Blog 322 – Streaky Bay

Nomadic_golfer : February 2026 – Streaky Bay, SA, review

Par 72 5977m Slope 118 $30 – 9 hole course

4 par3s 123-188m, 10 par4s 323-383m, 4 par5s 465-507m

This is an unusual site for an Australian golf course. Set on a thin strip of land, behind town about 500m from the bay, it more-or-less matches the town’s width and never really gets more than 2 fairways wide, ‘links-like’. You get to cross 2 roads and hit your tee shot across a public road on the par5 2nd, with that road immediately in front of the tee.

Two loops (one either side of a central clubhouse) comprise the 9 holes which has elevation changes well suited to golf. The first 6 holes on the SW side of the clubhouse generally camber down towards the town and bay, with the last 3 sloping the other way.

Couch grasses throughout, fairways very dry but that’s ok on the Eyre Peninsula in February. Tees are very small but nicely grassed, green structure generally conservative, with 2 or 3 different shapes, gentle tilts and a tier or two here and there. The couch greens play ‘prickly’ but were very evenly covered for where it is at this time of year.

There is not much science to the hole design, with a number of reverse cambers and upside-down saucers for greens making control tricky, to offset a layout that doesn’t have many hazards, and has adjacent fairways for bail-outs all the way around. A sparse population of small-ish trees gives you a free-swinging approach, just beware of the OB fences – but there is typically some bail-out on the opposite side to the OB and you don’t generally get penalised if you come in from that bail-out side.

Its a relatively tough start, with the index 1 hole in your face first up, as is the prevailing breeze, for your opening tee shot, on the 383m par4. The first ~230m is slightly uphill to a wide fairway and no real hazards, sparsely populated trees and camber left to right. It then flattens out to a wide, shallow green with a tier running longways through it, left-side high.

The par5s were the pick of the holes for mine. 2 / 11 is a very gettable downhill 461m par5. The tee shot over the road is downhill, as is the first ~375m of the hole before it turns hard left against the camber, between the 10-12 trees on the inside corner. You get a really good look at the green from the fairway between trees for your second, and you may even have a strong draw option with your second following the line of the fairway, if you play out to the adjoining right fairway off the tee. You would likely need the atypical NE wind to allow this though.

The 7th/ 16th is pretty cool, and something different – sharing a fairway, but each hole having its own separate tee and green. On a left to right camber and OB right the 477m 7th is straightaway and quite wide until the final 90m where trees on both sides are as penal as anywhere on the course. Be confident with your ability on a long second here, or layup. The 507m 16th branches off 45 degrees left for the last 100m, which is again the narrowest part of that hole.

The greens on the 332m 4th (diagonally positioned, short-left to long right, quite narrow and well-elevated all the way around) and 337/ 350m 8th (3 tiered, very narrow and severely sloped to the front, though the ‘prickly’ nature of the surface means that it is nowhere near as scary as it looks) are the 2 most extreme.

Overall, while the width and tree scarcity gives a very forgiving look, it also makes the course quite exposed to the everpresent Eyre Peninsula winds. The fairway slopes and green topography/ size combinations also increase the degree of difficulty on hard, fast fairways. It would present a ‘tricky’ test in almost all conditions. And the green surfaces are a rarity in this neck of the woods, so enjoy them.

Above & Below – the par5s in 7 and 16. 2nd photos in each string show the different routes to the respective greens. 7 (above) continues straight on with OB outside of those right trees, while 16 (below) turns 45 degrees left, away from the fence.