Course 9 for 2021, South Broken Hill, NSW
You’ll hit your longest drives here
Nomadic_golfer : February 2021
Par 72, 6258m, green fee $10, Slope 118
3 par 3s from 123-199m, 12 par 4s from 302-403m, 3 par 5s from 463-507m
The town of Broken Hill needs no introduction to any Aussie. It’s the quintessential outback town in the far west of NSW, and runs on SA time. The world’s largest miner was founded in the region. And the town has two 18 hole golf courses; my previous round was at the impressive and well-watered Golf & Country Club. Today’s round is at the South Broken Hill GC.
This track has very similar assets to the White Cliffs course, I didn’t get to play with the locals but I hope they have the same sense of humour. It’s a course on a rock base and on paper it has some length at over 6250m but there is a lot of run out there and it doesn’t play quite that long. The scrapes are a shale/ sand mix and the tees have synthetic turf.
The course’s length is its only real defence. I only played the front 9, and the 7 par 4’s were all straight. There were some different hazards here; a couple of dry creek beds and something that resembled a bike jump that presented a roadblock to the typical bump and run approach. The 2 non-par 4’s were interesting: the par 5 4th; a 475m, 90 degree dogleg right at 300m around an OB fence, so you have to travel over the OB area with your second. Cut off as much as you like to lay up or take it on and go for the green; and the par 3 9th, 123m uphill over a dry creek-bed and trees to a heavily sloping scrape.
The highlight is the contrasting colours amid the harsh surrounds. Sunset or Sunrise will find it at it’s best. Over 18 holes here, you will get to use a lot of the clubs in your bag too; the length sees to that – there is only 1 hole under 190m.
