About 15,600km from St Andrews in Scotland and roughly 17,000km from Mar-a-Lago in Florida lies Eucla, Western Australia. On a fine sunny day, players from an extraordinary golf tournament gather for a photo. They are competing on the Nullarbor Links, the world's longest golf course, which stretches 1,365km (850 miles) across ancient, arid desert in outback Australia. Apart from the game itself, it shares nothing with its famous counterparts or any other golf course globally.
A Unique Challenge Across the Outback
The 18-hole, par-72 course begins at Ceduna in South Australia and crosses flat limestone bedrock to reach Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of driving between holes. Players compete on scrubby dirt and worn astroturf, navigating behind shedding gums and across airstrips, while dodging snakes, spiders, and wombats.
Graeme and Bea Wilmot organise the annual 10-day Chasing the Sun tournament, which concluded on Saturday. They play on sand greens in Ceduna and manicured lawns in Kalgoorlie, but the middle stretch is entirely different. "Anything between the tee off and the green is wild outback. There are lots of snakes, lizards, spiders, wombats, dingoes, camels …" Bea Wilmot says.
Participants from Around the World
The tournament has attracted players from Germany, Vietnam, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, alongside many Australian grey nomads. Bea Wilmot reluctantly joined her first tournament with Graeme in 2017. "He was the golf fanatic and I was the golf widow. Over the 10 days I went from golf widow to golf tragic," she recalls. "By the time we got home, I'd ordered clubs and joined the local golf club."
Notable Holes and Features
The Nullarbor Links names its holes instead of numbering them, allowing play from Ceduna to Kalgoorlie or vice versa. There is a hole-in-one competition and a putting challenge between long drives. Each hole is unique, but Bea mentions The Wombat Hole at Nundroo, named after the southern hairy-nosed wombat. "That's a par five with a dog leg. You can't see the green from the tee box so you have to go around the corner and hit blindly. There's rocks and everything in the way," she says. "And it crosses the RFDS [Royal Flying Doctor Service] strip."
Groups raise money for the RFDS by fining players for any stupid or funny actions and collecting donations at roadhouse stops. Other notable holes include the Nullarbor Nymph at Eucla, inspired by a 1971 story about a girl in a "sort of furry bikini" thought to be rabbit skin, who supposedly ran around the outback with a mob of kangaroos. The State Library of Western Australia notes the story was "created by beer," originating as a yarn in a bar that became one of Australia's most famous hoaxes.
At Balladonia, the SkyLab par three pays tribute to parts of Nasa's abandoned space research laboratory that landed nearby in July 1979. The Nullarbor Links website notes that US President Jimmy Carter personally called the Balladonia Hotel Motel to apologise for Skylab falling on them. The roadhouse manager, Bob Bongiorno, conceived the golf course idea to help prevent driver fatigue, reduce fatalities, and raise awareness of the small towns along the 1,365km Eyre Highway.
The Tournament Experience
Players complete a few holes each day, stopping for organised games, events, meals, drinks, and sightseeing. At Border Village, straddling South Australia and Western Australia, the group poses around Rooey II, a giant kangaroo offering Vegemite to passersby. A nearby sign shows distances to world cities: 2,080km to Sydney, 15,075km to New York, and 17,517km to London. Participants wear team T-shirts adorned with classic Australian road signs warning of crossing wildlife.
Paul Windle, who won the men's net trophy and the Sharpest Dresser award, combines his team T-shirt with bright yellow trousers, yellow argyle socks, a yellow flat cap, and often a Lonsdale Pacifico cigar. An avid golfer from Murwillumbah, New South Wales, he took six weeks' holiday to chase the sun. "I've never had this long off work before," he says. "Three times I've woken up and thought I had to go in … but all I have to do is play golf." He praises the Nullarbor scenery but jokingly complains, "I feel a little ripped off because everything is so green [after recent rain]. It's meant to be all red dirt, but there's been so much rain everything's green … That's probably something not many people will get to see either."
Wildlife and Safety Warnings
The Nullarbor is the traditional land of the Mirning people, but the name comes from Latin for "no trees." The course crosses lands of other First Nations people and three time zones, including the idiosyncratic Central Western zone, 45 minutes ahead of the rest of Western Australia and 45 minutes behind South Australia. The Nullarbor Links website advises players to avoid stepping on snakes or disturbing holes in the ground, as they "could be homes for large spiders, wombats or snakes." It warns: "Keep your hands out of holes!"
A Different World
Dent Island, a verdant idyll in the Whitsundays ringed by beaches, is home to the Hamilton Island golf club. Leanne Balkin and Scott Armstrong took a break from the tropics to play the Nullarbor Links. Balkin says her favourite part of the course is the "shenanigans" between holes, such as searching for buried treasure at Eucla beach. "You all had to chip [the golf ball] to where you thought [the treasure] was buried," she says. "It was my favourite because I won." Her advice to others: "Don't bring yellow balls. Crows steal the yellow balls. They will swoop down and take your ball off the fairway."
Grant Hart, the music man who has entertained troops for four years, says, "This year's been amazing" due to the people, his practice at home, and a great performance the night before. "I play every hit," he says, covering Eagles, Van Morrison, Elvis, and Aussie pub rock. "I've done thousands of gigs. You don't always win. Last night was an absolute winner." Windle calls Grant an "absolute legend," noting he acted like a pirate at the gig, but adds, "what goes on tour, stays on tour."
Nathan Down, 35, is decades younger than the general demographic. He drove his 1982 series Land Rover from Melbourne to Chasing the Sun for an adventure. "The fact we are all here due to a similar interest automatically connects us all," he says. "Each and every day is an adventure with 25 others that I'll be friends [with] for life." Bea Wilmot concludes: if you're looking for manicured lawns, "don't bother coming." But if you want to experience the true Aussie outback, this course is for you.
