North Adelaide Golf Course

The Adelaide City Council took control of this land in 1921 and turned it into the second public golf course of its kind in Australia, in the parklands that ring the city centre. Demand after the Second World War pushed the council to expand: a second eighteen, now the South Course, opened in 1950, and an eighteen-hole par-three course was added, an Australian first.

The site has been the subject of long public argument over its future, which is what happens when fifty-four holes of golf sit on public parkland next to a growing city. Redevelopment proposals and the parklands lobby have been in dispute for years.

What it asks of you

Three quite different rounds. The North is a par 69 of 4,534 metres, short and tight, and the better course for a player who wants to walk quickly. The South is a par 71 of 5,884 metres and is the more substantial of the two, and the one that has improved most in recent years.

The par-three course is the third, and it is not a token: eighteen holes of it, in the parklands beside the Torrens, and it is where a large share of Adelaide’s beginners and juniors learn the game.

None of the three is a championship test and none pretends to be. The ground is flat parkland, the trees are mature, and the appeal is access rather than architecture.

What players say about it

These are public courses with a large review record. 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 courses. 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 South Course draws the better reviews of the two eighteens and is credited with a clear improvement under its current greenkeeping team. It is one of the most-played courses in the state.
• The par-three course is well presented and is praised as an enjoyable walk in the parklands as much as a round of golf.
• Access and price are the point. Fifty-four holes on public land beside a city centre is a rare thing anywhere.
• The parkland setting beside the Torrens is genuinely pleasant and comes up in most accounts.

What comes up against

• Conditioning is inconsistent, and the North Course takes most of the criticism: worn tees, poor greens and patchy fairways are all reported.
• Signage and course furniture are described as needing attention.
• Staff draw specific complaints in some accounts, with inflexibility the recurring word.
• Serious golfers are frank that neither eighteen will hold their interest, and reviewers say so without malice.

Getting there and when to go

The courses are in the parklands immediately north of the Adelaide city centre, beside the Torrens, ten minutes’ walk from North Terrace and around fifteen minutes from the airport.

They play all year. Spring and autumn give the best of it; Adelaide summers are hot and an early tee time is the sensible choice. Booking goes through the course.

Green fees

Rates and tee times are handled by the course at public levels and differ between the three layouts. 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 redevelopment debate, and the course’s own site for access and booking. The opinion section summarises public reviews and player discussions read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played these courses, 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 courses and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.