Q: Is this really about creating more open space?
A: Supporters argue that Sydney needs more accessible green space as population density increases. Opponents counter that Moore Park Golf Course is already open space, just in a different form. It provides trees, habitat, walking, fresh air and recreation, alongside its role as a sporting facility.<\/p>\n
They also point out that Centennial Park sits directly across the road, forming one of the largest urban parklands in the southern hemisphere. The debate is less about whether Sydney needs open space, and more about whether this particular site needed to change at all.<\/p>\n
Q: Has the government had any independent bodies or reports related to this?
A: Yes, and this is where the entire process becomes extraordinary.<\/p>\n
The Full Business Case found that retaining the existing 18-hole public golf course delivered the strongest economic and social return for NSW. In plain English, the government\u2019s own analysis concluded the best outcome was to leave the course intact.<\/p>\n
That should have ended the discussion. Instead, the government continues to ignore its own evidence, highly paid consultants and community consultations and is proceeding anyway.<\/p>\n
Even more remarkably, the final 12-hole configuration now being promoted was never properly tested in the original business case process. So, the government has effectively landed on a politically convenient \u201ccompromise\u201d without fully assessing whether it actually works operationally, financially or safely.<\/p>\n
Importantly, the government hasn\u2019t actually reduced the amount of land being taken from the course. They\u2019ve simply decided to squeeze 12 holes into the same footprint previously allocated to nine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: Is demand for Moore Park Golf still high?
A: Moore Park is widely regarded as one of Australia\u2019s most heavily utilised public golf courses, with thousands of rounds played each week. It also serves as an entry point into the game for beginners, juniors and social players who may not have access to private clubs.<\/p>\n
For many in the golf community, reducing capacity at a time when participation is growing feels counterintuitive, particularly in a major city where affordable public golf options are limited.<\/p>\n
Q: Could this have been handled differently?
A: Absolutely.<\/p>\n
This was never a choice between golf and parkland. Sydney could have delivered more open space while retaining one of the country\u2019s most important public golf courses. The tragedy is that balanced solutions were repeatedly put forward and never genuinely considered.<\/p>\n
The Moore Park Collective (Golf Australia, PGA, Golf NSW and Moore Park Golf Club) submitted multiple plans to the government that showed how, with good planning and design, you can easily have a win-win \u2013 better recreation and an 18-hole course. Instead, the government ignored the golf community because politics and back-room deals mattered more than good planning outcomes.<\/p>\n
Q: So is this an attack on golf?
A: At this point, it\u2019s hard to conclude otherwise.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a perception in some planning and political circles that golf courses are just large pieces of underutilised land occupied by a narrow demographic. The problem is that perception is completely detached from the reality of Moore Park.<\/p>\n
Moore Park is one of the busiest public golf courses in Australia. It\u2019s where juniors learn the game, where tradies and teachers play after work, where beginners can access golf without private club memberships that are out of reach.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t some exclusive eastern suburbs enclave. It\u2019s public recreation infrastructure, and I think a lot of decision-makers fundamentally underestimated how many ordinary Sydneysiders use and value it.<\/p>\n
Q: Are their bigger issues underneath all of this?
A: Definitely.<\/p>\n
Moore Park is really a story about planning failure and political deal-making between the state government and Clover Moore after decades of density approvals without enough local recreation space.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s central argument is that Green Square, Waterloo and Zetland need more open space because of rapid population growth. That argument has some merit \u2013 but it immediately raises another question: why was so much density approved in the first place without enough local recreation spaces being delivered alongside it?<\/p>\n
Now the state and local government are trying to retrofit open space after the towers are already built \u2013 and they\u2019re doing it by cannibalising an existing public recreational asset that was already functioning successfully. They are also using a population that is up to 2km away to justify their actions.<\/p>\n
This is some of the worst reactive urban planning Sydney has seen in decades.<\/p>\n
There is also a much bigger issue here\u2026 and that\u2019s the complete disregard for facts, community consultation and evidence-based policy. If governments can ignore their own business cases and proceed regardless, communities will stop believing engagement matters.<\/p>\n
From the start, this was a captain\u2019s call by the Premier. Since the initial announcement in October 2023, teams of public servants and consultants have spent years trying to justify a decision that still fails the basic test: proving that what replaces the existing Moore Park Golf Course is genuinely better for the community than what already exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: Is this really about creating more open space?A: Supporters argue that Sydney needs more accessible green space…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-709277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}