The World's Longest Golf Course

Golf. Let's be honest, its difficult enough at the best of times. In July I had the pleasure of playing a round at La Manga  in Murcia, Spain with my good friend Harry. The fairways were perfect and the rough really wasn't all that (rough). Armed with a handicap that reflected my general incompetence at the sport, I pulled off a memorable victory. It was a rare high point amongst my normally underwhelming dalliances with the game. 

The contrast between that day and what Tracy and I have experienced over the last couple of weeks could not be more stark. We have been playing the 'World's Longest Golf Course', the Nullarbor Links.

For those not familiar with the geography of Australia, the Nullarbor is a desert plain that's name derives from the latin - null (nil) arbor (trees). It divides the populated areas of South Australia to the East and West Australia, you've guessed it, to the West. As an aside, we don't have a North Australia (although we do have a Northern Territory) and we certainly don't have an East Australia. We do have Queensland and Victoria, both named after the same person, and of course New South Wales. Nobody knows why Captain James Cook thought the world needed a second South Wales. Cook himself came from a place called Marton, which is to the south of Middlesborough. I guess he at least spared us from living in New South Middlesborough. 

Oh, and I almost forgot Tasmania - which to be fair in Australia we normally do. Named after the dutch guy that first discovered the place, one Abel Tasman. Somewhat egotistical you might think, but at least he actually took the time to go and find the place, which is more than can be said for Queen Vicky and she claimed two! 

And if you think I am going to address the question of how James and Abel can claim to have discovered somewhere when people have been living there for tens of thousands of years you'd be wrong. That whole issue is too complex, intractable and frankly depressing for a post that is trying to be light hearted. 

I digress, back to the golf. Now if you want to learn chapter and verse about the Nullarbor Links you can find all the details on wikipedia here. The first thing to point out is that the 'World's Longest Golf Course' does not mean that it's the furthest you have to hit the ball to complete a round. For that course you'd have to go to the Dragon Snow Mountain course in Lijang, China. Par 72, 8,548 Yards.

No, what they mean is that you have to cover 1,365km to complete the course. The holes are a long way apart! As luck would have it, Tracy and I were planning to travel that distance anyway on our latest adventure so we thought we would accept the challenge. We have not yet completed the course, you can do the holes in any order and we will do some on the way home Unless you want to drive all the way around the country, you have to go back the way you came. It's one road. One long, flat and generally straight road... In the meantime, here are some of our learnings so far from this unique sporting experience:

  • Flies are not conducive to maintaining the composure needed to play golf; 
  • Fairways are not fair in the desert, so they allow you to use a tee;
  • There are lots of flies;
  • Astroturf greens are very hard to stop the ball on;
  • Aeroguard is not effective at repelling flies;
  • The course is better played in the winter when there are less flies.

It's certainly been an experience and a fun way to break up the journey. Put(t) it this way, there's been a lot of driving and, you know, time flies when you're having fun.





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