In December, we asked for your feedback about how we are doing at Whaleback, and what areas you’d like us to focus on going forward.

We were delighted to receive 578 responses, and an overall satisfaction score of 82%, which is an improvement on our previous score. We are always looking to improve and take your feedback seriously. While not all suggestions are implementable, we have noted various trends and will continue to factor these into our future planning. Below are some of the more pressing topics that you have raised, and our responses to them.

Thank you for your contribution and we look forward to making your visits to Whaleback as enjoyable as possible.

Slow play
We get it, slow play is frustrating – and it seems to happen everywhere. Given that Whaleback is a forgiving golf course that attracts many beginner golfers and high handicappers, as well as our skilled players, we are often affected by slow players.
We try to encourage players to speed up their play through education and we promote ‘ready golf’ as a way to speed things up.

When playing ready golf, the next golfer to hit a shot, on the tee or anywhere else, is the golfer who is ready to hit. They’ve done their calculations and had their practice swings. They don’t have to be the player furthest from the whole.

Following your suggestions in our last survey, we have used a course marshal more often, and this has helped. However, we can’t be everywhere at once and groups being aware of their own pace remains the best way to combat slow play. If you see you’ve fallen behind the group ahead, please pick up your pace. If you’ve taken too many strokes on a hole, consider picking up you ball. When searching for a ball, remember that you have only three minutes to find it, after which you should declare it lost.

Discounts and lower prices
We know golf can be an expensive sport. At Whaleback, we strive to make the game affordable for all, but at the end of the day it is expensive to maintain a golf course to the standard you expect. Our golf rates and F&B prices compare very favourably with other golf courses in the Perth area, and we have a ‘Just Ask’ policy in our Pro Shop, where we encourage you to ask our staff for their best possible price on any items. We do offer concession golf rates during the week.

Improved practice areas
With all the upgrades happening around Whaleback, we have refrained from investing into our practice areas. Rest assured, we will be looking at this during the next phase of our upgrades, with plans to improve our practice putting and chipping greens. And yes, that includes the lighting around these areas.

Competition and events
A fair few of you would like us to host more competitions, events and promotions. As a public golfing facility, without a membership base, we have steered away from this. It’s not our core business. However, there are a number of social clubs associated with Whaleback who play regular competitions here – so interested parties can reach out to them.

We do plan to hold more promotions when our Range is fully back up and running (like Nearest the Pin competitions and Golf Expo nights) and our new F&B facility is open.

Levelling of tee boxes
We hear you, some of the tee boxes are uneven. Last year we levelled the 9th tee and added a cart path to the side of it. We have a 10-year plan to level the tee boxes, as our budget does not stretch far enough to do them all at once. We’ll let you know which tee box is next on the schedule.

Congested tee times
Last year we hosted nearly 97,000 rounds of golf at Whaleback. That’s great for golf, but it does present some challenges for golfers looking to book tee times during busy periods.
We do have some quieter periods, notably on Mondays, Tuesday afternoons, Wednesday afternoons, and late afternoons on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Better sand in the bunkers, more benches and faster greens
We received some suggestions about improving the quality of sand in our bunkers. Over time, sand quality and quantity deteriorates, making it harder for golfers to escape the traps. Similar to the levelling of tee boxes, we have a10-year plan to work on bunkers on the course. That long-term plan includes adding new benches – such as the one we recently installed on the 14th/18th tee box.

When it comes to the pace of our greens, we intentionally keep them at a speed that maintains good grass health. We also have 97,000 golfers walking the greens every year, so green speeds are set to cope with large volumes of foot traffic. They are also easier to maintain in extreme weather, such as heat waves.

Teeing off on the back nine
Some of you suggested offering the back nine as an option for those looking to play nine holes. Well, we do offer this – provided you tee off early in the morning, before the field turns. After that we have our 18-hole players coming through, so we can’t allow new players to tee off the 10th, unless there is a gap in the field.

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