Course 35 for 2022 – Cooktown, Qld
The pretty, 125m par3 2nd
Nomadic_golfer : August 2022
Par 65, 4297m, slope 102 $30
7 par3s 106-219m, 11 par4s 238-367m
This sand-based seaside 9 hole course in the iconic, historic port of Cooktown is Australia’s northern most, East-coast located golf course. Set amongst the dunes in tropical bushland, the sandy undulating terrain looks perfect for a golf course. Jutting out on a peninsula, it gets pretty windy out there.
The course is very short at under 4500m but there are some tricks and very penal tight par4s, which make scoring tricky. Some local knowledge is required to work out where you are going, and there are some big decisions off the tees of some of the par4s. On my visit, some disease had taken hold of the greens so it wasn’t in its best condition but it’s worth a hit for the novelty and challenge alone. My recollection is that there is just the 1 bunker on the course, but it’s main defences are the thick tropical foliage lining the fairways on the perimeter of the course and the abundance of sandy lies found if you miss fairways or greens
My favourite holes were the 125m 2nd (pretty, uphill 1-shotter with bunker short left) and 340m 4th (super risk reward tee shot on a hard dog-leg right over a sand-dune, which opens up to an undulating fairway and sunken green). In terms of tricky, the 220m par3 6th (blind, to a 2-tiered green that drops off dramatically short and left) and ultra tight & penal 315m par4 8th (drastic trouble both sides of a ridge-back fairway) are a couple of the tougher holes you’ll play.
Overall, plan an early round to beat the tropical heat, take this as a relaxed game of holiday golf, don’t try to overpower the course and you can have some fun here.
