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Australia's Top Public Access Courses

The GOLF Course Guide has featured a list of courses available for Green Fee Play for over two decades, and coined the term 'public access' to describe these courses.

Although other publications publish rankings that include all the best Private Golf Clubs, we think it's important to focus on those layouts where everyone can get a game. Golf Australia Magazine now also publishes their list of Public Access Rankings, and the criteria (this year) are very similar to The GOLF Course Guide's, allowing direct comparison.

Latest Public Access Rankings Compared

Here we compare the Public Access Rankings from The GOLF Course Guide 2024 with Golf Australia Magazine Jan 2024 and Golf Digest May 2024 Top 100 rankings for ALL courses, from which we are able to extract the Public Access courses - see table below.

The Criteria - also see Comments below

GCG Criteria: 40% Design, 40% Conditions, 20% Aesthetics

Golf Australia Criteria: 60% Design, 20% Conditions, 20% Aesthetics   (50% Design, 40% Conditions, 10% Aesthetics last year)

Golf Digest Criteria: 20 points Shot Options, 10 points each each - Challenge, Layout Variety, Distinctiveness, Aesthetics, Conditioning, Character. Total score out of 80.

The Guide process always adjusts for a particular judge's harshness/leniency and also discards 'spurious' numbers that are well out of line with the consensus. There is no mention of these factors in either magazine. 

PUBLIC ACCESS COURSE 2024 GOLF Course Guide (Nov 23) Golf Australia Mag Jan 2024 Golf Digest
May 2024
CAPE WICKHAM 1 1 1
BARNBOUGLE DUNES 2 2 2
BARNBOUGLE LOST FARM 3 3 3
OCEAN DUNES 4 5 4
BARWON HEADS 5 7 6
THE DUNES 6 8 8
ST ANDREWS BEACH 7 4 7
JOONDALUP - QUARRY/DUNES 8 14 5
NEWCASTLE 9 11 10
THIRTEENTH BEACH - BEACH 10 9 11
MOONAH LINKS - LEGENDS 11 19 18
BONVILLE   12 13 12
BOUGLE RUN 13 15 27
MAGENTA SHORES 14 12 13
KENNEDY BAY 15 nc nc
LONSDALE LINKS 16 6 14
HAMILTON ISLAND 17 20 9
MOONAH LINKS - OPEN 18 32 20
PORTSEA 19 17 21
THE CUT 20 28 15
SANCTUARY COVE - THE PINES 21 29 16
KALGOORLIE 22 33 25
LINKS HOPE ISLAND 23 24 23
PORT FAIRY 24 10 22
NAROOMA 25 46 47
BROOKWATER 26 16 17
ST MICHAEL'S 27 26 19
LINKS LADY BAY 28 36 28
THIRTEENTH BEACH - CREEK 29 23 30
PACIFIC DUNES 30 nr 32
THE VINTAGE 31 27 24
MEADOW SPRINGS 32 25 34
KOORALBYN VALLEY 33 nr nr
MOUNT COMPASS 34 42 37
SANDY LINKS 35 18 26
SANCTUARY LAKES 36 34 39
LAKELANDS 37 nr 35
CURLEWIS 38 21 29
GLADES 39 41 36
PACIFIC HARBOUR 40 nr 46
MURRAY DOWNS 41 47 56
ROSEBUD - NORTH 42 22 33
SANCTUARY COVE - THE PALMS 43 nr 41
CAPE SCHANCK 44 52 38
NOOSA SPRINGS  45 nr 58
SECRET HARBOUR   46 nr 51
PALMER COOLUM 47 nr 43
SETTLERS RUN 48 37 42
CRANBOURNE 49 31 nc
TASMANIA 50 40 nr
LONG REEF 51 nr nr
BLACK BULL 52 43 40
ARALUEN 53 nr nr
WARRNAMBOOL 54 45 52
THE VINES - LAKES 55 nr nr
HORSHAM 56 nr nr
MAROOCHY RIVER 57 38 54
SUN CITY 58 48 nr
CLUB MANDALAY 59 nr nr
CYPRESS LAKES 60 nr 50
STONECUTTERS RIDGE 61 44 44
FLINDERS 62 nr nr
BELMONT 63 50 nr
TWIN WATERS 64 nr 49
QUEENSCLIFF 65 nr nr
FORSTER-TUNCURRY - TUNCURRY 66 nr 55
RANFURLIE 67 30 nr
YARRAWONGA - MURRAY 68 nr nr
LEONGATHA 69 nr nr
MOLLYMOOK - HILLTOP 70 nr 45
FEDERAL 71 49 50
CAPRICORN 72 nr nr
ROYAL PINES - GREEN/GOLD 73 nr 53
EYNESBURY 74 nr nr
SANDHURST - CHAMPIONS 75 nr nr
PALMER GOLD COAST 76 nr nr
ALBANY 77 nr 57
OCEAN SHORES 78 nr nr
BALLARAT 79 nr nr
ROYAL HOBART 80 nr nr
GROWLING FROG 81 nr nr
ULVERSTONE 82 nr nr
KOOINDAH WATERS 83 nr nr
ROSEBUD - SOUTH 84 nr nr
SHEPPARTON 85 nr nr
DUNTRYLEAGUE 86 nr nr
LAKESIDE CAMDEN 87 nr nr
PORTARLINGTON 88 nr nr
COBRAM BAROOGA - OLD 89 nr nr
MORNINGTON 90 nr nr
PALM MEADOWS 91 nr nr
TWIN CREEKS 92 nr nr
BRIGHTON LAKES 93 nr nr
BUNBURY 94 nr nr
COPPERCLUB 95 nr nr
MURWILLUMBAH 96 nr nr
SANDS TORQUAY 97 nr nr
NUDGEE 98 nr nr
SANDHURST - NORTH 99 nr nr
GARDINERS RUN 100 nr nr

nr =  not ranked. NB for both magazines this is in overall Top 100 (including Private courses) hence their list of Public Access rankings is shorter.

nc KENNEDY BAY was not considered by either magazine as only the new nine holes were open; PELICAN WATERS was not considered by the Guide. HERITAGE Golf and Country Club elected not to offer Public Access to its HENLEY and ST JOHN courses so these are not listed. Both courses at RIVERSIDE OAKS were closed due to the floods until mid-July 2022, and were not considered fully recovered.

Comments

Golf Australia Magazine previously ranked all courses by asking each judge to award 100 points to the top course, 99 to the next, etc. and to place primary importance on design, followed by conditioning and visual appeal. We were critical of the unscientific nature of this method. Their new criteria (revised this year to place even more emphasis on design and aesthetics and less on conditioning) aligns well with the GOLF Course Guide, but their (previous) definition of CONDITION includes:

  • "The overall condition of playing surfaces. Take into consideration elements out of control of course staff like drought, bushfire and flood."  The Guide does not suggest this to judges, we ask them to judge on what they see, and hope to present a fair assessment of year-round conditions since our judges visit throughout the year.
  • "Are the fairways cut to be well-defined from semi-rough and rough?" The Guide does not consider this a desirable feature at all. We dont believe in 'prescriptive' mowing patterns. We like the fairways to blend naturally into the roughs, and feel that a distinct 'first cut' is often penal for the golfer who 'just misses' the closely mown fairway edge.

All three publications named the same top 3 - all new Tasmanian links. There is little significant difference in the top 20 courses, with GA Mag favouring ST ANDREWS BEACH and LONSDALE LINKS more than Digest or The Guide, and being harsher on JOONDALUP.  PORT FAIRY and CURLEWIS and SANDY LINKS are also GA Mag favourites. The Guide marks BROOKWATER down a little as we find it penal for many public players. We remain baffled that our #33 KOORALBYN, the re-opened Gold Coast Icon has yet to be ranked by either magazine. NAROOMA fell back from last year's #15 spot for GA Mag to mid 40s with Digest, whilst the Guide ranked it 25.