The GOLF Course Guide presents the most comprehensive assessment of where to play golf in Australia – with separate lists showing how our judges ranked the candidates in each of three key criteria: Design, Conditions and Aesthetics. Courses must be available for green fee players most of the year. The list includes all Public Courses; all Resort Courses (with accommodation on site - at some courses an onsite stay may be required in order to access the course), and many Private Members Clubs where green fee players are welcomed.

Overall Rankings - see below - Ranking period October 2023 to September 2024

Design Rankings - click here
Conditions Rankings - click here
Aesthetics Rankings - click here

Top 100 2024*  from the 2025 GOLF Course Guide

(* Courses judged Oct 2023 to Sept 2024)

This year, for the first time since its rival on King Island opened, BARNBOUGLE DUNES, Tom Doak’s masterpiece near Bridport on Tasmania’s North Coast has been voted back into top spot by our team of judges, courtesy of a slightly better score in the conditions category. Our readers have always told us that conditioning is important for a Public Access (Green Fee) course, so we award 40% weighting to this criterion.

CAPE WICKHAM links on King Island, Tasmania, retained top honours for both Design and Aesthetics, coming in at #2 overall, ironically in the same year that Golf Digest Magazine judged it Australia’s best course, ahead of Royal Melbourne West. A very creditable 5th place for conditioning saw it slip into second place on our Public Access list.

BARNBOUGLE LOST FARM #3 remained on top of the Conditions list, Barnbougle Dunes 2nd with the fun BOUGLE RUN, 14 short holes by Architect Bill Coore amongst towering sand dunes between Lost Farm’s two nines at Barnbougle again ranked third for Conditioning and #11 overall (#13 last year). We haven’t included any nine hole course in our list, partly because we’re unsure what penalty to apply for the obvious reduction in variety, but our judges’ pick in this category would be TEVEN VALLEY, Craig Parry’s redesign of a delightful little layout in northern NSW set on the hilly banks of Maguires Creek.

BARWON HEADS #4 on Melbourne’s Bellarine Peninsula and THE DUNES #5 across Port Philip Bay on the Mornington Peninsula each improved one place.

OCEAN DUNES on King Island came in at #6 (third in design, fourth in aesthetics) with our judges noting a minor drop in turf conditioning. Thus Tasmania retains our top 3 public access courses and the top 3 in each category, our judges continuing to enjoy the fun golf provided by the architecture and stunning coastal views.

ST ANDREWS BEACH retained #7, giving Tom Doak two of our highest ranked layouts (Barnbougle Dunes and St Andrews Beach).

Thus no change in our top 7, all links style layouts with firm, fast surfaces. The Tasmanian quartet all grassed with hard fescue throughout fairways and greens.

JOONDALUP unchanged at #8 was again the highest ranking inland course where we select the QUARRY/DUNES combination as being the best. The only other non-coastal course in our top 20 is the stunning BONVILLE Resort #10, up 2 spots, near Coffs Harbour which continues to reign as our ‘most beautiful mainland course’. Bonville moved up several spots in our Design rankings, as did THE CUT #14 overall, as our judges focus on fun layouts for green fee players of all abilities not just pure strategic challenge for the better golfer.

SANDY LINKS moved up 10 places to #25. This delightful, fun public track from the Ogilvy, Cocking, Mead team is maintained by staff from Royal Melbourne across the road and was ranked #8 for conditions. Whist the holes are short, this is pure Sandbelt golf that anyone can enjoy for a reasonable price. We wish there were more courses like this in Metropolitan areas.

RIVERSIDE OAKS – BUNGOOL returns to our list at #31 after extensive maintenance necessitated by floodwaters. The course was designed by Bob Harrison who did much of the work in Australia that bears Greg Norman’s name.

In a list that has changed little since last year, CURLEWIS rose 4 places to #34, ROSEBUD – NORTH 7 spots to #42 and BLACK BULL 15 places to #37 all largely with improved conditioning scores. TASMANIA rose 9 spots to #41 mainly due to a better score for aesthetics.

THE VINES #48 represents a new 18 holes in WA’s Swan Valley which are essentially the old composite (Lakes and Ellenbrook) championship course at the Resort. PELICAN WATERS #49 returns to the list after some new work and a reconfiguration of the two Greg Norman designed nines.

Three courses entered the list from the “next twenty” of last year – LAKES ENTRANCE, PALMER SEA REEF and BRIBIE ISLAND, leaving this year’s unlucky twenty (in alphabetic order):

• ALICE SPRINGS
• BRIGHTON LAKES
• BYRON BAY
• COBRAM BAROOGA - WEST
• COOLANGATTA - RIVER
• COPPERCLUB
• INDOOROOPILLY - EAST
• LANG LANG
• LIVERPOOL
• MACQUARIE LINKS
• MANDURAH
• MILLICENT
• MOUNT GAMBIER
• PALM MEADOWS
• PORT MACQUARIE
• SANDHURST - NORTH
• THE COAST
• VICTOR HARBOUR
• WOLLONGONG
• YERING MEADOWS - NURSERY

Both RIVER and WEST Courses at COOLANGATTA & TWEED HEADS were excluded this year due to renovations that saw course access limited to Members only.

HOW THE LISTS WERE COMPILED

The GOLF Course Guide established a numerical course ranking system in 1998 and was the first Australian publication to do that.

The Guide’s criteria are;

Course Design (40% weighting): How each hole presents an enjoyable, interesting challenge to golfers of all abilities from scratch markers to high handicappers and shorter hitters. The variety of different holes that make up the course, and the variety of shots that they require to test every facet of your game. How well the course exploits the ‘best’ set and sequence of holes the land offers, and how well the routing takes the golfer on a journey of discovery. The strategic design of each hole - where hazards come into play, reward for risk takers of an easier subsequent shot, with a more difficult shot or possibly an additional stroke for those who choose to play safely.
Courses that offer higher handicappers a manageable test (from appropriate tees) will find themselves ranked better in this Guide, and courses that are really only playable by low markers will be ranked lower. Courses with two separate 18s considered as two courses; where 27 holes available, the “best” 18 selected.

Course Conditions (40% weighting): Year round playing conditions (from best to worst season) and course maintenance of greens (greatest weighting), fairways, tees, roughs and hazards.

Course Aesthetics (20% weighting): The obvious beauty of the setting and also that very subjective quality of ambience and tranquillity that allows the golfer to lose himself in his environment.

Judges scores are mathematically adjusted to account for any particular harshness or leniency and spurious results are eliminated.
Panellists were asked to score only courses they had played. Colleagues who play certain courses frequently were consulted to more accurately assess year round conditions. The judging period was from October 2021 to September 2022.

Where we really deliver on our objective to ‘guide’ readers to courses they will enjoy is by publishing three distinct lists – rankings by Design, Conditions and Aesthetics – allowing readers effectively to select their own criteria and weightings. For some golfers, the thrill of playing golf in a stunning environment can far outweigh lacklustre design strategy, and even mediocre fairway conditions. For these players, our allocation of only 20% weighting will seem inadequate, and they should seek out courses from our Best Aesthetics list, rather than the overall rankings.

THE JUDGES

We recognise the subjective nature of our rankings and suggest their use as a guide only. If you’d like to have your say about any of our lists go to www.ausgolf.com.au/course-rankingsThe Judges

We recognise the subjective nature of our rankings and suggest their use as a guide only. If you’d like to have your say about any of our lists go to www.ausgolf.com.au/course-rankings

Our sincere thanks to all our judges. It’s a labour of love, so if any reader feels qualified, please contact us.