Golf is waning in popularity for a reason. Gear and course fees are prohibitively expensive, it’s not as rigorous and healthy as other athletic pursuits, and it’s a huge time commitment: who can take 3-4 hours away from their desk to play a game multiple days a week?
But that high barrier to entrance is the appeal of Nullarbor Links, an 850-mile course stretching across multiple towns in Western Australia.
No walking. No carts. You’re driving (or hitchhiking) between holes, sometimes for hours, and you can stay overnight at several — each “hole” is sponsored by a participating town or roadhouse along the course. As Conde Nast Traveler reported, “hole-to-hole driving isn’t just a stopgap, but an integral part of the experience: a stunning, soul-cleansing road journey that evokes Mad Max.”
Remember: Australia’s landmass is roughly the same size as the continental U.S. but has fewer people than the state of California (24m to 39m, respectively). So, as they say, it has heaps of open space. And if you’ve been there, you know that it’s rugged. So with the exception of the greens, Nullarbor Links keeps the environs intact. Expect an onslaught of rough lies in sandy areas — along with kangaroos and wombats parading across the fairway.
And as for the gear, most Aussies go with the standard flip-flops and shorts. No shirt required.
Sounds like a good club to join.
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