King Links puts 48 rooms beside its opening act

King Island’s golf proposition has had an awkward imbalance: compelling courses in a remote Bass Strait setting, without enough accommodation to make organising a trip straightforward. At King Links, formerly Ocean Dunes, a planned 48-room lodge addresses that problem in a particularly consequential position. It runs along the high ground beside the first fairway, putting overnight guests alongside the opening of Graeme Grant’s coastal routing rather than somewhere removed from it.^[1]

The lodge forms part of a $38 million upgrade that also includes a GolfDream simulator and plans for a new clubhouse, restaurant and bar. The accommodation is scheduled to open on 1 February, with the 100-seat restaurant and bar also in the pipeline. Those additions could make staying at the course a substantially different proposition, although 48 rooms at one property cannot by themselves establish that the island’s wider accommodation shortage is solved.^[1]

Two sides of the ridge

The room arrangement makes the site’s geography easy to understand. A single line of accommodation follows the ridge to the left of the first fairway. Half the rooms face the opening hole and Bass Strait; the other half look towards the pastures bordering the ninth and 18th. The distinction is between the course’s exposed coastal identity and its inland setting, rather than simply between a golf view and no golf view.^[1]

That position gives particular prominence to a demanding opening sequence. The first is a downhill, dogleg-right par 5, negotiating dunes and a dell before reaching a green backed by sea and rocky shoreline. The short par-4 second presents a largely hidden, wide but shallow green. An uphill coastal third then precedes the fourth, a 131-metre par 3 from the back tee across an inlet. The lodge sits beside the introduction to this sequence, not a representative stretch of gentler inland holes.^[1]

A reason to stay

Accommodation also changes the practical relationship with a course whose character depends heavily on wind and familiarity. Grant’s routing contains several blind shots, including the second shot on the sharply turning, uphill-then-downhill par-5 12th, where the hidden landing area offers room beyond the crest. A second round offers a chance to apply knowledge of those concealed spaces. Staying beside the course makes that prospect simpler to organise, without making the golf itself any less dependent on the weather.^[1]

There is a less visible investment beneath the accommodation story, too. Water storage has been expanded following drought problems over the previous two summers, an important intervention at a course with bentgrass rather than fescue greens. King Links already benefits from proximity to Currie and the airport. Adding beds addresses a different part of the journey: where golfers base themselves once they arrive, and how easily they can build a stay around the course.^[1]