Mount Lawley Golf Club - The first fifty years (1928 - 1978)

The following chapters are excerpts from Mount Lawleys Book 'Mount Lawley Golf Club - The first fifty years (1928 - 1978)'. Click on the chapter title to view the text.

Chapter Six : Juniors

As has been mentioned earlier, the 1960's marked Mt Lawley's "coming of age" in competitive golf in W.A. This sudden emergence was due very largely to the talent of a group of several players who joined the Club as Juniors during these years. Mount Lawley had conducted something of a "membership drive" at the local High School, as well as promoting junior membership generally. This policy soon bore fruit with the addition to the ranks of such players as Don Flavel, Ray Abbott, John Ewing, Colin Lawrence, John McPhee, Barry Stagg, Bill Walker, Con Thanas and Warren Baker. All these players were to become members of the State Junior Team, and Flavel, Ewing, Abbott and Baker also represented W.A. at Senior level.

From its earliest days the Club had had junior members. The early 1960s saw a meteoric rise to prominence of young players. Their success may be attributed to a combination of undoubted talent and seemingly boundless enthusiasm. This latter could be seen in groups of juniors who, having played in the Saturday morning junior competition then occupied the putting green until 4 p.m. waiting for the regular field to go through so that they could squeeze another nine holes before dark. However, for the better juniors this situation was relatively shortlived as they soon achieved the 8 or less handicap required to qualify for senior competitions. Their success is demonstrated by the fact that the winning ''A'' grade pennant team of 1965 had only one player over the age of 25 (Lionel Sangster) , a 25 year-old and a 23 year-old, with the remaining players all under 21 (and all members of the State Junior side). This team remained almost unchanged for the successful 1966 and 67 seasons.

The success of junior golf at Mount Lawley msu also be attributed, at least in part, to the interest and encouragement shown by older members of the Club. Les Nicholls is remembered as one who ''had a lot of time'' for juniors, being prepared to take on a young opponent, sometimes for hours at a time, on the putting green. The name of Arthur Campbell also comes particularly to the fore. He set high standards both in the name of golf and in the way it was played. John Ewing remembers vividly pulling up a pair of drooping socks as Mr Campbell approached in his car, only to be told, after a shot had been played and critically reviewed, that his socks were not straight, and that this simply ''would not do''. This insistence on ''etiquette'' has undoubtedly stood the recipients of such criticism in very good stead during later years.

Again Arthur Campbell was always at State Junior trails, often critical, but always constructively so. He wanted, above all, good players and he drove the Juniors hard. A win in the 1963 series was ample reward for the efforts he demanded.