Golf is a favourite pastime for many, as it involves spending a day in the sun with your friends at a far more relaxed pace than other sports and often with the promise of food and drinks at the club afterwards, of course. But what if the average distance between holes on the course – around 750 to 900 feet – increased to 41 miles?
The Nullabor Links is an 18-hole par 72 golf course, which is said to be the world’s longest, situated along 848 miles of the Eyre Highway by the South coast of Australia. It passes across two states – South Australia and Western Australia – notably crossing the Nullabor Plain at the head of the Great Australian Bight.
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. 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.
A feasibility study was completed in September 2006, and the course officially opened in October 2009.
As of 2022, more than 20,000 travellers had officially played it and bought a scorecard for stamping at the roadhouses en route. Players can either provide their own clubs or hire them at each hole for a fee. As of December 2023, a scorecard cost 70 Australian dollars (£34), plus a £4 maintenance fee.
The course either begins or ends (depending on the direction of the crossing) in the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and the coastal town of Ceduna, South Australia.
The purposely constructed holes have tees and greens that use artificial grass, with a natural desert between them. The average distance between holes is 41 miles, with the largest gap being almost 120 miles.
But it’s not just the desert conditions that golfers have to tackle. Among the fauna are emus, kangaroos, wedge-tailed eagles, wombat holes and three deadly venomous snakes.
Temperatures can also reach over 50C during the day, so more than just a golf camp is required for this adventure.
The course hosts the “Chasing the Sun” golf tournament, inaugurated in 2009. The tournament has been held every September since its inception, except in 2020 and 2021, when it was suspended due to the pandemic. The 2025 tournament is scheduled between May 1 and 10.