Extreme golf? Try "holing in one" on THIS course!!

[mc_squared]

Nullarbor Links: Teeing off, the record-breaking golf course where a good driver is essential (it's 850 miles long)

 

By Mail Foreign Service

Last updated at 2:31 PM on 22nd October 2009

 

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Golfers who tee up to play on a new course in Australia will be warned they'll have to be prepared for some long drives - in more ways than one.

For the 18 holes on the Nullabor Links cover the world's longest golf course - an amazing 848 miles and 171 yards, stretching across the outback from South Australia into Western Australia.

The course - dreamed up over 'a couple of beers' and five years in the making - has opened Down Under today.

 

People eager to play have to drive many miles between each fairway to reach the next hole, spending the night in outback hotels before proceeding to the next tee.

 

Enlarge Where's a golf cart when you need it? Golfers trudge along one of the roads on the newly-opened Nullarbor Links golf course, the longest in the world

 

Enlarge The Nullarbor Links concept is unique. The 18-hole par 72 golf course will span 1,365 kilometers with one hole in each participating town or roadhouse along the Eyre Highway

The Nullabor Links - extending in a series of holes between Ceduna in South Australia and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia - saw its first tee-off today. The operators have been receiving contacts from excited golfers in Britain, Japan and China for months.

 

Project manager Alf Caputo said the course would give golfers the time of their lives, allowing them to engage in their favourite sport while enjoying the amazing scenery of the outback.

'Some of the holes are in some very interesting locations,' he said.

'For instance, one of them is right smack bang in the middle of a sheep station.

 

'So while you're strolling down the fairway you can see the sheep running around and you might get the chance to peer into the shearing shed.

 

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Hole 1: 'Oyster Beds', left, is a 485 yard par five. Hole 14: 'Golden Horse' is a 346 yard par four

 

 

Enlarge Hole 7: 'Nullarbor Nymph' by the Eucla golf coursel is a 315 yard par four

 

 

'You can imagine that international tourists will have never seen anything like it in their lives - and that would include Aussies, too.'

 

Another hole is in the middle of a wheat farming area, where, depending on the season, golfers will be able to watch huge harvesting machines churning across the nearby paddocks.

Golfers are likely to encounter some unexpected hazards in the form of bounding kangaroos and perhaps a dingo, Australia's wild desert dog.

There's also the chance that big crows and other birds of prey that live in the outback will swoop down and steal a golf ball, which has happened on suburban golf courses.

'There's some amazing scenery out there and before we devised Nullabor Links there was no magnet to bring people out there to have a look at these beautiful things' said Mr Caputo.

It s hoped the new world-record course will attract many thousands more tourists than the 250,000 who travel along the Eyre Highway, between Adelaide in South Australia and Perth in Western Australia, each year.

Tourist operators have arranged holiday packages that will allow golfers to fly into Adelaide to get close to the first hole and out of Perth after the 18th, with accommodation along the course.

 

Enlarge Big job: A worker carves out the eighth tee in the outback

 

 

Enlarge Hole 4: Wombat Hole is a monster 520 yard par five

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1222109/Nullarbor-Links-Teeing-record-breaking-golf-course-good-driver-essential-850-miles-long.html#ixzz0Ug5JYxQK

[busybeeburns]

and if there's a tied leaderboard at the end you have to go all the way back to the first and tenth to play them again!

[mc_squared]

I'm amazed they didn't use a kangaroo's pouch as one of the holes........................ :rolleyes: