Amid the dust and the flies, the world's longest golf tournament has started.

About 50 golfers are playing the 18-hole Nullarbor Links course which stretches from Ceduna in the far west of South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The event is called the Chasing the Sun Festival and course manager Alf Caputo said it was the first time a formal tournament has been held on the unusual course.

He said golfing legend Greg Norman had even expressed a view that the event should become a national drawcard.

"[There are] so many people that want to do this golf course, there's nothing like this golf course anywhere in the world so it belongs to South Australia and it belongs to Western Australia and it's our tourism icon," he said.

"You can't play Nullarbor Links in Queensland, you can't play it at the Opera House and, mate, Melbourne can't pinch it - this will become totally unique, I mean there's nothing like this anywhere in the world.

"These people are loving every minute of it."