It might not boast the most well-watered greens in the world or the best standard of food and drink at the 19th hole. But Australia’s treeless Nullarbor Plain will, within 18 months, play host to the world’s largest golf course.
The Nullarbor Links will cross three time zones and stretch across 1 360km of barren semi-desert across the flat, featureless landscape spanning the border between Western Australia and South Australia.
There will be one hole for each stop along the 1 360km route — from Kalgoorlie, 720km east of Perth, to Ceduna, 800km west of Adelaide.
Even by travelling non-stop at the speed limit, it would take 13 hours to get from one end of the course to the other.
”It’s not going to be St Andrews by any stretch of the imagination,” said Alf Caputo, of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder tourist association. ”But it’s going to be something completely unique to this region.”
Around 300 people live permanently along the stretch of road, but thousands more travel across the featureless plain every month, on the main route between Perth and Australia’s eastern cities. Eucla, close to the border between Western and South Australia, which has its own golf green, is a relative metropolis with a population of 50.
All but four of the fairways will be made of sand, since grass is hard to maintain in an environment which includes some of the driest places in the world. A last hurdle to completion of the course was cleared this week when the city council of Kalgoorlie-Boulder gave its approval to the plan.
The Nullarbor is a land of superlatives. The pancake-flat, treeless landscape is home to a 480km stretch of ruler-straight railway track which is the longest in the world, and a 145km section of similarly unbending road.
The entire drive between Perth and Adelaide amounts to 30 hours on the road, with little but the horizon and service stations to break the monotony.
The idea was inspired by Bob Bongiorno, a frustrated golfer who manages the Balladonia Roadhouse south-east of Kalgoorlie. He said: ”I brought my clubs out to the Nullarbor, but I will have to fight the spiders to get them back. I’ve not used them in ages.” – Guardian Unlimited Â