The development application for the 18-hole course on the former Huntley Colliery site, west of Dapto, comes more than two years after the golfing legend jetted into the Illawarra to inspect the site.

An adjoining residential subdivision, which ran into trouble in 2007 when a rezoning proposal was knocked back by the Department of Planning, is still the subject of ongoing negotiations.

The golf proposal includes an 18-hole golf course, a clubhouse, 60 "stay and play" golf lodges, a golf driving range and tennis courts. It will be determined by the Joint Regional Planning Panel, due to its multimillion-dollar price tag.

The project's planning consultant, Elaine Treglown of Wollongong firm TCG Planning, said the proposal also included a world-first biomechanics and sports education centre.

"We are in negotiations with an international university to bring international golf teaching facilities to the site and it could be the first of its kind in the world," she said.

Ms Treglown said the golf precinct would be in the lower portion of the site, which had been degraded by past mining activities and was now being rehabilitated.

Plans for residential development on the upper portion of the site are the subject of a separate rezoning application.

Ms Treglown said after continuing negotiations with the council and Department of Planning, the rezoning application had been scaled down and the council had resumed control of the application.

"A draft Local Environmental Plan is being prepared for the site, which will then go back to the Department of Planning," she said.

"The most recent revised master plan significantly reduces the rural residential lots to 21 and there are also 491 residential lots."

In 2007, up to 700 residential lots were being proposed. But the Department of Planning rejected a rezoning of that scale, saying it was "inconsistent" with the Illawarra Regional Strategy, Illawarra Escarpment Plan and West Dapto planning strategies.

Ms Treglown said it was always the intention of the developer, HTT Huntley Heritage, to complete the golf course before any residential development on the site.

Community representatives have been involved in planning for the development through the Huntley Heritage Community Liaison Committee, which formed in 2000.

The public will be able to comment on the golf course proposal until October 12.