Tasmania is "rapidly becoming the golf island," with a 20% "surge in golf tourism and at least five new world-class courses being developed," according to Matthew Denholm of THE AUSTRALIAN. The "phenomenon," fueled by a "seemingly insatiable demand by Melbourne and Sydney golfers for challenging new coastal courses," is helping to drive Tasmania's "tourist boom," while several courses have already become major regional employers. The latest Tourism Tasmania figures show golf tourism grew more than 19% in the year to March, "with 28,600 visitors picking up clubs." Tasmania is now home to four of the top five public golf courses in Australia, as rated by Golf Australia. Plans are under way for "at least another five premium courses across the state," including a A$10M ($7.9M) transformation of an isolated peninsula jutting into Hobart's River Derwent into "one of the world's few links courses almost surrounded by water." While private golf club memberships were in decline, there was an "almost insatiable" appetite for public, pay-to-play courses "aimed at the Sydney or Melbourne-based golfers keen to travel, typically in friendship groups" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/7).