11 The Cliffs Kangaroo Island in Australia will open for public play in October 2026. The new course, developed by Sam Atkins and designed by Darius Oliver, is on the south coast of Kangaroo Island, a popular destination known for its wildlife and rugged landscape. The island can be reached via a short flight from Adelaide or a ferry from Cape Jervis on mainland Australia. The site was identified as a potential location for golf more than a decade ago by Programmed Turnpoint, the construction contractor that would go on to build Oliver’s design. “I totally fell in love with the land, and I spent time with Darius so that I could totally see the potential of the property for golf,” said Atkins, previously the chair of golf at Kooyonga Golf Club in Adelaide. “We needed to build it because you could just see where it was sitting on the ground. It had to be a golf course.” Oliver’s routing was approved in 2017, but bushfires on Kangaroo Island in 2019 and 2020 as well as the impact of Covid-19 restrictions, delayed the start of construction. The project was also waiting for a pipeline to be completed, which would secure water for the island and the project site. Ground was finally broken in December 2022. The course has been laid out above 30-metre high cliffs. Five holes (two, three, eight, fourteen and fifteen) run along the coastline, while three more (one, seven and thirteen) play south towards the cliff edge. “They’ve all got amazing views, but they play quite differently from one another,” Photo: Jacob Sjöman
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