Golf Australia Magazine: Top-100 Australian golf courses for 2024

Kingston Heath returns, Cathedral Lodge appears and Rosebud rises in Golf Australia Magazine’s Top-100 Australian Golf Courses for 2024.

If you’d looked through the racks for golf magazines last December you may have noticed that Golf Australia Magazine released its biennial list of Australia’s Top-100 golf courses.

If you didn’t catch the list or someone forgot to purchase you a copy for Christmas, you can see the whole list online and you can scroll through the top 100 Australian golf courses according to Golf Australia Magazine’s panel of judges. Full disclosure – I’m one of those judges.

A note about the judging criteria is laid out by Golf Australia Magazine editor Brendan James and I think is worth sharing here:

The criterion used by each judge places greater emphasis on a course’s design and less on its conditioning. While a layout’s general presentation remains important, we feel it is unfair to place too much weight on this element for two main reasons. A judge might happen to visit a course at a time of year when the conditioning is not at its best. Less emphasis on conditioning also addresses the problem of courses being elevated beyond their true rank based on immaculate conditioning courtesy of a huge budget, rather than its overall design and conditioning qualities.

There are always a few interesting inclusions, omissions and jumps in the rankings. Last time around it was the inclusion of the new short course Bougle Run. This time around is the return of Kingston Heath, the first time Cathedral Lodge has appeared in the rankings, the rise of Rosebud and the return of Pelican Waters.

Check out the full list RANKING: AUSTRALIA’S TOP-100 COURSES FOR 2024.