Compiled by Bruce Darby
The first recorded golf course in Margaret River dates back to 1928. Games were played on the fields of Mr. A.T. (Cedar) Armstrongs’ farm (location 1137). In 1937 a course was relocated to a farm in Redgate and then moved again after the second world war, where golf was played until around 1948.
In 1952 a meeting was held at the M.R. Hotel for the purpose of reforming the Margaret River Golf Club. Those who attended were Dr. Paddy Barrett, W. Waters, A.D. Errey, M. Harland, G Herington, J. Fogarty, Mrs. D. Errey, Mrs. Patterson and Mrs. M. Boulter.
Dr. Barrett was elected President, G Shervington vice president, W. Waters secretary and N. Elkington treasurer. The committee was made up of J. Fogarty, R. McKeown, Fr. Sorrahan, Mrs. A. Errey and Mrs. M. Boulter.
After inspecting a couple of unsatisfactory sites, the committee noticed a site (reserve location 11759) adjacent to the cemetery. On inspection of the site they discovered “the lake” and decided that this was the ideal location for the purpose of the new M.R.G.C. This reserve plus the 31 acres of land to the west (17th and 18th fairways) that was bought at a very nominal figure from Mr. B. Terry is now the land of the present golf course.
Dr. Barrett obtained an aerial photograph of the area and from this Dr. N. Robertson designed the course. The pegging of the first nine holes was carried out by Kim McKeown walking backwards through the scrub to put in pegs so that George Kevill could follow up with his bulldozer to clear the fairways. During this period many farmers with a tractors or other machinery were happy to help with the construction of the course. Cedar Armstrong, George Kevill and Keith Becker spent many, many hours using their machines for the good of the golf club.
The HON W.S. BOVELL MLA officially opened the course on June 12 1955
12th June, 1955
Work continued on the course throughout the next 10 years before all the fairways were finally cleared in 1964 and were able to be played in the Championships in 1966.
To reticulate the fairways the club needed to find a viable water source and it wasn’t until 1970 that the club finally determined that a 30m bore would yield sufficient water so we took out a loan to start the process of reticulating the fairways.
Starting in 1979, the club started to plant couch on the golf course using various resources available to them.
The couch did very well but then Kikuyu grass was introduced and this eventually took over.
In 1990 an experimental grass green was established on the 9th fairway to determine the costs of changing the whole course to grass greens. In 1992 we employed our first green keeper and established grass greens on holes 10 – 18. Two years later the whole course was converted to grass greens. Once the course became a grass green course, the number of visitors to the course increased dramatically enabling the club to continue to improve the irrigation system and improve the structure of the course by adding sand bunkers and enlarging the water hazards on holes 7, 8 and 1.
The club still had difficulty maintaining a good coverage of grass on all the fairways during summer but in 2010 the club obtained access to Grey Water from the towns water treatment facility and this supplied us with virtually unlimited water enabling a substantial upgrade to the reticulation system and a vastly improved coverage of grass on all fairways throughout the year.
Today we boast one of the best kept country golf courses in Australia.
50th Anniversary Celebration – 2002
In 2002 the club celebrated their 50th Anniversary with a major event at the club where as many past members as possible attended. Special guest was Dr Paddy Barrett, founding member of the club.
A booklet was created outlining the first 50 years history of the club.
In 2022 the club held it 70th Anniversary celebrations.
Updated 14 September, 2025