# Hows this for a golf course: Australia plans to build world's largest golf course



## Trances (May 19, 2003)

Ok little off topic but hows this as I all know how much we love Golf courses here and they are a hot topic in this forum. ( also don’t know where else to post it to post tell you about general topics that are only related to UAE but association or just interest)

* Australia plans to build world's largest golf course *

SYDNEY : Authorities in Australia have unveiled plans to open the world's largest golf course alongside a desert highway, in a scheme which will convert the Outback's Nullarbor Plain into a 1,400 kilometre sandtrap.

Local councils along the length of the Nullarbor have approved construction of the course, hoping it will induce tourists to slow down and appreciate what is generally regarded as one of the most desolate environments in Australia.


The plan is to build one hole at each of the 18 towns and roadhouses (petrol stations) dotted along the Nullarbor section of the Eyre Highway, to be collectively known as Nullarbor Links.

Motorists will stop at one roadhouse, play a hole, then drive on to the next teeing-off point - 100 kilometres down the road in some cases.

The idea is the brainchild of Balladonia roadhouse manager Bob Bongiorno, who said it combined his love of golf and hopes of boosting tourism.

"I brought my golf clubs when I first came out here seven years ago and tried hitting a few balls in the bush," he told AFP. "I had to fight the spiders to get them back, though, so I gave it away."

Bongiorno said about 300 vehicles passed along the Eyre Highway each day, but most motorists were intent on completing the journey as quickly as possible.

To remedy the situation, he said Nullarbor Links would provide a unique golf experience and every stop on the course would showcase a hidden local treasure - from whale-watching spots just 500 metres from the highway to ancient fossil beds.

Bongiorno's local attraction in Balladonia is the site where the US Skylab satellite came crashing to earth in 1979.

"Even if people only play a few holes, it will break up their journey and give them the chance to say they've played on the world's biggest golf course," he said.

The roadhouse manager plans to build the world's largest golfball in Balladonia to publicise the course. Its dimensions are yet to be finalised.

Goldfields Tourism Association chairman Alf Caputo said local councils had agreed to use their roadworks equipment to create the dirt fairways and "greens" made of oiled sand - real grass is impossible to maintain in the arid environment.

"It's never going to be St Andrews," he told AFP. "But it's an awesome idea for promoting our area and should be a lot of fun."

Trial holes will be built in the next few months and the entire course is scheduled to open in 2006.

Caputo said he had already received calls from tour operators wanting to offer clients a round of Outback golf.

"Most of the interest is coming from overseas," he said, pointing out that the proposed course stretches further than the length of Britain. - AFP

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_sports/view/117034/1/.html


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## Trances (May 19, 2003)

Lets see Dubai top this one


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## Dubai-Lover (Jul 4, 2004)

crazy 

if dubai wants to top this it needs the other emirates 
a golf course from mussandam to fujairah, al ain, sharjah, dubai, abu dhabi 

i don't really see the sense in driving to next hole with your car, but the idea is nice. if people want to play on this one, why not? i would do it as well, a unique golf course and a nice drive through the sceneries.

maybe this will bring tourists all over this area?


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## Trances (May 19, 2003)

*It's the world's largest golf course - and you'll definitely need a driver *

David Fickling in Adelaide
Wednesday October 27, 2004


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 850 miles 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 850-mile route - from Kalgoorlie, 450 miles east of Perth, to Ceduna, 500 miles 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 300-mile stretch of ruler- straight railway track which is the longest in the world, and a 91-mile 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 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,12070,1336734,00.html

Any one notice the differences


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## Trances (May 19, 2003)

its kinda middle of no where
only drive if you have too
300 cars a day is not much

Who would be in those cars and road in past year

Transport trucks & people that work in the area (well some would)
Crims on the run to Perth
People trying to Flee Perth
lost Sydney cab drives
People like Bradley John Murdoch

I mean how many are tourists that would stop for game of golf

having said that would be good to break the journey and it unique and interesting. Might be low cost for development and could be a real feature of the out back.


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## SA BOY (Mar 29, 2003)

drug dealers leaving South Australia?


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## Trances (May 19, 2003)

just the drug dealers ?


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## BinDubai (Aug 31, 2004)

wow can't imagine how huge will this be


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