Australia will open the world’s longest 18-hole golf course next month, stretching 1,365 kilometers (848 miles) across the Nullarbor region in the country’s southwest.
Synthetic greens and tees are being laid among desert and scrub in the final stage of building the Nullarbor Links golf course where towns and roadhouses dotted along the Eyre Highway each host a hole.
“We’ve had to negotiate the logistics of taking the green, the grass and associated products out there,” project manager Alf Caputo said. “It was a huge exercise, having to shift and pick up everything, but we’ve got through and the last hole is being finished now at Madura Pass.”
The par 72 course begins in the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie, 556 kilometers east of Western Australia’s capital, Perth, and stretches easterly to the fishing town of Ceduna in South Australia state, 775 kilometers by road northwest of the state capital Adelaide.
Private donations and federal government funding helped with the cost of the project, Caputo said. While the official figure won’t be released, it is “in excess of one million dollars, including work and resources,” Don Harrington, Chairman of the Eyre Highway Operators Association, said.
The course is designed to show the beauty of the region, Caputo said.
“We’ve got some slashing scenery,” he said. “The course goes from Cocklebiddy that has not a tree in sight to Madura that has an enormous range of gum trees and you can see the edge of the ocean.”
Sheep Station
Hosting towns and centers include a working sheep station at the 13th hole. With some holes as far as 160 kilometers from each other, a round of golf will take three or four days to complete, and while players of all abilities are invited to play, Caputo warns there are some tricks.
At Nundroo, in South Australia, “there’s a 520 meter (569-yard), par 5 hole where you hit against the wind and up hill,” Caputo said. “At the top of the fairway there’s a massive outcrop of granite, so if you hit that you’re going to have some grief.”
A feasibility study conducted several years ago predicted 26,000 visitors would play the course in the first year, Caputo said. The interest the project has received will see that number jump, he added.
The course will open with a tournament starting in Ceduna on Oct. 22 and finishing four days later in Kalgoorlie.
(Source: Bloomberg)
