About 15,600km from St Andrews in Scotland and 17,000km from Mar-a-Lago in Florida lies Eucla, Western Australia, where participants of an extraordinary golf tournament gather for a photo on a sunny day. They are playing the Nullarbor Links, the world's longest golf course, stretching 1,365km across ancient, arid desert in outback Australia. Unlike any other golf course globally, this 18-hole, par-72 course starts at Ceduna in South Australia and ends at Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, with significant driving between holes.
A Unique Challenge
Players compete on scrubby dirt and worn astroturf, navigating around shedding gums and across airstrips while dodging snakes, spiders, and wombats. Graeme and Bea Wilmot organize the annual 10-day Chasing the Sun tournament, which concluded on Saturday. Bea Wilmot describes the terrain: "Anything between the tee off and the green is wild outback. There are lots of snakes, lizards, spiders, wombats, dingoes, camels…" Participants have come from Germany, Vietnam, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, alongside Australian grey nomads.
From Golf Widow to Golf Tragic
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."
Holes with Character
The Nullarbor Links names its holes instead of numbering them, allowing play from either direction. There is a hole-in-one competition and a putting challenge. Bea highlights The Wombat Hole at Nundroo, a par five with a dog leg where players cannot see the green from the tee box. "You have to go around the corner and hit blindly. There's rocks and everything in the way," she says. The hole also crosses the Royal Flying Doctor Service airstrip. Groups raise money for the RFDS by fining players for silly or funny actions and collecting donations at roadhouses.
Notable Holes
Other notable holes include the Nullarbor Nymph at Eucla, named after a 1971 hoax about a girl in a furry bikini living with kangaroos. At Balladonia, the Skylab par three commemorates debris from NASA's Skylab spacecraft that landed nearby in July 1979. The roadhouse manager Bob Bongiorno conceived the golf course idea to combat driver fatigue and raise awareness of small towns along the Eyre Highway.
The Tournament Experience
Golfers play a few holes daily, with stops for organized games, meals, drinks, and sightseeing. At Border Village, the group poses with Rooey II, a giant kangaroo offering Vegemite. Players wear team T-shirts featuring Australian road signs warning of wildlife. Paul Windle, the men's net winner and Sharpest Dresser award recipient, sports bright yellow trousers, argyle socks, and a flat cap. He and his partner Kathryn Newcombe took a six-week holiday for the tournament. "I've never had this long off work before," Windle says. "Three times I've woken up and thought I had to go in… but all I have to do is play golf." He notes the unusual greenery due to recent rain: "It's meant to be all red dirt, but there's been so much rain everything's green."
Safety and Advice
The Nullarbor Links website advises players to avoid stepping on snakes and disturbing holes that "could be homes for large spiders, wombats or snakes." It warns: "Keep your hands out of holes!" Leanne Balkin, who runs the Hamilton Island golf club, recommends against bringing yellow balls because "crows steal the yellow balls. They will swoop down and take your ball off the fairway." Grant Hart, the tournament's music man, says he plays every hit from the Eagles, Van Morrison, and Aussie pub rock. Nathan Down, the youngest player at 35, drove his 1982 Land Rover from Melbourne to join the tournament. "Each and every day is an adventure with 25 others that I'll be friends [with] for life," he says.
Bea Wilmot concludes: if you seek manicured lawns, "don't bother coming. But if you want to experience the true Aussie outback, this course is for you."
