Review: Wembley Golf Course – Golf Australia Magazine

A public golf course allows you to just simply pay your green fee and walk out among nature’s gifts to try and get a little white ball from point A to point B in the least amount of shots possible. It will take just one shot – hit somewhere near the middle of the clubface in the general direction of where you were aiming – to feel the bite of the golf bug. Before you know it, you’re investing in a new set of clubs and you have a tee time with mates
every week.
This was how tens of thousands of Australians discovered, or rediscovered, a
love for golf during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the game’s dramatic rise in popularity and participation numbers since 2020, public golf courses, particularly those laid out on local council-owned land in urban areas, have come under pressure from non-golfing sources advocating the valuable greenspace could be better used for the wider community. Some have even suggested these courses are the playgrounds for a select few and are a waste of the public’s money.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, when a local council embraces its golfing facility and actively encourages its use, the gains are far reaching. Golfers get to enjoy the health and social benefits of the game, while the financial contribution to the council’s coffers aids the wider community.
The wise people at Perth’s Town of Cambridge Council did just that in 2010 and today its Wembley Golf Course is the most successful public golf facility in Australia and local governments throughout the country would do well to follow their lead.
Nearly $30 million was invested in Wembley to create this wonderful public golf showpiece. The entire complex includes two 18-hole courses – the Old and Tuart layouts – a state-of-the-art 80-bay automated driving range, short game practice area, a mini golf course, one of the country’s largest pro shops and Western Australia’s only PGA Learning and Performance Centre. At its hub is a stunning architecturally-designed clubhouse, which includes the award-winning 300 Acres restaurant and bar, a 200-seat function room and a children’s playground.
It is an impressive complex that is a long way removed from the modest beginnings of golf at Wembley nearly 90 years ago.
In 1933 a private company, Wembley Downs Public Golf Course Ltd, was granted the lease for 150 acres to establish a course on the current site – on the north side of The Boulevard in Floreat Park – which today is about 15 minutes’ drive west of the CBD.
Under the direction of engineer turned course designer, Walter Fox, trees and scrub were cleared – much of it by hand – from across the rolling topography to the east of where the clubhouse now offers views of the property.
The then Perth City Council took over the course in 1943 and in the years after World War II it set about improving the original layout and, during the 1950s, a further nine holes were added. The remaining nine holes to complete a 36-hole complex opened for play in 1983 and the ‘new’ 18 was later named the Tuart Course.
RIGHT: The short par-4 7th is one of only a few straight holes on Fox’s old course design. PHOTO: Brendan James.
Perth rezoning led to the Town of Cambridge Council taking over the complex in 1995. The serious investment and planning to transform Wembley into the world-class public golf facility that greets today began in 2010 and was completed within six years.
In the last financial year, Wembley hosted more than 175,000 rounds and 21 million balls were hit on the driving range … overwhelming validation of Town of Cambridge Council’s canny investment in public golf.
The golfing experience at Wembley – whether its playing nine or 18 holes, hitting some balls on the range, getting a lesson or playing some mini golf with the kids – is a good one and it’s designed to encourage you to come back time and time again.
For example, the tees are not gender based but are linked to a player’s ability. As you head to the 1st tee, a sign encourages you to play from the coloured tee that best suits your game. If you regularly break 80, by all means play from the back Black tees. If you generally score between 81 and 99, the green tees are for you, while those that are 100-plus scorers you should play from the white tees. These recommendations are not a hard and fast rule but they are designed for players to get more enjoyment out of their round and to maintain a good pace of play.
Fox’s original Old Course has easily withstood the test of time as his routing remains as it was nearly 90 years ago. By modern standards it’s not a long course at 5,793 metres from the back markers, but there are some serious challenges during the course of a round.
While this layout was Fox’s only foray into golf course architecture, he obviously had an eye for what makes for interesting and testing golf.
Routed across rolling terrain, there are only a few straight holes weaving between this most heavily wooded area of the property. Huge stands of tuart, banksia and gum trees line each hole and are the obvious hazard as you stand on each tee.
The round opens with a birdie opportunity, if you can find the fairway from the elevated tee. The first half of the 466-metre par-5 1st hole is all downhill to the corner of a dogleg left fairway, which could prove troublesome for the long hitter who doesn’t turn his drive slightly from right-to-left. Three bunkers – two right and one left – lie short of the green, which is an odd-shape with a narrow tongue of putting surface left of a much bigger, and deeper, section to the right.
The Old Course boasts some interesting short par-4s and two come midway through the round. The 262-metre par-4 9th hole tempts you into having a crack with your driver as it is a relatively straight hole that climbs gradually uphill to a bunkerless green in front of the clubhouse. It is very much a second shot hole and if you can get the yardage right with your short approach, to leave an uphill putt, you will have a great chance to make a birdie.
Heading back out, the 307-metre par-4 10th demands more thought on the tee as a large bunker awaits through the end of the slight dogleg left fairway. From the elevated tee, take any club that will leave you short of the sand, in the right half of the fairway, and within a pitch of the green, which slopes from right-to-left.
For mine, the most memorable sequence of holes at Wembley is on the back nine of the Tuart Course and starts with the nerve-rattling short par-4 14th and concludes with the diminutive par-3 18th.
The 14th is a tight two-shotter of 318 metres off the back tees. The strip of fairway veers slightly left and opens up to reveal a narrow, deep green cut up to the edge of a lake to the left and a lone bunker to the right.
At 472 metres, the par-5 15th is the longest of all the holes at Wembley and is one of my favourites. It plays much shorter than the scorecard number as the journey is all downhill from tee to green. The extra distance on your drive here will tempt many to try and hit the green in two blows. But it is a tough shot from a lie where the ball is likely to be slightly below your feet (for right-handers), encouraging a left-to-right ball flight, and the slope of the green and its surrounds is down to the right and a deep greenside bunker. Try and fight the hanging lie and leave your shot left of the flag, and you will be faced with a testing downhill chip or putt.
Tuart’s closing hole is the shortest of all the par-3s at Wembley and it is also the newest hole, having been built and brought into play during the construction of a holding dam a decade ago. The 125-metre hole calls for a tee shot to be played across the edge of the aforementioned dam to a large two-tiered putting surface, guarded by a wasteland bunker right and a small trap cut into the front right edge of the green. It is a deceptive tee shot as the hole plays slightly uphill, which brings the sand into play for those who choose the wrong club.
If, having played one or both of Wembley’s layouts, you are determined to progress from the white to the green or black tees, you’re in the right place to improve your game.
Wembley is home to Australia’s second PGA Centre for Learning and Performance, which features all the latest game-improving technologies like Trackman and Sam PuttLab as well as a team of certified PGA Professionals including former Tour star Michael Long. And if you’re looking to sharpen up your short game, one of the game’s finest exponents with a wedge in hand, nine-time Tour winner Brett Rumford, can be booked for a lesson.
It’s easy to see why Wembley is so popular. You can immerse yourself in the game here, whether it’s out on the course, on the range or chipping and putting in the short game area … 175,000 rounds and 21 million range hits in 12 months tells the story on its own.
FACT FILE
LOCATION: The Boulevard, Wembley Downs, Perth, Western Australia
CONTACT: 1300 818 574
WEBSITE: www.wembleygolf.com.au
DESIGNERS: Walter Fox – Old Course (1932); Unknown – Tuart Course
(1959 & 1983).
PLAYING SURFACES: Kikuyu (fairways), bentgrass (greens).
COURSE SUPERINTENDENT: Darren Wilson.
PGA PROFESSIONALS: Jason Roach, Michael Long, Simon Smith, Brad Parker, Paul Criddle, Brett Rumford, Shannon Coad, Ricky Oh, Julian Putter, Claire Elvidge, Josh Madden, Andrew Thomas, Richard Brain, Matthew Elliott and Travis Lord.
GREEN FEES: $37 (18 holes, weekday, booked online), $44 (weekend); $40 (18 holes, weekday, booked by phone or in person), $47 (weekend). Concession, Super Senior and Twilight rates also available.
MEMBERSHIP: Membership is $229 per year, $99 for juniors, and includes official Golf Australia/Golflink handicap, access to online booking in advance and a host of other benefits.

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