Driving range and Greg Norman-designed golf course for sale

Golf is one of those rare sports where the lower your score the better, and the better you get, the worse you realise you are. It’s also a great leveller, where even your CEO at a work function can hit a 105 with only silent judgement. Here are a couple for sale if you want to turn a bogey into a birdie. 

Commercial property investors can take a swing at owning their very own golf driving range in the heart of Fraser Coast, Queensland with the Hervey Bay Golf Driving Range hitting the market.

Set on a sprawling 4.8ha landholding at 223-237 Maryborough Hervey Bay Road, Urraween, the driving range has operated from the site for some 20 years.

“It’s a gateway land parcel on the entrance to Hervey Bay,” said Brendan Robins, selling agent from CBRE Queensland.

“It’s a rectangular shape, so it’s got all the attributes for a good parcel of the land, and it has the underlying industrial zoning already on the land, so that that adds significant value to the site.”

The listing offered various avenues for investors including to retain the profitable driving range business, or alternatively they could buy it with a shorter or medium term view of developing the land.

“It could be either an owner-occupier that needs a huge parcel of land for their business use, or it could be a development group that just wants to get straight into the development side of it,” Mr Robins said.

The driving range includes 20 undercover regular driving range bays, which are floodlit for evening use, and includes the use of Toptracer, a ball-tracking technology which tracks golf ball shots onto the range, highlighting its flight and accuracy on nearby screens.

Mr Robins said in the seven days the listing has been on the market, enquiry levels have been strong.

“It’s been quite a diverse range of buyers – anyone from the golf industry through to just family investment groups, through to development groups, and we have been receiving interest from Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland.”

Pro shop included. Picture: realcommercial.com.au

Approval from The Great White Shark

On a larger scale, one of Australia’s top golf courses – designed by golf ace Greg Norman and legendary designer Bob Harrison – remains on the market in the NSW town of Tamworth.

The Longyard Golf Course and The Windmill Tavern in Tamworth comprises of an 18-hole championship golf course and other land holdings set across close to 60ha.

Renowned as one of NSW’s finest regional courses, it offers a range of development and investment prospects, including scope for future motel and serviced apartment developments which have been identified on Tamworth Regional Council’s 2025 Structure Plan.

This championship 18-hole course in Tamworth has been described as one of the best golf courses in regional Australia. Picture: realcommercial.com.au

The golf course adjoins the proposed re-zoned land medium density, and has a share in an adjoining Manufactured Home Estate (MHE), and a licensed tavern with hospitality facilities.

“The Longyard Golf offering is set within one of Tamworth’s most sought-after precincts and provides the ability to purchase one of Australia’s finest golf courses, as well as all the complementary aspects of the offering,” Colliers International agent Tim Woolf said.

Greg Norman at the Longyard Course at the peak of his powers in 1988, Picture: Supplied

Are golf courses an option to help with the housing shortages?

While golf courses offer a huge expanse of land, it was rare there were converted into residential precincts, PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty said.

“There’s a couple of reasons for that. Normally, it’s to do with the planning, and often they’re zoned as public use, or public park recreation,” she said.

“So generally, they’re not permitted for residential development.”

However, there were times when a land developer worked together with the local council to develop a plan to convert unused green space for example, within a retirement village, into a different purpose.

REA Group senior economist Anne Flaherty says councils need to balance the need for housing, recreation and green spaces. Picture: REA Group

“The other thing is that often, golf courses provide necessary green space in a suburb,” Ms Flaherty said.

“Even for locals who don’t golf, it can be nice just to know that green space is there.

“I think that the necessity of providing new homes always needs to be balanced with ensuring the liveability of the suburb that they’re being built in.

“I think those public use zones, those recreational areas are vital in suburbs, and it could be the case, especially for golf courses in established suburbs, maybe the option is to improve density rather than just take away green spaces to build more houses.”