This late billionaire’s Top 100 golf course is opening its gates — if ever so slightly

For more than 20 years, it has been the white whale of the Top 100 rankings, an esteemed course so elusive that many fabulously wealthy and well-connected golfers have tried and failed to set their eyes on it.

The late Australian media mogul Kerry Packer wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Ellerston was his passion project, a family sanctuary tucked into the folds of the Upper Hunter Valley, roughly four hours north of Sydney, that Packer envisioned as a private playground for a small group of family, associates and friends. One of those friends was the Aussie golf legend Greg Norman, who designed Ellerston in collaboration with acclaimed architect Bob Harrison. Packer gave the duo carte blanche on acres of rolling pasture and native bushland that had been in his family for decades. They could pick the finest parcel, with just two conditions: The course must be a beauty and a beast.

The architects responded with an 8,000-plus-yard routing as outsize in its drama as it is in its demands, etched strategically through a heaving landscape, with Pages Creek winding into play on roughly half the holes. As the course was in construction, Packer kept close watch and was uncompromising in his expectations.

“But is it hard enough?” he would ask repeatedly.

It was.

At its 2001 opening, Ellerston’s slope rating was 153, the highest of any course in Australia. In the years since, Ellerston has been a fixture on must-play lists and has risen as high as No. 62 on GOLF’s roster of the Top 100 Courses in the World.

But if going low on Ellerston is tough, landing a tee time has been tougher still. In recent years, fewer than 20 guests have played it annually. Now, though, a course largely closed to the outside world has opened its gates ever so slightly.

Starting this October, Ellerston will welcome around one group per month of four to eight players for one of two opportunities: a one-day visit that includes golf, caddies, on-course food and beverage and roundtrip air transport from Sydney; or an overnight stay that includes all the above, plus dinner the first night, breakfast, a second round and lunch prior to departure.

8AM Travel is one of a small number of tour operators Ellerston has chosen to facilitate these trips. For more information, visit 8amtravel.com.