Cape Wickham Golf Links
Barely a drop of ink on a map between Melbourne and Northern Tasmania, with a population touching 1,600, King Island is hardly a destination people inadvertently stumble across. An oftentimes turbulent puddle-jumper journey separates the island from the mainland, stamping an immediate intrepidness on the trip. Whilst small, the island’s landscapes are more inspiring and diverse than many countries’ as rolling farmland collides with pristine sandy coves and rocky shores. It is of little wonder then, why Darius Oliver who co-designed Cape Wickham alongside Mike Devries, became so enamoured by a rugged, raw and exposed site along the island’s northern tip.
The rocky shores of King Island (11th green)
Prior to its opening, Oliver described Cape Wickham’s location as “adjacent Australia’s tallest lighthouse and blessed with the most spectacular dunes, ocean, cliff and beach combination I had seen anywhere in the world”, and as golfers first reach the clubhouse overlooking the closing stretch and the Bass Strait, they will do little more than nod in agreement. It is spectacular, and the closest encounter that golfers will have with playing on the edge of the world. The location’s unbroken solitude and intrepid sense of adventure so wonderfully intoxicating, whilst the fact it exists entirely astonishing.
Truly one of golf's most spectacular settings
Cape Wickham’s site is one of sheer intensity - steep cliffsides, rollicking sandhills, rocky coastline and one of the game’s most extreme weather satellites which sees fierce winds hiss off the Bass Strait. The scale of its features are extreme and varied, its textures natural and gritty and an at times severe cant of the land tips everything toward the ocean. This distinct rowdiness stamps a clear identity on Cape Wickham as one of the most rock and roll journeys in all of golf and makes the coherence, flow and playability of Oliver & Devries’ routing all the more impressive.
Tumbling terrain pours toward the 9th green
A daring opening along the cliffs, an inland romp through the sandhills, a pair of trips to the rocky shoreline and a crescendo atop the cliffs - were there no golf at Wickham it would remain one hell of a walk, such is its exhilaration and wonder. For a site so varied and extreme, the architects forged a routing which flows effortlessly across the property with little feeling heavy handed or forced. Holes sit gently on the land, perfectly in keeping with their surroundings – a product of simply reacting to and maximising the natural qualities of the site.
This fearless approach to reactionary design lends itself to some highly provocative golf, delivering a handful of distinctly original holes unbound from the confines of responsible architecture, often leaving golfers scratching their head and grinning ear to ear. Devries and Oliver have golfers plunging down ski slopes, aiming 30 yards from flagsticks, launching tee shots over dunes into the abyss, tiptoeing along tees and greens amongst rock outcroppings, and stopping wedges on a dining table between a plummeting ravine and the Bass Strait. Wickham is a thrill machine – a tour de force of golf not found anywhere else in the world and a relentless assault on the golfer’s pulse.
The bunkerless second green uses the land beautifully
Though eccentric at times, Wickham’s strategic integrity provides a true depth of golf, which often goes awry on such a boisterous site. It’s width and scale makes room for thoughtful and flexible golf, where each fairway ties into the green surrounds to carve a more favourable angle of attack. Bunkers, though modest in both footprint and count, serve their purpose with efficiency, contesting the bold line from the tee and guarding approaches from the bailed-out line.
Whilst most layouts lose steam as they head inland, Wickham’s strategy combines with more rolling terrain to ensure the golf remains equally compelling. Though much like Cape Kidnappers across the Tasman, Wickham’s strategic star is its use the cliff’s edge and rocky boundaries. Whilst embracing its naturally heroic tendencies by handsomely rewarding the bold golfer who takes on the hair-raising carries and knife’s edge landing zones, the layout consistently offers a safer and more accessible pathway – often leaving a more challenging approach.
The cascading 16th fairway in the shadow of Wickham's iconic lighthouse
There is so much to love at Cape Wickham - it is laid across one of the most incomparable settings in all of golf and the adventure to the first tee is one of the game’s great odysseys. Its golf is thrilling, unique, strategic and above all else, full of enjoyment. The architects’ commitment to minimalism and restraint has allowed the location and land to be the star of the show and few shine brighter as it heads up a short list of truly unforgettable rounds - the type that the golfing pulse yearns for long after the final putt. For a multitude of reasons, it remains incredible that Wickham exists, and for those who make the pilgrimage they remain thankful long after they depart the island. Cape Wickham is a rock star.
One of the game's great jaunts
The First
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Much has been made of Cape Wickham boasting one of the game’s finest closing holes, but the thrills of its opener stamp the layout as the world’s most spectacular bookends. With nothing but the Bass Straight to the right, a generous clifftop fairway greets golfers. With a pair of hazards carved into the left side of the green which opens from the right, the best approach angle is found closest to the cliff’s edge. In many ways the first bottles up the essence of Wickham – simple, playable strategy amongst one of golf’s most breathtaking settings.
A breathtaking first swing
The Third
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The one-shot holes at Cape Wickham are an inspiring set, laid across some of the most dramatic pockets of the property. The third is the last of the initial clifftop jaunt before the routing turns inland, playing across a rocky ravine to a broad putting surface split by a heaving ridge. It’s the raised up left side of the green which makes the shot most engaging, most receptive to a low ball flight moving left to right.
The high left side makes an appealing target
The Ninth
Nowhere in the routing encapsulates the extent of the architect’s reactionary approach to design quite like the wild rollercoaster of a par five which arrives at the ninth. Tumbling down a semi-blind hillside, a blowout bunker blocks off the right side, while a tee shot up a left grants an un-obscured look at the green in two. With the green wedged between a rocky chasm, a pair of sandhills and the Indian Ocean, the approach teeters on a knife’s edge. It’s extraordinarily bold architecture, both provocative and fearless, which delivers an intensely memorable hole which golfers won’t find anywhere else on the planet.
The ninth is golf at its most eccentric
The Tenth
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In the absence of the sharp micro-contouring of traditional linksland, Cape Wickham cuts its teeth on more severe tumbling terrain. The routing tackles the drama in a variety of thrilling ways, most unforgettably at the tumbling ski slope fairway of the driveable tenth, where the lack of strategy is overwhelmed by the thrill of the shot. Cascading downhill, its green bleeding into the ocean, the golfer who can keep their ball between the encroaching marram will find themselves with an excellent chance at a three.
The tumbling 10th
The Eleventh
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With its tee stamped amongst a rocky outcrop separated from the green by crashing waves, the well-travelled golfer can be forgiven for harkening to the sixth at New South Wales. Both holes occupy the most dramatic section of their respective properties and call for heroic, do or die strikes, where holding the green is no given.
Drama and consequence at the short 11th
The Twelfth
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Driveable for some in the right wind, the clifftop twelfth dangles the carrot just enough for the better player as it swoops left to a green parked perilously at the end of the headland. Like the majority of Wickham’s oceanside holes, there is a bailout with a mid-iron away from edge, which leaves a testing pitch into the wonderful catcher’s mitt green complex.
The 12th green makes a tempting target
The Fourteenth
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Whilst naturally much is made of the holes amongst the most dramatic settings, the key to Cape Wickham’s excellence lies in the quality of its inland golf. With its fairway tipping from right to left, the fourteenth tee is dominated by the cluster of diagonal bunkers which litter the landing zone. Once navigated, the fairway snakes gently around the corner to a heaving half punchbowl with ample short grass gathering approaches right of the green. Like many of Wickham’s par fours, the fourteenth chases an exhilarating tee shot with an enticing approach loaded with options – much of what makes Wickham so constantly engaging.
Avoid the string of bunkers and catch the speed slot down 14
The Sixteenth
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An outright stunning corner of the property, the 16th tee climbs from the rocky shoreline to a fairway which cambers quickly towards the water. It’s without doubt aggressive architecture, and in the wrong wind holding the fairway becomes a near impossible task, but the fact that the right edge yields the most comfortable angle of approach softens the blow. Whilst the routing boasts some breathtaking greensites, in the shadow of the lighthouse and Victoria Cove beyond, few can match the aura of the sixteenth.
A stunning look from the 16th tee
The Seventeenth
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​For the majority of the round the architects used hazards sparingly, allowing the natural romp of the land to drive and defend the hole. At the stunning one-shot penultimate hole, a necklace of bunkers clads the right side of the green, poised to catch the weak approach. Long iron in hand, the elongated green angles front left to back right and begs for a running fade which rides the tip of the land.
17 commands a well struck long iron
The Eighteenth
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So often great rounds are let down by less than inspiring holes, used to connect the best land with theclubhouse – not so at Cape Wickham where its gorgeous scene is matched only Pebble Beach’s final chapter. Playing down to a fairway which elegantly wraps around Victoria Cove, golfers are posed the classic question of how much of the beach are you willing to bite off? Stitching together two final heart in mouth swings, the eighteenth makes for an entirely fitting final act to one of golf’s most stirring and exhilarating journeys.
An 18th befitting of its setting