Golfing in Cessnock City Council
In the lower Hunter the best golf has followed the wine, and Cessnock's headline courses sit among the vineyards around Pokolbin. The Vintage is the standout, a Greg Norman design ranked 31st in the 2024 Golf Course Guide Top 100: a par-71 layout of 6,300 metres with tree-lined fairways that punish loose driving, multi-level greens and enough variety to test a good game while staying friendly to social players. Cypress Lakes, unveiled in 1992 to a design by Florida's Steve Smyers, plays through vineyards and rolling countryside as a scenic, challenging resort round. Away from the wine country, Kurri Golf Club at Heddon Greta is a welcoming par-72 public 18 with quick, true greens and pockets of water, and Branxton, a nine-holer dating from 1921, is a down-to-earth local club with a fun, testing round.