When it comes to engaging an online audience, it seems that no one in WA does it better than Kwinana Golf Club.
The latest Facebook rankings for Australian golf clubs, released by Melbourne-based social media research specialists SHUNT, show that Kwinana GC has generated more reactions per post than any other WA club in the first half of 2025.
Kwinana unleashed 142 Facebook posts in the six months leading up to June 30, amassing 5,853 reactions, comments and shares in that time.
This put them over 1,000 clear of the second-ranked club, The Vines Resort, who clocked up a very tidy 4,783 engagements of their own.
It also means that Kwinana generated 5.6% of the 104,195 total Facebook engagements earned by WA clubs in the first half of the year – despite their number of followers (6,183) representing just 3% of WA clubs’ total followership levels (204,362).
Socials driving membership growth
It goes without saying that creating engaging content for the online audience is now part and parcel of ‘selling’ the game of golf and the benefits of club membership.
Stu Williams, MD at SHUNT, believes other clubs can learn from Kwinana’s cheeky approach to audience engagement.
“The social team at Kwinana Golf Club aren’t pumping out the most posts amongst WA clubs, or the most videos. What they are doing, though, is having a lot of fun and not taking the game too seriously,” he said.
“It’s simple, effective and doing a great job of getting the club community super-engaged in their content.”
Williams cited the below Facebook post as a prime example of the club’s irreverent approach to socials, noting that it generated more than 1,500 reactions, 225 comments and an incredible 745 shares – exposing the fun and friendly aspects of golf to hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Kwinana Golf Club men’s captain Iain Koch says that, as well as perfectly reflecting the vibe of the club and its members, their social presence has had a tangible effect on boosting membership.
“During COVID, we established a social media committee with the aim of growing membership, showing off the club and getting people to come to the course and play,” he told GolfWA.
The committee consists of Koch, club GM David Robinson and member Joel Innes, a golf content creator and member of the club, who is largely given a carte blanche to drive the social agenda.
“The plan was for our content to be fun, interactive and non-political, and it really took off. We had 1,000 followers when we adopted this process during COVID and within a few months that had grown to nearly 5,000.
“The content we put out on Facebook is accessible and engaging. The board and members love it, and there have been numerous cases when new members have joined specifically because they’ve seen what the club has to offer online.”
Koch stressed the importance of proactivity and jumping on trends to boost engagement and build an audience that really responds to the content being put out.
“The level of shares we get for our posts is quite amazing,” he added. “Members and followers sharing the content on their own feeds has dramatically increased the reach of our posts.
“A few years ago we might have reached 5,000 people with a post. Today, it’s not unusual for our posts to reach 100,000 people all over the world. The club is being noticed.”
Koch cites a good example of how social sharing had a direct impact on membership growth.
“A couple of years ago we had an introductory membership offer and the first time we posted it on Facebook we got 20 new members in a month,” he said.
“We had around 280 members at the time, so to grow our membership by nearly 10% from one post was huge.
“From our end, our social media pages have been a massive success. It’s now as much a part of the business as opening the bar and selling beer.”
View Kwinana GC’s Facebook page here.
View an overview of SHUNT’s latest quarterly WA golf club Facebook figures here.
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