Best Golf Courses in Australia: From Clifftop Links to the Outback

Australia doesn’t get talked about as a golf destination nearly as much as it should. Scotland has its links, the US has its resort courses, but Australia has something neither of them can quite match: raw, dramatic landscape sitting right up against the fairway. I’ve played rounds here with kangaroos watching from the rough and others where the ocean was close enough to feel the spray on a windy back nine.

What makes Australian golf special isn’t just the famous names, either, although there are plenty of those. It’s the sheer range. You can play world-ranked sandbelt courses in suburban Melbourne one week and a genuinely strange 18-hole course strung across a thousand kilometres of outback highway the next.

This guide runs through the courses actually worth building a trip around, plus what to know before you book a tee time in a country where the nearest clubhouse might be several hours from the nearest town.

⛳ TL;DR — the quick version

• 🌊 Barnbougle Dunes & Lost Farm (Tasmania): Two of the best links courses outside the UK, side by side on Tasmania’s north-east coast.
• 🏝️ Cape Wickham (King Island): Regularly ranked Australia’s number one course, with holes that run right along the cliffs.
• 🏙️ Royal Melbourne (Victoria): The centrepiece of Melbourne’s famous Sandbelt, host to multiple Presidents Cups.
• 🌅 New South Wales Golf Club (Sydney): A clifftop course at La Perouse with some of the most photographed ocean views in golf.
• 🐪 Nullarbor Links (SA to WA): The world’s longest golf course, one hole per town along 1,365km of the Eyre Highway.
• 📅 Book well ahead for Sandbelt clubs: Many are private and only take visitors through accredited tour operators.
• 💰 Budget $80–$400 per round: Public courses sit at the low end, exclusive Sandbelt and island courses at the top.

🏌️ Why Australia works so well for golf

Golf course design leans heavily on natural terrain, and Australia has an unusually generous supply of the right kind. Sandy coastal soil drains fast and grows tough, low grasses that suit true links golf, which is why Tasmania’s north coast and King Island have become world-renowned in barely two decades.

Melbourne’s inner south-east, meanwhile, sits on a band of sandy soil known as the Sandbelt, which drains so well that courses there can be firm and fast year-round, without the heavy irrigation many other regions need. It’s part of why five Sandbelt courses regularly appear in world top-100 lists, an extraordinary concentration for one metropolitan area.

Then there’s the sheer scale of the country, which lets golf get genuinely eccentric. Nowhere else could you build a golf course that takes four days to complete because the holes are 1,365 kilometres apart, connected by a highway through the Nullarbor Plain.

🌊 Barnbougle Dunes and Lost Farm, Tasmania

Barnbougle, on Tasmania’s north-east coast near Bridport, is where Australian golf tourism really took off. Built on rolling dunes above Anderson Bay, Barnbougle Dunes plays like a genuine Scottish links course, right down to the firm, bouncy fairways and the wind that rarely lets up.

Its neighbour, Lost Farm, opened a few years later on the same stretch of coast and offers a slightly softer, more forgiving round, with several holes playing directly along the shoreline. Most visiting golfers play both over two days, staying at the on-site lodge.

🏨 Planning a Barnbougle visit

1. Fly into Launceston. It’s roughly an hour’s drive from the course, and the most practical airport for the trip.
2. Book accommodation on-site. The lodges overlook the course itself and make it easy to walk to your early tee time.
3. Allow two full days. Playing both courses back to back is the standard itinerary, and most golfers agree it’s worth the extra night.
4. Pack for wind. Even mild days on this coastline can turn a short iron into a mid-iron by the back nine.

👉 Book a Tasmania Golf & Coast Tour on GetYourGuide →

🏝️ Cape Wickham, King Island

King Island sits in the middle of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, and Cape Wickham Links is often ranked the best golf course in the country. Several holes run along cliffs above genuinely wild ocean, with a working lighthouse visible from the fairway on more than one hole.

Getting there takes effort — small charter flights from Melbourne are the usual route — which keeps crowds low but also means it’s not somewhere you stumble into on a whim. Golfers who make the trip almost always pair it with Ocean Dunes, King Island’s second course, a short drive away.

🏙️ Royal Melbourne and the Sandbelt, Victoria

Royal Melbourne’s West Course is the one course most serious golfers name when asked about Australia. Designed in the 1920s by Alister MacKenzie, the same architect behind Augusta National, it’s hosted multiple Presidents Cups and consistently ranks among the world’s top ten courses.

It’s a private club, though, so visiting golfers need to go through an accredited golf tour operator rather than booking directly. The good news is that Melbourne’s Sandbelt has several other excellent courses within a short drive, some of which are more accessible to visitors.

• ⛳ Kingston Heath: Famous for its bunkering, often ranked just behind Royal Melbourne on world lists.
• ⛳ Victoria Golf Club: A classic Sandbelt layout right next door to Royal Melbourne.
• ⛳ Metropolitan Golf Club: Long and demanding, regularly used for professional tournaments.
• ⛳ Yarra Yarra Golf Club: Slightly lesser-known but highly rated by architecture enthusiasts.

👉 Book a Melbourne Sandbelt Golf Tour on GetYourGuide →

🌅 New South Wales Golf Club, Sydney

At La Perouse, on the southern headland of Botany Bay, the New South Wales Golf Club has one of the most photographed settings in world golf. Several holes wrap around the cliffs above the Tasman Sea, and the 6th hole in particular — a short par three played across a rocky inlet — appears on golf magazine covers regularly.

Like Royal Melbourne, it’s a private club, so visiting is usually arranged through a tour operator or a member. The course sits close enough to central Sydney that it’s genuinely feasible to play a morning round and be back in the city for lunch.

🐪 Nullarbor Links, South Australia to Western Australia

Officially recognised as the longest golf course on Earth, Nullarbor Links spans 1,365 kilometres, with a single hole placed in each town, roadhouse or settlement along the Eyre Highway from Ceduna in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

It’s less a golf course in the traditional sense and more a road trip with a scorecard. Most players are already driving the Nullarbor as part of a longer cross-country trip and treat the course as a way to break up the long, straight stretches of highway with something to do at each stop.

🚗 What makes Nullarbor Links different

• 🦘 Wildlife hazards, literally: Kangaroos and camels wander across several of the holes, and local rules account for it.
• ⛽ Holes at roadhouses: Many tee boxes sit right next to the fuel stops you’d already be pulling into on the drive.
• 🏆 A completion certificate: Finish all 18 holes and you can claim a certificate at the final stop in Kalgoorlie.
• 🌵 No manicured fairways: Expect rough, arid ground rather than the lush turf of a coastal course — this is about the novelty, not the quality of the greens.

💡 Planning a golf trip around Australia

Golf tourism in Australia is a little different from Europe or the US, mostly because of distance. Courses worth visiting are spread across an entire continent, so a trip usually needs to be built around one or two regions rather than trying to cover everything.

1. Pick a region, not a country-wide itinerary. Melbourne’s Sandbelt, Tasmania’s north coast, and King Island can realistically be combined into one trip since they’re close to each other. Sydney and the Nullarbor are better treated as separate visits.
2. Book private clubs through a tour operator. Royal Melbourne, New South Wales Golf Club and several other top-ranked courses don’t take public bookings, so a specialist golf tour company is usually the only way in.
3. Travel with your own clubs if you’re serious. Rental sets are available everywhere, but frequent golfers often find airline oversize baggage fees cheaper than a week of rentals.
4. Check caddie and cart policies in advance. Some traditional clubs still require caddies rather than motorised carts, which changes both the pace and cost of a round.
5. Build in weather buffer days in Tasmania. Coastal courses there are exposed, and high winds occasionally close play for safety.

👉 Book a Sydney Coastal Golf Experience on GetYourGuide →

Whether you’re chasing world rankings on the Sandbelt or just want a strange story to tell about a hole you played next to a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere, Australia has a golf trip for pretty much every kind of player.

🌵 More courses worth the detour

Beyond the headline names, Australia has a handful of courses that don’t always make the top-ten lists but are still worth building a day around if you’re already in the region.

🏜️ Ayers Rock Resort Golf, Northern Territory

Not a full 18-hole course, but a genuinely memorable nine-hole layout with Uluru visible from several tees. It’s less about the quality of the golf and more about the setting — there’s something surreal about lining up a putt with one of the most recognisable rock formations on Earth glowing red in the background at sunset.

🌴 Palm Meadows, Gold Coast

The Gold Coast has one of the highest concentrations of golf courses in the country, and Palm Meadows is generally considered the pick of them. It’s a resort-style course, wide and forgiving compared to the wind-battered links further south, which makes it a popular choice for golfers travelling with family who aren’t all playing.

🍇 The Vintage, Hunter Valley

Set among the vineyards north of Sydney, The Vintage combines two 18-hole courses with the wine region’s usual drawcards — cellar doors, restaurants and boutique accommodation all within a short drive. It’s an easy course to pair with a weekend of wine tasting rather than a dedicated golf trip.

🎒 What to pack for an Australian golf trip

Australian courses cover a wider range of conditions than most golfers are used to packing for in one trip, so it pays to think beyond your usual kit.

• 🧴 Strong sunscreen, reapplied often: The UV index across most of Australia is significantly higher than in the UK, US or Europe, even on overcast days.
• 🧢 A wide-brimmed hat: Standard golf caps leave your ears and neck exposed, which adds up over four hours on an exposed links course.
• 🧥 A proper windproof layer: Essential for Tasmania and King Island, where wind is a constant factor rather than an occasional one.
• 👟 Waterproof spikes: Morning dew is heavy on coastal courses, and starts can be surprisingly soggy even on a dry-looking day.
• 🥤 A refillable water bottle: Remote courses, especially on the Nullarbor, have limited facilities between holes.

One last practical note: dress codes are taken seriously at Australia’s private clubs. Collared shirts and tailored shorts or trousers are standard, and denim is almost universally banned on course. It’s worth checking a club’s specific policy before you turn up, particularly if you’re visiting one of the exclusive Sandbelt or Sydney clubs as a guest.

📅 Best time of year to play

Timing matters more in Australia than golfers from milder climates might expect, since the country spans everything from tropical north to temperate south.

Tasmania and King Island play best from November to April, when the wind is at its calmest and daylight hours are longest. Melbourne’s Sandbelt is comfortable almost year-round, though winter mornings can be frosty. The Gold Coast and tropical north are best avoided during the wet season from December to March, when afternoon storms are a near-daily occurrence, while the Nullarbor is far more pleasant outside the peak summer heat of December and January, when daytime temperatures on the open plain can climb well past 40°C.