Golf at last!

Last week we spent a long day driving from Mt Magnet to Rockingham, which is about 45km south of Perth. However, with the massive amount of development that has happened all down the coast south of Perth (thanks to the WA mining boom and a very efficient new train service), Rockingham is now effectively a Perth outer suburb. We chose to base ourselves here for a couple of weeks because we have reciprocal rights at the Rockingham Golf Club, based on our membership of our club in Melbourne, which means we can play there for free.

Some time ago we found by chance that the Australian Women's mid-Amateur Championships were being played at Royal Fremantle Golf Club, starting 2 days after we arrived. Given our lack of play in the last few months Wendy was unsure whether she should bother entering. However, we threw caution to the winds, and Wendy went ahead. We're proud to say that she had a top 20 finish, although with only 21 players in the field that was almost assured. She didn't come last but unfortunately not far off. Oh well, it was a chance to play at a lovely course that she wouldn't normally be able to get on. John caddied for 2 of the 3 days, on the other day he played in the men's comp at Rockingham.

We have quite a few other golf games planned for the rest of the time here, we'll both play at Rockingham again this week (Wednesday is ladies' day, Thursday men's), plus we are exploring some of the other wonderful golf courses that Perth has to offer. Luckily we are both improving with the practice, today we played a nearby course called Kwinana, and managed 36 points for Wendy and a massive 40 for John. Obviously class will always shine through, even without any practice!

We have also done a bit of touring about, drove out to the Perth Hills to have a look around and visit a winery. We also went to Mandurah, which is about 100km south of Perth, but like everything else around here is really the edge of the Perth sprawl. Both Rockingham and Mandurah are not considered part of Perth and both are much larger than we expected. Mandurah has a population of around 75,000 and Rockingham about 85,000. The other thing about both is that they are expanding at a frantic pace. Everywhere you look there is a new housing estate being touted or already in the building stage. We reckon there will be another 30,000 or so in the two centres within 10 years.