Victor Harbor

5 Other Courses to Consider in the Adelaide Area Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, is renowned for its vibrant culture, exquisite wine regions, and stunning natural landscapes. It also boasts some of the country's most prestigious and beautifully designed golf courses, each offering unique challenges and picturesque settings that appeal to golfers of all skill levels. From the historic greens nestled near city centres to those offering breathtaking views along the coast, Adelaide's golf courses are as diverse as they are captivating. Royal Adelaide Golf Club: One of Australia's top golf clubs, Royal Adelaide is famous for its traditional links layout, challenging holes, and strategic placement of its iconic red sand bunkers. This course, which has hosted numerous national and international tournaments, including the Australian Open, is characterised by its firm fairways and fast, undulating greens that offer a challenging yet rewarding experience. Kooyonga Golf Club: Kooyonga is another gem within the Adelaide golfing community, known for its challenging layout and impeccable maintenance. The course features a series of holes that are both strategically demanding and aesthetically pleasing, making it a favourite among seasoned golfers. Its well-contoured greens and cleverly placed hazards test precision and strategic thinking. Victor Harbor Golf Club: Situated in the scenic area of Victor Harbor, this course offers panoramic views of Encounter Bay that are simply breathtaking. The layout starts with one of the most spectacular tee shots over a valley, making for an exhilarating start to the round. The course itself blends natural terrain with challenging golf, making it a must-visit for those in the region. McCracken Country Club: Located in the picturesque Victor Harbor, McCracken Country Club features a Gary Player designed course that integrates seamlessly with the rolling hills of the surrounding landscape. The course offers a challenge for golfers of all levels, with water hazards and bunkers that require careful navigation. Its peaceful setting and superb facilities make it a popular choice for golf outings. Links Lady Bay: Nestled on the spectacular Fleurieu Peninsula, Links Lady Bay offers a true links-style experience with stunning views of the coastline and surrounding countryside. The course is well-known for its tough, windy conditions and the strategic challenge it poses. Pristine fairways and expansive greens add to the allure, making it one of the most picturesque and challenging courses in South Australia. These courses, each with their unique characteristics and challenges, contribute to Adelaide's reputation as a premier destination for golf enthusiasts. Whether looking for a championship test or a scenic round, Adelaide's golf courses deliver memorable experiences steeped in the beauty and tradition of the game. Find out more about travel toThe Grange Golf Club Why not register today to be the 1st to Receive Worldwide Rankings releases for 2024. Lockhart Travel Club Concierge Services FAQ What is the Lockhart Travel Club? Lockhart Travel Club is dedicated to offering its members unique opportunities for world-class golf exploration and adventure. It connects members with like-minded individuals worldwide, aiming to fulfil their desire to play at the best golf courses globally. The club originated from Robert Lockhart's passion, a Scotsman who introduced golf to America in the late 19th century, and it continues to embody his spirit of golf travel​ (Lockhart Travel Club)​. Who are the members of the Lockhart Travel Club? Members are individuals from some of the world's greatest clubs, sharing a common passion for golf and adventure. The club welcomes golfers eager to travel, play, and check off their bucket list of courses. They are driven by the opportunity to see and play the best courses worldwide, taking advantage of the club's network​. What kind of experiences does Lockhart Travel Club offer? In 2023, the club provided opportunities to play in various top-ranked courses and locations, including the Sand Hills of Nebraska and Colorado, the best of Japan and Korea, the English Heathlands, the classic courses of France, and the best of New Zealand’s North Island. The 2024 schedule promises unique experiences in 19 different countries, including Thailand & China, Brazil, South Africa, the Northeast USA, and Australia​. How do I join Lockhart Travel Club? Interested individuals can inquire about membership by contacting the club directly via their official email. The club values connections among golf enthusiasts and strives to plan unique, unforgettable opportunities for its members throughout the year​. For more detailed inquiries or to apply for membership, please refer directly to the Lockhart Travel Club's official website or contact their membership services. Lockhart Travel Club About Us: Learn more about the club Top 100 Golf Courses - Lockhart Travel Club: Explore member experiences and trips

South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia Best in State Rankings 2019 This is the second of three news releases related to the revision of our regional rankings in Australia. We’ve already reported on the updated charts for Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales and we’ll publish our new listings for Queensland and Victoria in our next Australian announcement. For now, we’re concentrating on South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, where we maintain Top 10 tables for the first two regions and have just added another five courses to Western Australia, creating a Top 25 for the largest state in the nation. South Australia The course at Royal Adelaide remains the top track in South Australia but, truth be told, holding onto the number 1 spot in the state was something of a given for a layout that not only recently climbed two places in the national chart to number 9, it was also one of twelve new entries in the last edition of our World Top 100. The club moved to its current position in 1904, when Cargie Rymill and club secretary C.L. Gardiner laid out a course that was then redesigned by Alister MacKenzie during his famous tour of Australia in 1926. The design firm Thomson, Wolveridge and Perret looked after the property for almost four decades, starting in the early 1970s, until Mike Clayton was called in to conduct a 5-year renovation in 2008. Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design firm has carried out further work on the course and these improvements largely explain Royal Adelaide’s impressive advance in the rankings. Our New Zealand correspondent Matt Richardson visited just a couple of months ago, saying the course is “a masterful lesson in understatement… every single hole has one or two little features that completely set the tone for strategy and game play... simply put, it makes you think.” The only climber in the state listings is the West course at The Grange Golf Club (rising 1 to number 3), which lies immediately to the northwest of the Royal Adelaide property. Vern Morcom set out both the 18-hole layouts at The Grange and it’s the older East course that some might remember as the venue for Greg Norman’s first professional victory in 1967. Mike Clayton renovated the West course in advance of the Women’s Australian Open in 2016 and the event returns there this week. There’s one new entry (at number 9) in our South Australian listings and it’s the course at Victor Harbor Golf Club, situated an hour’s drive south of Adelaide on the Fleuriue Peninsula. Founded back in 1911, the club’s initial 9-hole layout was designed by Rufus Stewart and it’s since been extended and modified by Tom Rymill, Wayne Dale and, more recently, Neil Crafter. This is a terrific, old-fashioned track featuring one of the most exhilarating 1st hole tee shots to be found on a golf course anywhere, with the opening drive played from a bluff down to a tree-lined fairway a hundred feet below. To view further details of the South Australia Top 10rankings click the link. Tasmania The isolated island state of Tasmania lies off the southern coast of Australia, separated by the Bass Strait, and the main island of Tasmania is home to most of its population of half a million people. With only around fifty courses in operation around the state, who would have thought at the start of the new millennium that three new additions to the golfing landscape would now be ranked among the best in the world? The courses atBarnbougle Dunes (still at number 1) and Barnbougle Lost Farm(down one to number 3) sit next to each other among the towering dunes that stretch out along the northern coastline of the main island in Tasmania, next to the small town of Bridport. The spectacular Dunes course debuted first in 2004, co-designed by Mike Clayton and Tom Doak, with the Bill Coore-designed Lost Farm appearing a few years later. The Barnbougle layouts are now firmly ensconced near the top of the national rankings and placed well within our World Top 100. Our International correspondent David Davis described the Dunes course when he played there as possibly “Tom Doak’s best effort in design,” with it having “the absolutely perfect, dramatic links landscape and sandy ground.” Fergal O’Leary, our US Consultant, also visited the Barnbougle complex, commenting that Lost Farm was “more playable than the Dunes course, which is definitely the tougher challenge,” terming it “a big course with big fairways and big greens.” It was always going to take a remarkable course to split the highly regarded pair at Barnbougle but that’s exactly what the 18-hole layout at Cape Wickham has now done as it rises one spot to number 2. Located 330 kilometres northwest of Bridport on King Island, this is a Mike Devries design (built in collaboration with author Darius Oliver) which has been catapulted onto the global golf stage. As Tom Doak states in Volume V of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses : “No course has made a bigger splash on the world scene in the past five years than Cape Wickham, sitting in the middle of the Bass Strait between Melbourne and Tasmania… It’s not an easy place to get to, and not for those who fear small planes and bumpy flights, but Cape Wickham is well worth the effort. It’s one of the wildest places in golf, and in a world growing ever more conformist, that’s a very good thing.” Another King Island course is a new entry at number 7 in our Tasmanian Top 10 and it’s the links layout at King Island Golf & Bowling Club, which dates back to 1938. The course comprises twelve greens and eighteen different tee boxes, with an 18-hole round consisting of three par threes, twelve par fours and three par fives on a layout extending to 5,475 meters – that might seem quite short but when the wind gets up, as it very often does here, it’s more than long enough. To view further details of the Tasmania Top 10rankings click the link. Western Australia The Championship course at Lake Karrinyup Country Club, which was designed by Alex Russell and opened for play in 1930, is still the number 1 golfing layout in our state standings for Western Australia. Mike Clayton extensively renovated the course not that long ago, totally rebuilding all the greens and bunkers during a major makeover, and it’s hosted a number of important competitions since then, including the World Super 6 Perth, the latest edition of which is staged there this week. Just a few weeks ago, reviewer Peter Wood gave this 5-ball endorsement to the course: “Perhaps this is the quintessential Aussie course with its genuine bush setting, large eucalyptus trees, black boys, and kangaroos roaming… Lake Karrinyup would be a great starting point for international visitors wanting to see a top quality Australian course in a classic bush setting, and should be part of any West Australian golf expeditions.” Only six courses improve their position in our revised table and the most prominent of these is The Links Kennedy Bay layout at Port Kennedy (up one to number 2), which is a late 1990s collaboration between Michael Coate, Roger Mackay and Ian Baker-Finch. Perhaps a review posted only yesterday best sums up the experience of playing here: “The wind can change this course in a matter of minutes, depending on the time of day you may end up playing with the wind from three different directions… The greens are large, fast and true, the fairways are well manicured and the bunkers well placed… This is Australian links golf at its best.” Another couple of 18-hole layouts make significant 3-place upward moves within the Top 10: the first one is the early 1990s Robert Trent Jones Jr-designed course at Meadow Springs Golf & Country Clubin Mandurah (at #5), which “has a nice selection of short par fours, doglegs, longer holes, and some impressive water holes”; and the second one is the Bob Green and Murray Dawson 1970s co-design at Sun City Country Club in Yanchep (at #10), where Mike Clayton’s OCCM design company has been carrying out upgrade work since 2012. The highest new entry at number 17 is the delightful 9-hole seaside setup at Binningup, around thirty kilometres north of Bunbury, called Lakewood Shores. It’s a mid-1980s Michael Coate design that was mentioned in the aforementioned Confidential Guide to Golf Courses book, having been played a while back by Darius Oliver, who wrote of it having “uncluttered holes arranged in a single loop through gently moving sand dunes and with pleasant coastal outlooks… It developed a following for the quality of its nine holes, along with its ‘honesty box’ green fee system and the fact the course was managed – well – by a single green keeper… Binningup certainly ranks as one of Australia’s best 9-hole courses.” We'd like to thank Peter White for persuading us to extend our course coverage in Western Australia. To view further details of the Western Australia Top 25rankings click the link. We actively seek feedback every time we re-rank regional charts so please let us know if you have any strong views on either of the three featured in this Australian release. Whether it’s to let us know about a course we’ve mistakenly missed or one we’ve undeservedly included, by all means get in touch. Whatever you’re thinking, if you’d like to share your opinion then please click the “Respond to this article” link at the top or at the bottom of this page. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

Spectacular golf development approved for Kangaroo Island The South Australian Government announced last month, that Development Authorisation had been granted to Kangaroo Island Links Pty Ltd for a revision to a previously approved golf development on pristine Kangaroo Island in Australia. Known as The Cliffs, Kangaroo Island and constructed on a premium 600-acre parcel of ocean front land in Pelican Lagoon, the 18 hole golf course takes full advantage of the areas rolling sand dunes and sweeping coastal views. Much of the course is set atop 25-metre high cliffs and played directly adjacent the Southern Ocean. Beyond golf, the project includes a luxury clubhouse/lodge and 180-bed hotel as well as scope for restaurants, conference facilities, and a luxury day spa and health club. There is also provision for a residential component with a select number of private dwellings. Each home site enjoys glorious elevated views across the golf course and along the island’s dramatic coastline. The senior team responsible for delivering the project has significant experience in Golf Course Design and Construction with a group resume including Cape Wickham Links on King Island. Darius Oliver, publisher of Planet Golf and co-designer of Cape Wickham, is responsible for the design of The Cliffs, while Andrew Purchase is again in charge of the golf course construction. Like Cape Wickham, it was Purchase who first found this golf land, and Oliver who worked with the State Government on approval for the revised golf course routing. Committed to delivering the golf course component at The Cliffs, Kangaroo Island Links will be exploring joint venture (JV) opportunities with interested parties for both the resort and residential elements of the development. Project Summary – The Cliffs, Kangaroo Island: Designated by the South Australian Government as a Major Project, The Cliffs, Kangaroo Island was initially planned by the Programmed Turnpoint Group in association with a celebrity golf design company, and approved in February 2016. It was purchased by Kangaroo Island Links last July, and audited by Darius Oliver soon after. Oliver’s task was to determine whether the site had world-class golfing potential to match its breathtaking, natural setting. By pushing the golf holes closer to the cliffs and moving the clubhouse onto the coastal crown reserve, the project team believes they now have the potential to build for South Australia, and Kangaroo Island, one of the world’s most spectacular destination golf courses. Beyond a more logical, walkable routing and what are undeniably more exciting golf holes, the moving of the clubhouse to a central location also enabled the residential allotments to be relocated out of a 40Ha section of mallee woodland and onto cleared grasslands. Protecting an intact woodland, the move also provides enhanced vistas from the residential zone. Additional conservation benefits are achieved through the restoration of important native vegetation and the clearing of noxious weeds along the clifftops. Whilst considering the various resort amendments sought by Kangaroo Island Links, the golfing and environmental upsides were deemed considerable by the South Australian Government and approval granted on the basis that a world-class golf experience on Kangaroo Island was critical to the sustainability of the development. In approving the design variation Deputy Premier John Rau commented that, “This development will create an international tourist destination that brings visitors to Kangaroo Island to play golf on one of the world’s most spectacular courses and also experience the pristine natural environment. The golf resort will build the attractiveness of the Island as a holiday destination and complement existing drawcards, such as the Southern Ocean Lodge Resort and the new Wilderness Trail.” As with other projects on Kangaroo Island, the golf course will benefit from an $18M upgrade to the island airport, and recently announced direct Qantas flights from Melbourne and Adelaide starting in the summer. Director of the Kangaroo Island Links, Andrew Purchase was involved with Darius Oliver in the building of the Cape Wickham golf course on King Island and believes the Kangaroo Island project has similar potential. “We acquired the site for The Cliffs because we knew how much potential it had,” says Purchase. “Course Designer Darius Oliver has started from scratch to design what we believe will be a world-class destination golf course with a uniquely Australian character. We’ve taken full advantage of the dramatic coastal views, which are available across the site, and have seven holes wrapping directly around the clifftops as well as ensuring fantastic views from the hotel site and across the course. We would like to thank the SA Government agencies who have worked with us to get the project to this stage and we look forward to continuing to work together on the development." Designer Darius Oliver adds, “Like on King Island, the golf site at Pelican Lagoon has tremendous natural potential and is ready made for great golf. The vast majority of holes are just sitting there on the ground, and will require little more than clearing, grassing and some light shaping. While the golf along the cliffs is stunning, I believe the inland holes to be at least as good, and arguably the most interesting on the course. Being able to create such a fun layout on Kangaroo Island and along such a beautiful stretch of coastline is a real thrill. Golfers from all corners of the globe are going to fall in love with this place. There isn’t anything like Kangaroo Island anywhere in the world.” Kangaroo Island Links is currently working with the South Australian Government to satisfy conditions on the Development Authorisation. The team hopes to confirm a construction schedule, and make further golf course design announcements, in the near future. About Kangaroo Island, South Australia: Australia’s third largest island, Kangaroo Island is an iconic tourist destination situated 13 kilometres (8 miles) off the mainland of South Australia and teeming with natural attractions and native Australian wildlife, some of which aren't found anywhere else. More than one third of the island is protected by conservation areas and national parks, while lush farmland and small towns make up much of the rest. The Cliffs Golf Resort sits conveniently between the island’s relaxed ‘capital’ Kingscote and the town of Penneshaw, where daily ferries disembark. The Seal Bay Conservation Park on Kangaroo Island's south coast is the only place in the world where you can walk among endangered Australian sea lions. Visitors can use a 900-metre wooden boardwalk to see the animals surfing in the ocean or sunning themselves on the sand, or alternatively take a guided 45-minute Seal Bay Experience tour onto the beach itself, and see giant bulls fighting each other up close, or baby sea lions playing just a few metres away. Other attractions of Kangaroo Island include the Southern Ocean Lodge, ranked the world’s fourth best hotel, and the Flinders Chase National Park, with its many native Australian animals, epic Wilderness Trail and world-famous Remarkable Rocks, a seaside collection of enormous orange-lichen-covered granite boulders carved into strange shapes by millions of years of rain, wind and waves. Another highlight is Admirals Arch, a distinctive stalactite-covered eroded rock bridge smashed by waves. Beyond the ever-present Kangaroo Island kangaroos, Australian sea lions and New Zealand fur seals, visitors to the island are also likely to spot numerous coastal bird species, large goannas, echidnas, rare tammar wallabies, koalas and, if lucky, the elusive platypus. Ongoing government investment in infrastructure and tourism, including the $18 Million development of the new Kangaroo Island airport supported by direct flights from across Australia, ensures the future of Kangaroo Island as a key tourist destination. The development of The Cliffs Golf Resort will support the economic development of the island and add significant value to the region as a driver for further tourism. At present the island attracts 140,000 visitors per year, the number expected to grow significantly once the new airport is open. For more information visit www.planetgolf.com