest, the Dune and Lake nines are also impressive. The 3rd to the 7th on the Lakes course covers an undulating landscape that is littered with Robert Trent Jones Jnr’s signature bunkering, including a significant number of ‘moon’ crater bunkers, as well as dramatic mounding.
This run of holes covers the high ground at Joondalup and are the most exposed to the sea breezes from the Indian Ocean, adding another element of difficulty to play in this part of the course.
Jones’ design is fully complemented, right across the property, by some of the best playing surfaces in Western Australia.
Green fees: $99 (18 holes, Sunday-Friday); $119 (Saturday); $80 (weekdays for hotel guests); $95 (weekends for hotel guests). All with twin share cart.
5 THE VINES RESORT & COUNTRY CLUB (LAKES COURSE)
The drive north-east from the Perth CBD through the Swan Valley is one of the nicest journeys you can make in and around the West Australian capital.
Established vineyards come and go the deeper you get into the valley, where you will find one of Australia’s most famous tournament venues: The Vines Resort & Country Club, a 36-hole complex where the kangaroos are plentiful and the landscape is dominated by massive greens and rolling fairways.
Of course, it was here during the 1990s that the European Tour made its home for one week a year in co-sanctioning the Heineken Classic and several Johnnie Walker Classics. Both events brought the biggest names in the game to Perth, as did the LPGA Tour’s visit for the Lexus Cup in 2007. The pros played a composite course with holes taken from the Lakes and Ellenbrook courses, but it is the Lakes that remains the superior of the two
The best holes across the entire property can be found on the inward nine of the Lakes course, with the trio of holes from 16 to 18 (a par-3, 4 and 5, respectively), bringing water into play on almost every full shot.
If the flag is located in the right half of the huge 16th green, particular care is required to avoid finding the water on the right – yet a canny left-to-right shot can safely avoid the water and still find the correct section of green. In truth the front nine is just as strong.
Two-putting the expansive 4th green from certain parts of the surface is an achievement on its own, while the next is a terrific dogleg right through bushland that ends at a wildly contoured green complex where knowing the best place to leave your approach shot is crucial.
The par-4 9th hole also asks for a careful approach, as a row of bunkers guards the rear of the shallow green and another bunker and a small creek sit in front.
Green fees: $75 (Mon-Fri and after 11am weekends); $85 (before 11am weekends).
6 COTTESLOE GOLF CLUB
It has taken time, but the majority of the masterplan Graham Marsh set out for Cottesloe Golf Club back in 1998 is nearing completion, with the recently reopened 1st, 2nd and 8th holes the latest completed work by the club.
Marsh’s renovation has enhanced the natural landscape of the property, with the significant changes in elevation, well-established mature trees and inconsistent sandy waste that surrounds the fairways combining with his trademark bunkering to provide the main challenges on the par-72 layout – which was originally designed by David Anderson and opened for play on the current site in the early 1930s.
Cottesloe’s couch tees, kikuyu fairways and bentgrass greens are consistently among the best to be found in Perth. And, with the continued conversion of the putting surfaces to the better suited Penncross strain from a mixture of G2 and G6 varieties, this will only improve as the club turns its attention to hosting the 2019 WA Open.
Offering stunning views of the nearby Indian Ocean, Cottesloe requires strategic play from the tee to avoid the large and numerous fairway bunkers – and despite measuring only 6,087 metres, tests players of all abilities with a significant number of shots played from up and downhill lies.
Green fees: Available upon application.
7 THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN GC
To golfers in the eastern states, The Western Australian Golf Club is something of an unknown and, as such, rates as a hidden gem.
The undulating layout was remodelled a few years ago under the guidance of course designer Graham Marsh. The course, which covers one of the highest points in the metropolitan area (at Yokine about 15 minutes north of the city), features tightly tree-lined fairways, heavy bunkering and generously-sized putting surfaces.
This course, which celebrates its 90th year in 2018, rewards accurate ball-striking and good club selection due to the variety of doglegs and good quality up and downhill holes.
Arguably one of Western Australian’s most memorable offerings is the 176-metre par-5 9th hole. It’s a beautiful one-shotter that plays across the edge of a lake to the green with the historic clubhouse in the background. The angled putting surface is deep and narrow with two deep bunkers left, another back right and a smaller pot-style bunker short right.
Green fees: $50 (member’s guest and member of a private club); $70 (member’s guest and not a member of a private club).
8 ROYAL FREMANTLE GC
The first golf was played at Royal Fremantle in 1906, making it one of the oldest clubs in Australia still on its original site.
Today, the par-72 is flourishing. It is a beautifully maintained layout with tight cut kikuyu fairways and smooth rolling bentgrass greens. The course plays longer than its 6,188 metres from the tips, simply because of the undulating topography and your drives don’t run too far on the lush kikuyu grass.
The terrain at Royal Fremantle varies from relatively flat to a beautiful rolling landscape, which forms the foundation of some interesting holes. Every fairway is tightly tree-lined but when a shot goes astray here, there is always a chance of manufacturing a shot to get back into play. This makes it even more tempting to take on some holes in search of birdies.
Royal Fremantle has some terrific risk-and-reward short par-4s, which offer players conservative or aggressive playing options.
Green fees: $132.
9 ROYAL PERTH GOLF CLUB
This year marks Royal Perth’s 110th year and it has rarely looked better than it has, consistently, during the past few years.
Long-time member and former touring professional Terry Gale has been the consulting course architect at Royal Perth for nearly 30 years and the subtle design changes made in that time are very good.
The layout covers less than 75 hectares and rolls across flat terrain. As a result, the course measures little more than 6,000 metres from the tips. But its defence comes from the narrow fairways lined by mature trees and its relatively small greens.
One of the biggest greens on the course can be found at the end of the narrow 461-metre par-5 9th hole. A scheme of three fairway bunkers squeeze into the driving zone from the right but, if you can skirt the sand with your drive, reaching the putting surface in two shots becomes a possibility. A scheme of six bunkers also lines the final approach into the green but if you take the risk to hit the green, the reward is a genuine birdie chance.
Green fees: Interstate and international visiting golfers, who are members of a golf club, can apply to the general manager for a tee time.
10 WANNEROO GOLF CLUB
The first fully reticulated golf course in Western Australia, Wanneroo lies a little over 30 minutes’ drive north of Perth’s CBD and offers outstanding playing surfaces, an enjoyable tree-lined layout and peaceful setting.
Designed by Bob Green and Murray Dawson, Wanneroo places a premium on accuracy from the tee through its doglegging par-4s and 5s and stands of native trees, while the sloping surrounds and greenside bunkering are another real feature of this fine par-72.
But it is the flawless condition of the couch fairways and bentgrass greens that make Wanneroo standout – and were surely one of the key factors in earning the club co-hosting honours of the 2018 Men’s and Women’s Australian Amateur Championships alongside Lake Karrinyup.
Standing on the tees at Wanneroo, the visual contrast of the fairways (which feature only slight changes in elevation throughout the 18 holes) against the sandy bases of the surrounding trees, helps to identify your target. And once successfully on the short grass, golfers are greeted with evenly covered surfaces that are a pleasure to play from.
The relatively small putting surfaces feature breaks that are more subtle than severe and, although not excessively fast, run extremely true.
Green fees: $50 (Monday-Friday).
11 GOSNELLS GOLF CLUB
Graham Marsh has remodelled several Perth courses like Cottesloe (where he was a long-time member and former club champion) and The Western Australian course; both of which can be found north of the city.
To the south of the Swan River, his creative design work can be found at Gosnells, where he learned the game (and won a handicap championship) in the 1960s.
In 1996, Marsh was commissioned by the club to come up with a masterplan to upgrade the layout and his mark on the Gosnells course has grown more evident ever since.
Laid out across undulating sandy terrain, the challenging par-70 rewards the accurate golfer who can plot a course down each tree-lined fairway and avoid the many bunkers scattered throughout.
The bunkering, like most Marsh designed courses, is a real feature of the course and you get a real sense of its significance as soon as you stand on the 1st tee.
The bunkering is predominantly fashioned on the large schemes found throughout the Melbourne Sandbelt – not just visually but how they play. You will rarely find a plugged ball in the bunker face here.
Green fees: $35. Gosnells is a private club but public tee times are available on Mondays.
12 MELVILLE GLADES GOLF CLUB
Melville Glades was originally designed by Al Howard and opened for play in 1969.
The layout was then tweaked by Graham Marsh and Ross Watson in the 1990s, while the club has employed the services of designer Phil Jacobs to oversee any further changes.
Jacobs worked for many years with Gary Player on a number of major projects around the world.
Melville Glades is a beautiful bushland course that is memorable for its high standard of presentation year round with well-manicured couch fairways and G2 bentgrass greens.
The selection of par-3s at Melville Glades excites simply because of the variety of distances they cover. While the 9th hole can be a brute simply because of its length, the 137-metre 14th hole can prove just as difficult, particularly if your club selection is wrong. Any tee shot that flies long into the back bunker here is a tough up-and-down.
Green fees: $42 (member’s guest social play); Melville Glades is a private club and is only open to members and their guests.
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