Golf Central

'It's a short dogleg left but that thousand miles to the right is out of bounds'

Remember that scene in Crocodile Dundee where Paul Hogan has to play a tricky three-iron out of a kangaroo's pouch while narrowly avoiding a crocodile's fangs and then has to travel half a day to get to the next hole? No? OK, that's because it never happened but soon it'll be a reality as the World's longest and wildest golf course has just been given the go-ahead by Australian officials.

To be based on the unforgiving Nullarbor Plain, the 18 hole course, due for completion next year, will spread over 840 miles of desert between Western and Southern Australia. With holes up to 180 miles away from each other, in oppressively humid conditions and on some of the most arrid land in the World, playing the course is as much a test of endurance as it is golfing prowess.

Roughly a quarter of a million visitors pass through the plain a year and it's hoped that the course will provide them with a reason to stop off at some of the more remote locations; play a hole, have a drink and then move on. Playing the entire course is estimated to take about two or three days, about the same amount of time I spend on a normal course when having a particularly bad round.

Crocodile Dundee hitting the links is not as far fetched as you might think, as all manner of animals that would delight in turning you into a skeleton baking in the sun will be roaming around the outback and golfers will be advised accordingly. Having Mick Dundee as a caddie would definitely be a plus, not only as protection but to help read the 'browns'; a mixture of sand and oil which will feature instead of greens.

The ambitious project, which is partly being funded by the Australian federal tourism minister, will wind it's way down the desolate Eyre Highway from Ceduna on the coast to Kagoorlie in the West.