When you have been sitting on a plane for two hours, the first movie has been watched, you’re into your second in-flight snack and the flight tracker map shows you’re not quite halfway, there is a realisation Perth is a long way away.
But the travel across two time zones from the eastern states, let me assure you, is well worth it if your golf clubs are in the cargo hold.
As is the case with all of Australia’s capital cities, there is terrific golf to be found within a short drive after leaving the airport terminal. In Perth, that means scouting the suburbs south of the Swan River, where you will find a great mix of acclaimed private member’s clubs and high-quality publicly accessible layouts.
Less than 20 minutes after pulling out of the airport car park, I was driving through the gate at Collier Park golf course – a 27-hole public access complex boasting great practice facilities as well as a world-class landscaped mini golf course.
Collier Park has three loops of nine holes – the Pines, Island and Lake Courses.
The Pines layout, created by Peter Thomson and Mike Wolveridge in the mid-80s, is carved from an old pine plantation and the loop’s namesake feature line every hole.
For mine, the Lake and Island combination is the most interesting and fun layout to play.
While the par-35 Lake Course, designed by Michael Coate, is the shortest of the nines, it is far from the easiest. It has a links style about it, with wide rolling fairways, punctuated by strategic bunkering en route to large, dramatic green complexes. The loop is named after its most memorable offering, the par-3 5th hole, where the tee shot must carry all the way across a lake to reach the safety of the putting surface.
The par-36 Island Course, designed by successful former touring pro Terry Gale, is the most recent addition and derives its name from the island that lies within the huge
