Robe Golf Club in South Australia has added six new holes to extend its course to a full eighteen.

The club collaborated with golf course design firm Crafter + Mogford Golf Strategies and the District Council of Robe on the expansion project.

The course originally consisted of fourteen holes. To help fund the expansion, two holes were closed in 2015 so the land could be rezoned for residential development, which was then topped up with some funding from the Federal Government.

The new holes – the seventh through to the twelfth – are routed within an area which follows the natural contouring of the dunes, along the coast.

Behind the seventh green there is a Second World War radar hut that has been retained and restored as part of the project.

“The eighth has an elevated fairway, about 23 metres above sea level, situated on top of a dune, and plays east to west,” said Scott Fennell, president of Robe Golf Club. “It plays with two clubs into the wind – there are lots of strong winds coming in from the Southern Ocean. As you turn around and play the ninth you’ve got two clubs behind you.”

Hole ten is a short par four that has a green guarded by two bunkers at the front left, with one more at the back. The eleventh is the longest hole on the course at 500 yards. Between these two holes, retained vegetation has been strengthened through revegetation plantings.

The longest hole is quickly followed by the shortest – the twelfth – which has been built on a plot of land between two sites marked as a future residential zone.

Construction of the new holes was completed in December 2018, with Malcolm Williams overseeing shaping.

The club is now completing some minor works on the course while the new holes grow in ahead of opening them for play in November.