As the sun starts to shine again on the fairways, Albany Golf Club and its professional Mike Draper are celebrating Statewide recognition at the sport’s prestigious WA Golf Industry Awards.
The club was named the MyGolf venue of the year while Draper made the final list in the contest to be named the PGA WA coach of the year for game development.
Key to both achievements was the club’s successes when it came to introducing and improving juniors in the game.
Albany had the best participation numbers in Australia across MyGolf girls’ month in April 2025 as Draper ran both a free one-off clinic and followed it up with a four-week program.
Both schemes maxed out with 24 participants — the best in the country.
Draper said the take-up from the girls had been surprising.
“The entire club was blown away by the responses to the program,” he said.
“We had such high numbers I had to recruit more coaches to help run the sessions.”
He ran the program again this year and is looking to add more sessions during term four of the school year.
He said he was delighted the club had been noticed.
“It’s good to be recognised because we have been making great efforts to get girls and women into the club because they have traditionally been under-represented,” he said.
“We have made the most of some funding from Golf WA to help feed into those areas. We will keep chipping away.”
MyGolf is Golf Australia and the PGA of Australia’s junior program aimed at introducing young players to the game.
It’s designed for children aged five to 12 of all abilities and is based on fun rather than repetitive swinging.
The WA Golf Industry Awards were held at Optus Stadium on March 28.
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