Blog 314 – Coonabarabran

Nomadic_golfer : December 2025 – Coonabarabran, NSW, review

Par 72 6190m Slope 136 $25 – 9 Hole Course

4 par3s 145-195m, 10 par4s 320-430m, 4 par5s 437-472m

This transitory town on the Newell Hwy, an hour or so West of Tamworth may well have the highest ratio of B-Double traffic to head of population in the country. Tucked a couple of km’s out on the ‘quiet side’ of town in a quintessential Aussie bush setting is the 9-hole layout of the Coonabarabran Golf Club.

The site is on a fairly consistent, but very slight tilt, sloping down from the clubhouse, which is at a high point on the course, 10-20m above the playing arena. The first tee sits up at that level, as do the 2nd and 9th greens. As such, there aren’t any notable elevation changes to speak of.

The property is adorned with 20-30m tall gum trees, which line fairways in a single row on many holes, typically 20 to 30m apart (with trees out wider less uniform), providing opportunities to bump and shape recovery shots. Landing areas on fairways are of standard width but tree encroachment on most holes has resulted in numerous chutes to negotiate off the tees, especially from the back markers. The majority of greens are on the small side (but there are a couple of larger examples like the square-ish first) and are typically elevated a little.

The bones of the layout are quite solid, with some well designed holes providing options and the need to think through the best approach (2, 5, 6, 9). There are also some quirky, baffling holes, that make you laugh on the tee and have you questioning the designer’s sanity (4, 7, 8) on first viewing. On reflection, it is only ‘overgrowth’ on these 3 holes (esp 4 & 7) that has resulted in lines of passage being ridiculously narrow – I reckon the intent and initial execution was fine.

While different tee-blocks (front 9 v back 9 if you are playing 18) are typically large distances apart, they don’t really change the angles aprt form on the 6th. For a country track it is quite long at 6200m and there aren’t many easy holes – the par 3s are especially tough.

My favourite holes were: 2 (predominantly straight 458m par5 / 353m par4 with the green tucked to the right behind a massive gum about 150m out which dictates all your plans); 5 (470m par5 / 370m par4 right to left off the tee around a number of medium sized gums, before a row of poplars sitting in a penalising creek-bed start at about 220m out up to 100m out. It then opens up on the right, before a beautiful setting with slightly elevated green in front of a thick copse of smaller gums, bunkered front left and right); and 6 (360m / 320m par4s with thick gums down the left and a small copse of gums on the right at driving distance. The 15th is the longer of the two, and plays as a dogleg left, with a driver making it very narrow indeed – decisions to be made off the tee here), while the 195m 4th has to be one of the more difficult par3’s I’ve encountered. Trees have popped up on this hole that now give you about a 10m gap to negotiate at about the 100m mark.

While the layout/ design is pretty solid, conditioning and upkeep looks like a challenge currently. The kikuyu tees and fairways don’t have much cover, except for the green surrounds which get the majority of the sprinkler traffic and are quite well grassed and very soft. The bent grass greens are very patchy, and look to have some issues. Overall, I summise that the course is some distance from its best days and I hope there is a pathway back. A good layout and a very welcoming and well appointed clubhouse represent a very solid foundation.