Ocean Dunes
‘Destination golf’ is a descriptor thrown around the golfing world a little too loosely these days – there is little sense of adventure or escape in a 90-minute highway jaunt. It is a tagline best reserved for the golfing locale which conclude distinct, unorthodox journeys and shelter from civilization in a place which feels a million miles away. Wandering golfers are rewarded with a wash of isolation and an enduring sense of wonder as they muse over the remarkable corners of the globe which the game pulls them toward.
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On the West Coast of King Island, a tiny splatter of rock, farmland and unspoiled craggy coastline between Tasmania and Melbourne, the fairways of Ocean Dunes rollick across a wild dunescape and along the edge of the Earth. A puddle-jumper from mainland Australia, population 1,000, this is some of the game’s most rewarding and unique destination golf in its most raw, extraordinary and utterly secluded form.
An incredible outpost for golf (10th & 11th)
What is obvious from the outset is that Ocean Dunes boasts one of the game’s most naturally blessed sites. Flooded with an electric combination of diverse landforms overbearing in scale and the wonderful chop of sweeping undulations, the natural variety of the land delivers wide-reaching shots. Brawny dunes akin to those of Ireland’s West Coast dominate the landscape and drive much of the layout’s strategy, while the spectacular rocky shoreline encroaches on the property’s perimeter, carving a handful of opportunities for the golfer to land in its lap.
Wild, raw and intense, the sensory reach of a lap of the property is immense and the countless days in which the notorious gale whips off the water only add to its rugged allure. For the sheer drama, severity and striking natural beauty of Ocean Dunes’ property, there are few opportunities around the world to play the game amongst such an awe-inspiring setting.
The wild drama beyond the first green
Owing to the steepness of its rolling terrain and an intrepid routing which throws golfers up and over dunes, tumbling down hillsides and to all corners of its dramatic property, the spirit of adventure runs free at Ocean Dunes. When combined with the severity of its elements, its layout presents an ideal canvas for a romantically unscientific and creative approach to the game, forcing golfers to react to the uneven lies, distorted depth perception and howling winds – golf is rarely so athletic.
Wild terrain spills down the fifth
Of a similar ethos to its King Island cousin, Cape Wickham, the architect did not shy away from embracing the aggressive chop of the land, spawning some highly provocative and consistently captivating golf. Greens are benched high above fairways, carved into sunken punchbowls, squeezed between dunes and stamped atop rocks rising from the sea. Fairways are rumpled and terraced with a handful of approaches entirely blinded, while doglegs bend sharply as they thread through valleys of dunes. A generous helping of heroic, heart in mouth moments etch themselves into the golfers’ memory – headlined by the pair of breathtaking ocean carries at the one-shot fourth and tenth. This willingness to be bold and take risks in building original holes which sit gently on the land is what makes Ocean Dunes such a thrill, and stepping onto each tee rife with anticipation is a testament to its quality. Like the landscape it traverses, Ocean Dunes’ golf is varied, compelling and immensely invigorating.
The variety of land spawns plenty of original golf
The strategy of Ocean Dunes is driven primarily by the scattered sandhills and contours of the land. Necessitated by the brutality of its winds, fairways offer generous width, though often bottlenecking and pinching the target for longer hitters. When combined with the property’s burly landforms, this width injects strategy and elasticity into the layout, each fairway with a favourable side to approach from – free of blinding dunes and fronting hazards.
The putting surfaces are a bold and imaginative set – particularly given the demanding journey to reach them. Often divided by a domineering ridge or spine which splits the green into multiple tiers and sections, the assortment of flanks and wings give rise to some knife-edge pin positions and reward creative shotmaking. Though demanding, the diversity of their character adds a compelling face to Ocean Dunes’ striking portrait.
The set of greens are far from subdued
Ocean Dunes is a wild, intensely memorable ride. Its golf is striking, original and thought-provoking – visually stimulating, yet sympathetic to the land and its glorious location. Few courses on the planet can match the highs of Ocean Dunes, its breathtaking wild collision of rocky shores, pounding waves and towering dunes – a spellbinding journey of epic proportions.
A relentlessly special setting (11th green)
The First
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Few courses in the world begin with a stretch of holes that can match the the rock and roll, heavy hitting start at Ocean Dunes. The elevated opening tee provides a curious peak at the shoreline flag some 60-degrees from the first swing’s target, as tumbling terrain wraps around an enormous blowout bunker. A gettable par-five, as golfers round the corner, the stunning green site hard up against the crashing waves is revealed, where laying left carves the best angle to avoid the cluster of greenside bunkers. A moment of magic early in the round.
A remarkable first tee
The Second
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At times throughout the round, like at many of the world’s great links, the look from the tee box is utterly confusing – not least at the second. With few hints at where the golfer is headed, a string of bunkers carved into a dune provide a hard-stop to the driveable par-four’s fairway, with a glorious punchbowl green parked beyond the sandhill. Whilst the gregarious will swing away blindly, the golfer laying up closest to the rocky shore up the right side will find the cleanest angle of approach unobscured by the dune and aided by the backstopping ridge in the green.
The bowled second green between the sandhills
The Third
Ocean Dunes’ routing deals up a good number of stout two-shotters, with the dramatic third leading from the front. A thrilling tee shot across the craggy cove once again rewards those willing to dance with the shoreline, this time with a much shorter approach, whilst the bailed-out tee shot leaves a long, blind, uphill second. Benched up against the coastline, the rolling green is one of the most theatrical of the round as waves clatter into the rocks below.
The heroic third tee
The Fourth
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Closing out a remarkable opening coastal jaunt, Ocean Dunes’ drama apexes at the fourth tee. A tricky little one shotter stretching to 125 metres, the tee box is perilously perched above a rocky outcropping, separated from the putting surface by rugged rock formations rising from the cove. As waves pound and sea-spray flies, as a sheer spectacle of natural drama the fourth sits in the highest echelon of par threes – Cypress Point’s 15th and 16th, New South Wales’ 6th and the 7th at Pebble Beach its obvious peers. Amongst a routing built around a number of heroic swings, the fourth stands as Ocean Dunes’ most exhilarating.
Ocean Dunes' most exhilirating swing
The Sixth
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The sixth offers up a tee shot with a couple of options, as the double fairway splits low left and high right, though both landing zones are unsighted from the tee. The high road up the right side finds the best look at the stunning seaward punchbowl green, its contours set to feed the running ball towards the flag. A hole of two compelling shots, the sixth stands as one of Ocean Dunes’ most unique offerings.
Slopes feed down to the punchbowl sixth green
The Thirteenth
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Another short par four, the thirteenth climbs steeply up a sandhill as its flag peaks its head from a saddle between the dunes. Across severe grounds, the drop-off left of the green makes a near impossible up and down, whilst the overzealous who takes on the right-hand side can find all sorts of sandy, snake laden trouble. A thrilling opportunity to make a two or a wipe, the margins are as tight as anywhere for those attacking the green.
The flagstick peaks above the saddle from the tee
The Fourteenth
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One of the highest and most stunning points of the property, the fourteenth tee is at the mercy of King Island’s elements. Making a compelling case for the world’s most striking drop shot as it launches out to sea, depending on the day it can play anywhere from a chippy long iron to a sawn-off wedge - gauging distance the primary test at hand. The steepled sections of the narrow surface carved out by a heaving ridge place a heavy emphasis on landing on the correct tier. An exhilarating test of control.
One of golf's great drop shots
The Fifteenth
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Whilst the rising tee shot into a blinded sea of swelling slopes provides an initial thrill at the fifteenth, the approach into a rollicking double green shared with the twelfth stands as its most memorable offering and those who challenge the native up the right open up the length of the green.
The double green shared between 15 and 12
The Sixteenth
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​Whilst the natural inclination for golfers will be to play away from the bunker carved into the left side of the sixteenth fairway, it should act as a target. The right half of the hole tips aggressively rightward, kicking balls into the native or the awaiting creak which loiters up the length of the hole. A gorgeous narrow greenside closes out the hole, backed by the sea and with a domineering spine cutting through its heart.​
A wild green closes out the 16th