A Hole in One

“It’s such a good achievement for the Club,” Club General Manager Dominic Connaughton said. 

“We've certainly done a lot in the last five years as far as getting the standard higher, so we are now the highest on the list that we've ever been.” 

Dominic said the golf course, which officially opened its first nine holes in 1930, has always ranked well in the Golf Australia lists — but taking out the number one spot this year is a nod to all the volunteers and greenskeepers who keep the facility in top shape.

“The greens staff do a magnificent job out there and we have really good volunteers here that come regularly every week and do gardens and also do the fairway,” Dominic said. 

Golf Australia, a magazine published monthly since 1987, offers readers instructions, equipment reviews, tournament previews, golf news and golf travel features. It uses a pool of readers and subscribers to judge the list each year using a set of strict guidelines. Judges were only allowed to rank courses they had seen since December 2020 and each course was ranked on design (50 per cent), condition (40 per cent) and visual appeal (10 per cent). 

Using these rankings, the magazine publishes its top 100 across the country and then breaks down the findings state by state, leading Narooma Golf Course to the coveted number one spot and some sparkling praise from the judges.

“One round at Narooma is all that is required to fall in love with this place,” judge Nikki Scott commented. 

“We're only about 7000 to 8000 population and we're a holiday destination through summer, so that sort of ranking certainly helps us promote the Club and gets people down here,” he said. 

Dominic said that the rankings are good for the Club, but also the small seaside town more broadly.