Chatswood Golf Club

Chatswood Golf Club was established in 1935 with eighteen holes by Prosper Ellis, on steep bushland ground on Sydney’s north shore running down to the Lane Cove River.

It has since been rebuilt as a twelve-hole course designed by Neil Crafter and reopened to the public at the end of May 2026 as Newgreens Chatswood, described as Australia’s first purpose-built twelve-hole course. That is a rare thing anywhere, and a sensible answer to two problems at once: a small, difficult site, and the number of people who want ninety minutes of golf rather than four hours. It remains open to everybody.

What it asks of you

Twelve holes on ground that falls sharply into a creek valley, with bushland on both sides and very few level lies. It is short, and mostly short holes, but shortness is not the same as ease: each one has its own difficulty, and the slopes do a great deal of the work.

The hill is the thing nobody warns you about. The course is genuinely steep in places, and reviewers consistently say a visitor should either be reasonably fit or take a cart.

The twelve-hole format is the real proposition. A round takes around two hours, which puts it within reach of an evening or a lunch break, and that is who the course is now built for.

What players say about it

This is a public course with a substantial review record, though much of it predates the rebuild. The notes below summarise recurring themes across specialist golf sites, traveller review pages and player discussion threads. They are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course. We report what comes back repeatedly rather than isolated remarks, and we do not name or quote individual reviewers.

What comes up in its favour

• The setting is well liked: quiet suburban bushland running down to the Lane Cove River, a long way in feel from the rest of the north shore.
• Conditions are rated good, and the rebuild has been received positively.
• Value is strong, with early-bird rates that put a round within reach of almost anybody.
• The twelve-hole idea appeals to people who had stopped playing because they could not find four hours, and that is the point the coverage keeps making.

What comes up against

• The format divides opinion. A number of golfers simply want eighteen holes and say so.
• The hills are steep enough to be a real consideration, and reviewers who walked it in summer regretted it.
• Mostly short holes means it is not a test of driving, and better players find it limited.
• The clubhouse restaurant has drawn specific criticism in the review record.

Getting there and when to go

The course is at Chatswood on Sydney’s north shore, around twenty-five minutes from the city centre, with Chatswood station on the North Shore line ten minutes away.

It plays all year. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable; the hill in a Sydney summer is hard work. Booking goes through the course, and early-bird times are the best value.

Green fees

Rates and tee times are handled by the course, with reduced early-bird rates at selected times. See the course’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, Wikipedia and published local coverage for the history and the 2026 rebuild, and the course’s own site for access and booking. The opinion section summarises public reviews and player discussions read in September 2026, some of which predate the rebuild; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played this course, and nothing here is a substitute for that. The course has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say in what it says. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.