Club information | |
---|---|
Location | Eyre Highway, Australia |
Established | 2009 |
Type | Public |
Owned by | Various owners |
Operated by | Eyre Highway Operators Association |
Total holes | 18 |
Events hosted | Chasing the Sun |
Website | Nullarbor Links |
Designed by | Robert Stock (consultant) |
Par | 72 |
Nullarbor Links [1] [2] is an 18-hole par 72 golf course, said to be the world's longest, situated along 1,365 kilometres of the Eyre Highway along the southern coast of Australia in two states (South Australia and Western Australia), notably crossing the Nullarbor Plain at the head of the Great Australian Bight. [1] [3]
The idea for the course came from Alf Caputo and Bob Bongiorno, both active in the Eyre Highway Operators Association, over a bottle of red wine at the Balladonia Roadhouse. The course was seen as a way of breaking up the long drive across the Nullabor, reducing the dangers of driver fatigue, and increasing revenue for the roadhouses. [1] [3]
A feasibility study was completed in September 2006, and public play began in August 2009. [4] The course officially opened on 22 October 2009. [5] [6] [7] As of 2022 [update] , more than 20,000 travellers had officially played it, and bought a scorecard for stamping at the roadhouses en route. [3] Course officials have estimated that nearly as many travellers had played the course without paying any fee. [8]
The course begins and ends (depending on the direction of crossing) in the goldmining town of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and the coastal town of Ceduna, South Australia. Professional golfer Robert Stock, from Manchester, England, consulted on the design that incorporates 7 holes from existing courses and 11 holes created at roadhouses and roadside stops. [2]
The purposely constructed holes have tees and greens that use artificial grass, with natural desert land between. The average distance between holes is 66 kilometres (41 mi), with the largest gap being almost 200 kilometres (120 mi).
One of the holes is in the middle of a sheep station, and has views of the shearing shed as well as the sheep. [7] Other unusual hazards include crows, emus, kangaroos, three species of deadly venomous snakes, wedge-tailed eagles and wombat holes. [2] [3] A further complication is that the ambient temperatures can reach over 50 °C (122 °F) during the day. [2]
Hole | Name | Length | Par | Tee name/dedication | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hole 1 | Oyster Beds | 485 metres (530 yd) | 5 | Graham Hoffrichter | Ceduna Golf Club, Ceduna, South Australia |
Hole 2 | Denial Bay | 370 metres (405 yd) | 4 | William McKenzie | Ceduna Golf Club, Ceduna, South Australia |
Hole 3 | Windmills | 260 metres (284 yd) | 4 | Pioneer Drive | Penong Golf Course, Penong, South Australia |
Hole 4 | Wombat Hole | 520 metres (569 yd) | 5 | Karinkabie | Nundroo Roadhouse, Nundroo, South Australia |
Hole 5 | Dingo's Den | 538 metres (588 yd) | 5 | Coral & Scobie Beattie | Nullarbor Roadhouse, Nullarbor, South Australia |
Hole 6 | Border Kangaroo | 160 metres (175 yd) | 3 | Don Harrington | Border Village Roadhouse, Border Village, South Australia |
Hole 7 | Nullarbor Nymph | 315 metres (344 yd) | 4 | Steve Patupis | Eucla Golf Course, Eucla, Western Australia |
Hole 8 | Watering Hole | 330 metres (361 yd) | 4 | McGill & Kennedy | Mundrabilla Roadhouse, Mundrabilla, Western Australia |
Hole 9 | Brumby's Run | 125 metres (137 yd) | 3 | Barbara and Brian Pike | Madura Roadhouse, Madura, Western Australia |
Hole 10 | Eagles Nest | 347 metres (379 yd) | 4 | Bindy | Cocklebiddy Roadhouse, Cocklebiddy, Western Australia |
Hole 11 | 90 Mile Straight | 310 metres (339 yd) | 4 | Edward John Eyre & John Baxter | Caiguna Roadhouse, Caiguna, Western Australia |
Hole 12 | Skylab | 175 metres (191 yd) | 3 | Pat Prendiville | Balladonia Roadhouse, Balladonia, Western Australia |
Hole 13 | Sheep's Back | 141 metres (154 yd) | 3 | John and Heather Cambell | Fraser Range Sheep Station, Fraser Range, Western Australia |
Hole 14 | Golden Horse | 385 metres (421 yd) | 4 | Laurie Sinclair | Norseman Golf Club, Norseman, Western Australia |
Hole 15 | Ngadju | 463 metres (506 yd) | 5 | Mort Harslett | Norseman Golf Club, Norseman, Western Australia |
Hole 16 | Silver Lake | 392 metres (429 yd) | 4 | Kevin Higgins | Kambalda Golf Club, Kambalda, Western Australia |
Hole 17 | Golden Mile | 502 metres (549 yd) | 5 | Bob Bongiorno | Kalgoorlie Golf Course, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia |
Hole 18 | CY O'Connor | 356 metres (389 yd) | 4 | Alf Caputo | Kalgoorlie Golf Course, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia |
The course can be played in either direction. [9] A score card can be purchased in Ceduna or Kalgoorlie for A$70 (as of December 2023), plus an $8 maintenance fee. Players can either provide their own clubs, or hire them at each hole for a fee. To preserve the nature of the Nullarbor, players are required to tee their balls up on the course's fairways and are discouraged from driving vehicles on the fairways. On presenting the completed card they can claim a Nullarbor Links Certificate for playing "the World’s Longest Golf course". [10]
The course is the host of the Chasing the Sun golf tournament, which was inaugurated in 2009. The tournament has been held every September since its inception, other than in 2020 and 2021, when it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [3] [11] . The 2025 tournament is scheduled for 1–10 May. [12]
The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single exposure of limestone bedrock, and occupies an area of about 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 sq mi). At its widest point, it stretches about 1,100 kilometres (684 mi) from east to west across the border between South Australia and Western Australia.
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The cup holds a flagstick, known as a "pin". A standard round of golf consists of 18 holes, and as such most courses contain 18 distinct holes; however, there are many 9-hole courses and some that have holes with shared fairways or greens. There are also courses with a non-standard number of holes, such as 12 or 14.
Eyre Highway is a 1,664-kilometre (1,034 mi) highway linking Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. Signed as National Highways 1 and A1, it forms part of Highway 1 and the Australian National Highway network linking Perth and Adelaide. It was named after explorer Edward John Eyre, who was the first European to cross the Nullarbor by land, in 1840–1841. Eyre Highway runs from Norseman in Western Australia, past Eucla, to the state border. Continuing to the South Australian town of Ceduna, it crosses the top of the Eyre Peninsula before reaching Port Augusta.
The following is a glossary of the terminology currently used in the sport of golf. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Old names for clubs can be found at Obsolete golf clubs.
Eucla is the easternmost locality in Western Australia, located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia along the Eyre Highway, approximately 11 kilometres (7 mi) west of the South Australian border. At the 2016 Australian census, Eucla had a population of 53.
Royal Portrush Golf Club is a private golf club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The 36-hole club has two links courses, the Dunluce Links and the Valley Links. The former is one of the courses on the rota of the Open Championship and last hosted the tournament in 2019.
Ian Michael Baker-Finch is an Australian golfer and sports commentator best known for winning The Open Championship in 1991.
Pinehurst Resort is a golf resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina, United States. It has hosted a number of prestigious golf tournaments including four U.S. Open Championships, one U.S. Women's Open, three U.S. Amateurs, one PGA Championship, and the Ryder Cup.
Harbour Town Golf Links is a public golf course in the eastern United States, located in South Carolina in Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island in Beaufort County. Since 1969, it has hosted the RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour, usually in mid-April, the week after The Masters.
Caiguna is a small roadhouse community located on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia. It is the second stop east of Norseman on the journey east across the Nullarbor Plain. Between Balladonia and Caiguna is a 146.6-kilometre (91.1 mi) stretch of the highway which is one of the longest straight stretches of road in the world. The unofficial Central Western Time (CWT) starts shortly east of Caiguna, heading eastward.
Cocklebiddy is a small roadhouse community located on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia. It is the third stop after Norseman on the journey eastwards across the Nullarbor Plain. Like other locations in the region, the site consists of little more than a roadhouse. The current business name of the roadhouse is the Wedgetail Inn and, like most other Nullarbor establishments, has access to satellite television, as well as providing caravan park and hotel-motel facilities.
Balladonia is a small roadhouse community located on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia. It is the first stop east of Norseman on the journey east across the Nullarbor Plain. Between Balladonia and Caiguna is a 146.6-kilometre (91.1 mi) stretch of the highway which is one of the longest straight stretches of road in the world.
Yalata, in the isolated far west of South Australia, is both an Indigenous Protected Area and, within that, a township of the same name where an Aboriginal community lives. The township is 206 kilometres (128 mi) west of Ceduna – the nearest town – via the Eyre Highway, and 982 kilometres by road from the state capital, Adelaide. It lies on the traditional lands of the Wirangu people. The settlement began as Yalata Mission in the early 1950s when Pila Nguru people were moved from Ooldea Mission when that closed, after previously being moved from their land in the Great Victoria Desert owing to nuclear testing by the British Government. The old Colona sheep station nearby is now part of Yalata Indigenous Protected Area.
Cherry Creek Golf Links is a golf club located in Riverhead on Long Island in the state of New York in the United States. Constructed on 166 acres (0.67 km2) of former potato and sod farms, Cherry Creek Golf Links opened in 1996. A second course, The Woods at Cherry Creek, was added across the street in 2002.
Nullarbor is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located 295 kilometres (183 mi) to the west of the town of Ceduna in the western part of the state immediately adjoining the border with Western Australia.
Nundroo is a small South Australian town, located approximately 1,014 kilometres (630 mi) west of Adelaide. It is a popular rest stop for travellers due to its location on the Eyre Highway.
Penong is a town and locality on the Nullarbor Plain, in the far west of the state of South Australia located about 616 kilometres (383 mi) north-west of the state capital of Adelaide. With no settlements between it and Border Village on the border with Western Australia, 400 km (250 mi) away on the Eyre Highway, it is a popular rest-stop for travellers.
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
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Border Village is a settlement located in South Australia within the locality of Nullarbor on the Eyre Highway at the border with Western Australia.