HISTORY

Establishment of Mandurah Country Club

Mandurah Country Club was officially established in 1960, with office bearers and committee members being elected at the first meeting of the Club on 9 March 1960. At that time Mandurah was a small fishing and farming village surrounded by large tracts of privately held farmland. The town itself had very little publicly owned land.

To raise capital for the new club, Debentures were issued at ten pounds for men and five pounds for women. By July 1960, seventy five men and seventy one women held Debentures which entitled them to be Foundation Members. A significant break with tradition at that time was that women were admitted to the Club as full members, rather than Associates.  

The course was constructed on 100 acres of land that came to the Council in the following manner. 50 acres was purchased by the Club from the Sutton brothers. Under an agreement with Council the remaining 50 acres was set aside in lieu of future public open space requirements under the Town Planning Act against future subdivision of land owned by the Sutton brothers at Halls Head. The two parcels of land were duly surveyed from the Sutton brothers’ Title and transferred to the Council.

Course Development and Design

In the development stages of the course, a lack of capital meant it was necessary to concentrate on building only the first nine holes, called ‘the outside nine’. The first fixture played on ‘the outside nine’ was held on 13 August 1961. The ‘inside’ nine was playable by 1964.

The original course design was by Mr. Murray Dawson, a retired farmer and keen golfer who had successfully designed other country courses. In 1966/67 the original sand greens were replaced with Seaside Bent grass and in 1972 a practice fairway was established on the west side of the 9^th fairway, however no major changes were made to the original course design until the early 1990s.

In 1994 a plan to upgrade and redesign a number of holes was implemented. From 1995 until 2001, under the guidance of Course Architect, Greg Simmonds, the grass on all fairways (which had originally been planted with a mixture of oats, New Zealand clover and Bermuda couch) was replaced with Santa Ana couch. During the same period, over forty fairway and greenside bunkers were added and the majority of greens replaced.

Clubhouse

The first permanent Clubhouse was completed by the end of 1963 at a cost of twenty thousand pounds. Extensions carried out in 1968 completed the building as it now stands. The Clubhouse was officially opened on 22 February 1969 by the Hon. Leslie A. Logan, MLC, Minister for Local Government.

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A number of celebrity golfers have played the Mandurah course including Sam Snead and Tom Weiskopf (1977 and 1980 respectively).  The Halls Head Western Open (held from 1981-1983) attracted well known professionals Terry Gale, Roger Mckay, Lindsay Stephen, Bill Dunk, Peter Senior, Ian Stanley, Ian Baker-Finch, Wayne Grady and Stewart Ginn.

From 1993, Mandurah Country Club has hosted the Mandurah Easter Amateur Open which attracts a full field of 168 players including some of the biggest names in Australian men’s amateur golf.  In January 2004 the Club will host the Australian Junior Championships and Burtta Cheney Interstate Series for junior girls.