Penfield Golf Club is about to enter its Golden Jubilee year, 2009/10. The original Club was known as Weapons Research establishment Institute Golf Club. At a meeting held on 14th September 1959, 27 dedicated golfers decided to form a club and build a golf course – a hugely audacious and ambitious project.

The impetus for this decision grew out of the frustration of this group of keen golfers who had been playing at the Adelaide Municipal Links at North Adelaide for several years during the 1950’s, competing for places in the ball race at daybreak on Sunday mornings in order to get a game of golf. The disparate group of players, mostly resident in the northern suburbs and many employed at the Long Range Weapons Research Establishment, formed the Little Para Golf Club, affiliated with the SAGA, and continued to play regularly at North Adelaide. Competition for places on the first tee was intense for golf was booming in Adelaide at the time. The group decided it was time for action to get a golf course in the northern suburbs.

Under the leadership of Tony Martin they approached the Elizabeth Council and SA Housing Trust with a proposal to build an 18 hole golf course. However the financial terms proposed by the Housing Trust were way beyond the resources of the group and they adopted a different approach. As most were employees of WRE they decided to put a proposal to the management to build a golf course on what was then known as the WRE playing fields which were then bounded by Commercial Road Salisbury and the Adelaide – Gawler railway line. The WRE already supported a large number of sporting and special interest clubs on the site. Most had a very small footprint - a golf course was an entirely different beast. At a management meeting to assess the proposal the Curator at the time said, ‘they were mad, it cannot be done’. The rest as they say is history!