Club Review
Review from Golf Australia magazine – Nov 2022:
One of Perth’s most underrated courses lies in the heart of the city’s southern suburbs.
Gosnells Golf Club, at Canning Vale, plays much like a Sandbelt course with plenty of bunkering, undulating terrain and interesting green complexes.
Graham Marsh played much of his early golf at Gosnells and even won a handicap championship here as a teenager. Of course, he went on to become one of Australia’s best professionals in the 1970s and 80s winning more than 70 tournaments around the world.
He returned to the course in the mid-1990s, not to play but to redesign the layout as part of a course masterplan following the renovation of the clubhouse.
It is easy to draw comparisons with the Sandbelt here. The course generally plays firm and fast, the bunkering is plentiful, the putting surfaces roll wonderfully smooth and the lies well into the rough can be on sparse sandy ground beneath the trees. And, most importantly, the design asks plenty of questions of your game from tee-to-green.
The first question comes with the opening tee shot where you survey the hole ahead and note the sea of sand cutting the fairway in two and more bunkers guarding the green at the end of the 280-metre par-4. The longest bombers can certainly attack the green by hitting driver, but the rest of us are probably best served by hitting short of the scheme of bunkers and leaving a short pitch into the green.
There are plenty of highlights throughout the round at Gosnells, with a great mix of long and short par-3s and par-4s ensuring you will need to use every club in the bag. For mine, the round also ends on a high with the par-5 18th providing a challenging test. The 505-metre hole is a genuine three-shotter for most players as the fairway gently rises from the tee, squeezes between staggered fairway bunkers left and right before gradually turning right over the crest of a hill. A pond lies short right of the elevated two-tiered green, adding two closing questions for the round: “Where do I lay-up and what club should I use?”
Gosnells is a private golf course but public access is available on Mondays.
Australian Golf Digest Magazine
Review from magazine article Oct 2023
If you’re after a golf course that melds West Australian bush with subtle hints of the Melbourne Sandbelt, Gosnells Golf Club gives that vibe. The course in Perth’s southern suburbs flows across a sandy base and features undulations and bunkering to match. The treelines are more fulsome and much closer to the lines of play than on a Sandbelt course, but the dual-setting combination is very much evident.
Gosnells blends its attractive bunkering with mostly small greens, which are not over-bunkered. Thoughtful golfers, especially those who hit a lot of fairways, can find a safe passage onto the putting surface on nearly every hole as forced carries are rare. Recent clearing work has widened some of the playing corridors to enhance the course’s agronomy and playability. Off the course, the club has plans to renovate its clubhouse within the next five years and enhance its appeal as the go-to golf club in this corner of Perth.