1. skewball | Rated | 29 Apr 2008 | Add A Review

Played here again about 2 weeks ago, for about the 10th time I’ve played a full 18 at this course. It is one of my favourites, if not the favourite course I like in the South Perth area. Had an average round of 90, but still had a good social day. The greens and fairways were in good condition as usual, the only downside I could pick up, was the bunkers were more like concrete than sand which made them a bit tricky to negotiate when I did decide to go to the beach. Apart from that, Secret harbour is still high up on my list of great Aussie Golf courses.

2. Gracewing | Rated | 10 Dec 2007 | Add A Review

I played this for the first time on Saturday on a pleasant summer day with a slight breeze. The fairways and greens are very good and there is a closely cropped rough section a few metres wide around the fairways. In many holes if you stray further than that you will probably lose your ball in bushes or foot high weeds.

The bunkers were very hard and many of them had no rakes. Firtnuately I got out of the one fairway bunker I hit in one but my partners had a frustrating time from those near the green.

The course layout is very picturesque and winds through the housing development.

By 3 o’clock we had a very strong sea breeze in our faces for the last 2 holes. The 17th is a short (260m) par 4 with a good 80 metre carry across the lake after laying up your tee shot.

3. chillip | Rated | 05 Dec 2007 | Add A Review

Uninspiring but comparatively good value for money. A fairly straightforward course with only one or two holes that would spark the memory. I was a bit disappointed in the condition of the course considering it was a weekend during competition. The greens were very slow and bumpy, some of the fairway bunkers which should have been a challenge to get out of, were a challenge to get into, with long grass around them so you spend most of the time looking for balls, and then have a couple of shots playing at a ball two to three foot above the floor of the bunker in foot long grass, which probably explains the slow play.

I can’t really say too much about the course, my card shows I scored well enough but I don’t really remember getting too excited about any holes. The course and pro shop staff were probably the best I encounter on the west coast, very friendly and helpful.

Probably with the wind out of the west it is a more inspiring course, with more diverse features than what I encountered during an easterly breeze. I probably will replay the course but I’ll give it sometime to let the course mature and the surrounding area to develop.

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4. sweeny | Rated | 12 Jul 2007 | Add A Review

Secret Harbour is a very well designed golf course. The course itself is in very good condition with Smooth fairways and very playable rough. The course is a great course to drive on, with wide fairways and consistant bounce. There are numerous bunkers, giving great challenge, especially when approching the greens. The only downside is the many construction sites and poor scenery around the course. Apart from that, a very well kept and top quality golf course.

5. Q-TIP | Rated | 05 May 2007 | Add A Review

Well the first reviewer, maumau, greatly summed up the holes. Our group played the course from the champion plates (6103m Par 72) with the pro tees 6423m a little too much for our egos. Of the dozen or so courses I’ve played in WA this is by far the most challenging and personal favourite.

Wide fairways run into thickly vegetated rough that can be classified as ‘lost ball’ territory. The four par 5s ranges from 445-520m with my favourite the 520m straight 2nd with stray balls finding a bunker. The 7th (index 18) and 12th (index 17) are quite short and easy, with the card backing up my thoughts. The par 3s range from 140-190m with the 140m 8th over water my favourite as anything short or right is in water, and anything left is in a bunker.

Great bent greens with true speed, fairways and teebeds were top class with minimal divots. Great halfway house for snacks and grass driving range with first class facilities. Played here on 27/4/07 and paid only $37.50 otherwise $42.50 for w/ends. Will visit here again.

6. nickgold | Rated | 17 Mar 2007 | Add A Review

I’ve played all the tracks in the S/W and this one HAS to be the finest. Too many amazing holes, but I’ll try and get a few down:

2. Fantastic risk/reward par 5. Take on the corner bunker off the tee and you can reach in two. Miss the green, even sub regulation, and bogey waits.

4. Unreal diagonal-right fairway, with a driver over the dune required. Scary off the tee.

5. Into the wind is very very hard.

8. Out of character for the course, but alot of fun.

9. Best split fairway hole I’ve played.

13. Awesome dogleg left over some nasty stuff in the middle of the fairway. Lay up and 6 iron or take it on and gap wedge.

15. Very difficult. Amazing golf hole and really hard to find the fairway. Miss the green right (usually from 130ish) and ball is gone.

17. Massive indecision off the tee. You need to carry the first, central bunker but stop before the drink. No mean feat. Second shot from 100 (all going well off the tee) is to a wide, thin green sloping into the water. A well struck wedge often sucks back into H20.

The above hole descriptions are fairly brief and fail dismally at painting the picture of such a good course. Conditioning always superb.

Drawbacks are the (comparatively) weak 10th, 11th and 12th (the par 5’s are actually the course’s only Achilles heel).

On the +ive side, the bunkering is amazing; fairway undulations are fantastic and greens are always challenging.

Top track; measures up very favourably to Kennedy Bay and far better than the Cut.

7. Scarlett | Rated | 12 Nov 2006 | Add A Review

I played this course on 26Sep06 so disregard the automatic date entry that isg throws up.

First things first, disregard what the marketing says (as you can in just about everything these days) about it being oceanside or seaside. There are a few glimpses of the ocean but they are very few. What the course does have though is plenty of sand, some dunescape, and a design based as a links course.

I used the heading because the course is in the middle of large scale building around the front nine. The fairways run beside great deserts of sand which has been cleared for more housing. It looks like a wasteland at the moment and detracts from the course proper. The sound of heavy machinery and building doesn't really help either. My only other critisism is that after the round I couldn't remember each hole distinctly, as too many of them felt 'same-ish'.

Now in saying that it was still a nice course and well worth a look on a golf tour of the Peel region. The open links style provides plenty of challenges and the greens and bunkers are well designed. The greens were true and quite fast, but either had a heavy traffic load or were poorly looked after by the players - lots of pitch marks!

Holes 15-18 were an excellent stretch (I started on the 10th) with combinations of length, precision and nerve required on all of them. Near the end of my round the 8th provided quite a challenge, into the cross wind which was blowing straight at the lake.

Secret Harbour is a nice course and excellent value for money at the $37.50 green fee, but compared to other courses nearby like The Cut, Kennedy Bay and Meadow Springs it is not a highlight.

Scarlett

8. hlhchan | Rated | 02 Apr 2006 | Add A Review

Played the 1st of my 5 round binge in 6 days at this course a couple of weeks back. The condition was very good although there seem to be a little bit of work going around the course in the back 9. I played in the arvo and the temp was in its mid-teens plus the wind was up several notches, which definitely made the course very tough. Good value for money and would return next time.

9. brettwaldby | Rated | 10 Jan 2006 | Add A Review

Bloody hell this course has got to be the best in WA.

I played the full 18, 24 times now and although it's tricky in the morning and late afternoon with the wind and all, it's got to be the best.

brettwaldby

10. redback | Rated | 02 Nov 2005 | Add A Review

The best and most challenging course I have played at. Depending on the wind it can be a very pleasant round or a nightmare if the sea breeze is in especially on the 17th & 18th as you are driving strait into the wind.

Excellently manicured greens and fairways with rough being "rough " as it should.

The course requires some thought into every shot as there are challenges on every hole, most notablely the 8th where pin position can be your downfall and send 2 or 3 into the lake, or the 15th where you are tempted to drive down the right hand side of the island which is a narrow space even for a mid handicapper to put it down on a good day.

For the price you can go to Kennedy Bay and play 18 holes plus a cart or 18 holes and a cart here and you have change for a few beers at the 19th hole. best vallue and very good membership packages available for the person who cant play as much to get vallue from a full membership.

11. zenobia | Rated | 05 Jun 2005 | Add A Review

for the price secret harbour would be the best in the country, hands down, the back nine is one of the best i have ever played.

12. andrew14966 | Rated | 26 Dec 2002 | Add A Review

This course should not remain a secret for long. Beautiful.

13. maumau | Rated | 27 Nov 2002 | Add A Review

Secret Harbour (designed by Graham Marsh) is about a 30-40 minutes drive from Perth CBD. Be sure to plan well in advance with the road map, as it is quite easy to take the long way there then add another 10 mins to your trip. It's also surprisingly quite easy to miss the entrance as the Secret Harbour sign was partially blocked by plants so be careful with that as well assign a co-pilot

First impressions from the car park you hope the wind doesn't get up. It's clearly visible that it's a links type course with little trees. The clubhouse is not much to write home about. Have a pitch and putt on the practice green and give yourself some sort of idea on how quick the greens are. It'll also give you a rough idea on how tough the bunkering is

The greens last Friday (22/11/02) was in MAGNIFICENT condition. A little fast, but rewards good iron plays. I was able to fly the ball to the green and have some check up quite nicely, and I was also able to hit the par 5 10th on in two with a low running 2-iron, so an array of shots in your arsenal will be helpful. My fellow playing partner (a 6 marker) was commenting how good the greens were all day.

Playing the first, my playing partner and me were amazed at the fact that the fairway was quite tough to cut through. We both couldn't take a divot with our iron shots, and the club just bounced off the turf. Great for hitting long irons and fairway woods, but be a little careful with the shortish irons. After the first couple of holes, we probably changed our swing a little to compensate for this. I don't think I can remember taking a substantial divot for the rest of the round.

If you haven't played there yet, and are looking to get a round in, do so, and pay attention to the card as it provides a hole-by-hole illustration. It's an okay attempt, but I would have like to seen a better effort out in. Some of the holes depicted on the card were misleading especially with some of the blind tee shots. Another thing I found annoying was the lack of information on the tees. No hole layout, no hole number, no distance marker just 4 tees (black, blue, white and red) and all they had was little disc on the ground to sort out which are which. Very bad design, or lack thereof.

The roughs were quite punishing you can't find your ball, but if you look hard enough, you'll probably find 2-4 other balls within the same area. It's like a dune type rough lousy description, but best I can do high sandy walls with native shrubs planted in. On the other hand, just plain old sandy rough.

Honorable hole mentions:

2nd Par 5. Easily reachable with a good drive and a fairway wood/long iron.

4th Par 4. Daunting tee shot, as it's a carry over a ravine, with OOBs on the left and a dune on the right which if you stray into you won't find your ball.

5 - Par 4. Downhill, and always into the wind. Tough.

7th Par 5. Another easily reachable par 5 with 2 good shots but if you're going to miss your second shot anywhere but left and right. Shrubs all over the place. You also can't go too long as it's one heck of a chip shot think of the deepest bunker you've ever been in and add a couple more feet on top of that.

8th Par 3. This hole is the only hole you're able to see when driving into the clubhouse and if you see the flag blow hard, then you know it's going to be tough. This par 3 is about a 140+metre hole. Imagine the 16th at Augusta but put the lake on the right instead. Not only that, imagine the pin cut 15 ft away from the right edge of the green, with the slope heading into the lake, and the wind coming from left to right. It's fun isn't it??? (I hit 8 iron and missed my birdie )

10th Par 5. Another reachable par 5 at almost 490 plus meters. Reason hit a good tee shot over the left hand bunkers, and the ball will RUN . I was only left with 200 into the green where I hit a low 2 iron in, and ended up 20 ft from the pin. Missed the eagle, but got the bird.

15th Par 4. This is one hole where if you hit the ball straight down the middle of the fairway, you'll more than likely lose your ball, and swear at Graham Marsh for putting that lump of rubbish in the middle of the fairway. Actually if you pick up an Australian Golf Digest 2003 golf diary, and turn to June 16-22, you'll see a picture of the 15th and the 16th. Top left hand of the picture, you can see that rubbish I was talking about. And that is about 150 meters out from the green. Either lay up shot with the drive, or just bang it down there, and hope it'll stay left or right of it. Right would be ideal, as it shortens the second shot into an elevated green. And you defn do not want to spray your iron shot right as seen in the picture. :D

16th Par 3. A 160+ meter hole, which is three-tiered, so pick the right club. It's very very easy to 3 putt from 25 ft as I did.

17th Par 4. A short Par 4 that plays about 290 meters into the wind on most occasion. I hit my best drive on the day, and it went smack bang into the lake. So take a fairway wood off the tee on this hole. And have plenty of guts to fire at the pin, especially with the wind blowing. Come up short, or spin it too much, and you'll be reloading.

18th Par 4. This is Index 1 at about 400 meters. Need to carry some cross-bunkers, which is tough with the head wind blowing. The green is quite small, and heavily guarded by deep bunkers, so if you had a tough day out, this hole is probably not what you're looking forward to but not to worry, the clubhouse is only 100 meters away.

It may sound tough, but it is tough. But I can't think of a better way to spend $35 bucks on a weekday for a whole lot of sunshine and a good time playing golf. My 6 marker hasn't played better than 85 yet in the 3 times he's played there, so I take heart from that. There's always next year for me. :D

Do yourself a favour.

Cheers.

Mau.