Travel: where to play on the world's most beautiful golf courses

Anybody who has swung a club knows the truth in Mark Twain’s lament that golf is a good walk spoiled. Yet there is generally compensation – even as you hack your way through the rough and from bunker to bunker, at least you can take solace in the view.

How a golf course looks – its layout and design, and especially its surrounds – has long inspired golf architects. Not to mention given rise to those fantastical calendars of imaginary golf holes, where greens protrude from the water beneath Niagara Falls, perch on a plateau halfway up Mount Everest, or nestle on one of Port Campbell’s remaining apostles, accessed by flying fox or rickety rope bridge.

For players of all abilities, heeding the cry of “you just have to play at …” has turned golf tourism into big business. If you’re thinking of packing the clubs and jetting off to golfing nirvana, here are a few of the world’s most scenic golf courses to whet your appetite.

PEBBLE BEACH, US
Hugging rugged coastline above Carmel Bay south of the Monterey Peninsula, Pebble Beach Golf Links is touted as the best public golf course in America. (The roughly $750 it costs to play puts a bold asterisk on “public”). The Pacific Ocean backdrop provides the magic, making holes 6-10 arguably the most famous stretch in the world, while the 18th, snaking around the water, has been a fitting setting for the finale of six US Open championships. There are four Pebble Beach Resort courses in all, with on-course accommodation.

THRACIAN CLIFFS GOLF & BEACH RESORT, BULGARIA
Hailed as the Pebble Beach of Europe, this Gary Player-designed course has one up on its famous American cousin by offering views of the ocean (in this case the Black Sea) from every hole. It’s breathtaking, whether you’re perched on an elevated tee hitting to a green that seemingly hangs off the side of the cliff, or teeing off from a tiny island in the ocean. Player is clearly biased, but says that in more than half a century of playing golf he didn’t believe such a setting for a course existed.

CAPE WICKHAM LINKS, AUSTRALIA
The visitor comments section on the Cape Wickham Links website includes a post from Californian brothers summing up their King Island golfing odyssey. “Q: Would you give up Cypress Point and Pebble Beach for the rest of your life to play only Cape Wickham? A: Yes.” Since opening four years ago (with Ocean Dunes added since), Cape Wickham has been wowing all who play it. When the wind howls off Bass Strait it can be a beast, but that doesn’t stop hordes from pretending they’re golfing rock stars for a weekend, jetting in on charter flights from Moorabbin and Essendon and packaging up a golf/flights/accommodation weekend worthy of any bucket list.

PRINCEVILLE MAKAI GOLF CLUB, US
National Geographic Traveller rates this Hawaiian gem among the greatest golf settings in America. Sitting above Hanalei Bay with 251 guest rooms and suites on offer at Princeville Resort, if you tire of actually playing golf you can always try yoga, or tennis, or snorkelling, or just lazing on the beach. Or perhaps a sunset golf cart tour – kind of golfing voyeurism without the golf.

SPERONE GOLF CLUB, FRANCE
Every year more than 20,000 golf nomads make a pilgrimage to Corsica to play at Sperone. They take in the art and culture of historic Bonifacio, dine on seafood plucked straight from the Mediterranean, and play a golf course to die for. The par 5 16th offers a snapshot: tee off from a headland on the southernmost tip of Corsica, and gaze out over the luxury yachts and surfers dotting the Bay of Piantarella, and further still to the “Millionaire’s Island” of Cavallo. Heavenly.

OLD HEAD GOLF LINKS, IRELAND
Choosing only one golf course to play in Ireland is like choosing a favourite child, although this Cork cracker makes a compelling case. Vertigo-sufferers be warned – perched on a clifftop 100 metres above the Atlantic Ocean, you’ll feel like you’re playing on the edge of the world. Old Head sits at the bottom of a teardrop of land just south of the food mecca of Kinsale, above rocks that now claim golf balls rather than stray ships.

THE GOLF CLUB AT HARBOR SHORES, US
This delivers in spades as a visual golfing Disneyland, skipping through distinctly different terrains of dunes, woodland, wetlands and holes that border the Paw Paw River and Lake Michigan. Connection to the local arts community is celebrated by metal sculptures and hand-blown glass at every tee box, with each hole named after a plant that’s indigenous to the area. The Jack Nicklaus-designed course is as difficult to play as it is stunning to behold.

HAMILTON ISLAND GOLF CLUB, AUSTRALIA
A very Australian golfing experience awaits at our only 18-hole course that’s situated on its very own island. Ridges and steep valleys dominate this patch of Dent Island paradise, with spectacular views of the Whitsundays and a course that will stimulate golfers of all levels. Mini-golf, a driving range and lunch in the stunning clubhouse complete the picture.

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