Aussie course 19 for 2026, all-time #487. Capricorn Resort, Yeppoon
The right to left sweeping par5 15th. The inside track is ‘no go’
Nomadic_golfer : August 2026 – Capricorn Resort, Yeppoon, Qld, review
Par 72 6031m Slope128 $40
4 par3s 154-165m, 10 par4s 324-381m, 4 par5s 444-526m
This former AGD Aussie Top 100 Course (it reached its high of 39 in 1996), was opened as part of the Japanese-owned resort back in 1992. Designed by American Karl Litten, it was the second 18-hole layout for the resort, dubbed ‘The Championship Course’, with Thomson & Wolveridge’s ‘Resort Course’ opening with the resort itself in 1986.
Following financial problems, the resort and resort course closed in 2016, but this course remains open, albeit with a scaled back pro-shop/ closed clubhouse and what appears to be a scaled-back course maintenance program. But don’t let that deter you, this is a serious golf course in a beautiful sub-tropical bush setting with lots of Aussie wildlife to boot.
Cut from the bush, everything is on a large scale. For all intents & purposes you cannot see another hole from the hole you are playing – just you, your golf ball, birdsong, and perhaps the odd expletive. For those who like a golf course to be ‘fair’ (not me btw) and poor shots penalised more for each degree wider you go, this one probably fits that bill. The playing corridors are very generous, with short grass well beyond the fairways in amongst sparsely populated, but well-located trees. But don’t go any wider than that, it is no use looking for a ball out there!!
Fairways consist of kikuyu and some locally occurring stuff and were in pretty good condition on my dry-season visit. Bunkers are prominent, with a great range of sizes from small pots, to huge, sprawling sand traps, and they were kept in good condition too. Unfortunately the greens weren’t travelling so well, lots of bare patches and invasion from other grasses. Infrastructure was a bit sad too, cart paths etc not in the best nick. There are a few signs of being short on funds. But none of this takes away from the design – 18 holes of quality in a setting that feels like you are at one with nature.
Hole quality is very consistent, nothing stood out as poor, though the par5 18th was a slight letdown as the quality of the previous 3 finishing holes was right up there. And there are numerous highlights. The start is tough – a real 3-shotter off the bat, a snaking 400m par4 index 1 as the 2nd, 170m to a green with as many bunkers as the 7th at Royal Adelaide as the 3rd, and then the 400m par4 4th, memorable for it’s challenge, bending slighty left and hindered by a reed-filled water course cutting across the fairway diagonally from 180m out on the right side to 130m out on the left.
Other memorable holes for me were: 11 (a beautiful 170m par3, slightly downhill over water that finishes 10m shy of a large and very wide green which has 2 distinct levels, high left and low right, with the water extending around the right side of the green; 13 (360m to a tighter fairway, with large mounds assisting as bumpers down both sides of the fairway initially, befor a step down into a fairway-wide pond at about 270m from the blacks. There are multiple levels of this fairway as it steps down toward the pond so you must know your driving length. It then requires a pitch across the pond, which wraps around the left side and back. Palm trees block approaches from the right and the green is flanked by bunkers on the left); and 15 (a shorter par5, at 470m from the blacks, it sweeps left around water for it’s entirety, a small copse of trees on the inside corner to tempt the bold, with defences for the more direct, inside left, reinforced by a line of 12 bunkers running from 200m out to the green. A large gum sits smack in your eye line, on the direct line to the green at the top of the bank adjacent to the water, with the small green, tucked another degree left for good measure).
In general, the wide fairways are rolling, and bound by mounds on multiple holes – I assume most of this involved pushing dirt around, but the majority of the large wetlands and creeks that the course routes around, and are integral to the make-up of multiple holes, appear to be natural. Green complexes are really varied in both size and nature. There are 3 or 4 very narrow greens but I’m not sure if they were all designed that way or remodelled as condition deteriorated. It is a super set of par 3s, with water on 3 of them, although from the whites there is only 10m difference between the shortest and longest.
And weirdly, what’s this with all the tee-block sign measurements in yards?
