The Collie Golf Club is ready to host one of its most prestigious annual events this weekend, with golfers set to travel from all over the state to take part in the Summer Open.
Collie Golf Club president Lesley Motion said the club was expecting more than 140 people to take part in the two-day competition over the weekend.
“The Summer Open is one of our prestigious events and people come from all over the state to play here,” she said. “It will be a great for the community to get all these people staying in town for the weekend.”
Motion said the event, which also includes a lead-up four-ball-better-ball tournament sponsored by the Bushwalkers on Friday, would give the club the opportunity to show off the quality of the course.
“The course is in absolutely tip-top shape,” she said. “It’s a real benefit to the town and it’s due to the hard work of our course superintendent, groundsperson and the dedicated volunteers we have that make sure the course is as good as it can be.”
Motion said the club had been getting a lot of interest from golfers around the state who wanted to come and see the course.
“We had a visit back in September from a group of groundskeepers from some metro courses and they came away totally impressed with what we have here,” she said.
“We’re looking to capitalise on that tourism aspect and offer packages to get people to come and turn Collie into a golfing tourism hub. It’s just another aspect to the town’s tourism potential along with the mountain bike trails.”
Motion said the Summer Open would cap off a strong year for the Collie Golf Club, which saw it become one of the first club’s in the South West to become gender equal.
“Last year there were some changes that allowed ladies to become full members, where before they could just be associates,” she said.
“It’s been good for the club that ladies were able to sit on the committee, and now for the first time we have a female president of the club. It’s brought the club together as one club and it’s provided a different perspective.”
Motion said the club was now looking to build its membership and grow.
“We’re all so passionate about golf and about the club … and we want to see the club heading in the right direction,” she said.
She said the club had instituted a junior program to try and get younger people interested in the sport. She said through providing clinics and other events, the club had found 14 prospective junior members.
The Summer Open, sponsored by the Collie River Valley Medical Centre and the Collie Mail, is a two-day stableford competition for men and women and has been held for more than 35 years.