Seven Mile Beach in Hobart, Australia, will officially open its new 18-hole golf course on 4 December 2025. The project is the first newbuild for Clayton, DeVries & Pont (CDP Golf), with partners Mike Clayton and Mike DeVries leading the design for a group led by Hobart native and tour pro Mathew Goggin.
Seven Mile Beach lies on a peninsula to the east of Hobart’s airport and both Tasmania GC and Royal Hobart GC, with the golf course laid out on land that begins approximately three kilometres into the peninsula from the current access point to the beach. It has been routed among the large dunes that occupy the southern side of the ridge line.
Read more: Goggin and Clayton spoke with GCA in 2021 about the site and origins of the project.
CDP Golf’s 18-hole design is laid out over sand dunes on a peninsula east of Royal Hobart GC and Hobart International Airport (Photo: Will Watt)
“The original routing had nine holes on the west side of the clubhouse and nine to the east,” said Clayton. “When Mike [DeVries] first visited in 2020, he switched all 18 to the east. This routing is obviously more compact – without ever being cramped – and more intimate, allowing us to create short green to tee transitions between every hole. It’s much more like a traditional British links than a modern, wide and sprawling links.”
DeVries spoke to GCA in December 2021 just as construction was starting – following on from the removal of radiata pines from the course’s footprint.
“The first hole was always clear because the land was less infested with pines,” said Clayton. “Mike found the short second, which set up the third and fourth holes that, in turn, set up the fifth playing down to the beach and the sixth, which goes along the beach.
“It is, of course, a visually attractive course, but the strategies and the shots you have to hit are ultimately what makes the golf enduringly interesting. We didn’t overdo the strategy of a clear shot from one side of the fairway and a blind shot over a dune from the other, but it works well at the fourth, fifth, eleventh and fifteenth holes. The greens also set up the strategy because once you are familiar with the contours you understand how to use the ground to move the ball towards the hole.”
The site’s marram grass has been used to define golf holes (Photo: Will Watt)
Early reports – preview play has been open for most of 2025 – have been positive, with many highlighting the contoured greens, the lack of bunkers (many greens are unbunkered) and the long-range views.
“Aside from the setting and the drama of the dunes, it’s special because there are a number of world-class holes,” said Clayton. “Ultimately, that’s what stamps Royal Melbourne as the greatest course in Australia and anything even coming close to it is bound to be a fun place to play golf.
“Tasmania is the only state in Australia where you can grow fescue without a companion warm season grass, and it plays beautifully. The ground, club, ball impact is unmatched.”
Seven Mile Beach has been years in the making, but Clayton feels the wait has been worth it. “Mike has done an incredible job shaping the contours into fairways,” said Clayton. “Many will think the land was made for golf and it was simply a matter of sowing the grass – not so. This was a wildly crumpled piece of ground in need of skilled shaping to make great yet playable golf. Creating Seven Mile Beach with Mike has been incredibly enjoyable and immensely rewarding.”
CDP Golf has transformed a ‘wildly crumpled piece of ground’ into a golf course that received rave reviews during preview play (Photo: Lukas Michel)