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 The world's
longest golf course
| The vast Australian emptiness of the Nullarbor Plain is famous already
as one of the world's most grueling car journeys. |
| Now it has become the proud home of the world's longest golf course.
Eighteen holes spread over 1,365 km (848 miles) of outback terrain that can
take as long as seven days to play - longer even, if you keep on hitting your
balls into the scrubland or suffer the indignity of having them stolen by an
errant dingo. But more of the hazards of playing this mega-course later. Let's
deal first with the mega-logistics. |
This is a course which favors patient drivers, because you will
be spending an awful lot of time behind the wheel. Some holes are 100km apart,
so you need more than a golf buggy.
The idea is that after playing one hole, you drive to the next... and then the
next. The problem is that they are often 100km further down the highway. So
long is the course, in fact, that it is spread over two states, South Australia
and Western Australia. |
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If approaching the Nullarbor Plain from the west, you can tee off in the
former gold mining town of Kalgoorlie. From the east, the starting point is the
coastal town of Ceduna.
Golfing safari
It's a par 72 course, and bright yellow warning signs alert you to wayward
wombats and even kangaroos on the way. The wildlife you will almost inevitably
encounter is one of the great attractions of the course. The fourth hole at
Nundroo claims to have the largest population of southern hairy-nosed wombats
anywhere in Australia - surely a golfing first. At the Dingo Den hole, there's
a resident crow which likes to steal stray golf balls. Not to be outdone,
dingoes have started muscling in on the act, as well. It is like a golfing
safari. The Old Course at St Andrews this quite definitely is not. But there
are shades of Augusta, Georgia, the home of the Masters.
Just as Augusta has a long-established tradition of naming its holes after the
flowers which beautify the course, the Nullarbor Links references its outback
landscape - Dingo's Den; Watering Hole; Border Kangaroo; Oyster Beds; Golden
Horse; 90 Mile Straight. The idea for the course came from a group of roadside
businessmen, who wanted to slow down motorists as they crossed the mighty
plain. Rather than watch them hurtle down the highway, they preferred them to
stop, take in the sights and spend some money. After a couple of bottles of
wine, the germ of an idea was born. "Perhaps we should have a golf course
across Australia," said Don Harrington, who was there at the creation.
"From there the embryo was formed - and today, five years later, we're
here and we've arrived. That's how it all happened."
Tourist attraction?
Mark Twain once said that golf was a good walk ruined. The record-breaking
Nullarbor Links is more a case of golf enhancing an extremely long drive. The
hope is that the golf course will become a tourist trail. Even ahead of its
official opening, 600 golfers have played the course, and the Nullarbor Links
boasts members in 27 countries. Golfer Brian Bushfield and his wife Cindy came
all the way from Calgary in Canada to play in the inaugural tournament on
opening day. "Isn't that amazing," said Cindy, who had no regrets
about making the journey. "I think the course itself is going to be
amazing. And it's definitely going to be a hard par six." Aside from the
distance, the searing heat and the Astroturf greens, there is another drawback
of the world's longest golf course. It is an absolute nightmare whenever you
lose your ball. |
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