Takahiro Hataji has created history with his first victory as a professional, becoming the first player from Japan to win the New Zealand Open in its 103-year history.

On an absorbing final day at the Millbrook Resort in Queenstown, Hataji held off a persistent stream of potential challengers with a bogey-free round of 4-under 67 to win by a single stroke with a four-round total of 17-under par.

Co-leader overnight, Australian Scott Hend (69) arrived at the 72nd hole with a share of the lead.

After hitting his tee shot to the back edge of the 18th green, Hend’s putt for the championship ran five feet past, his come-backer for par lipping out hard off the left edge to fall one shot short in outright second.

Boasting five top-five finishes on the Japan Golf Tour in 2023, 30-year-old Hataji is not only the first player from Japan to win the New Zealand Open but the first from Asia, surpassing the runner-up finishes of countrymen Tomoyo Ikemura (2023) and Hideto Tanihara (2016).

Hataji also becomes the first Japanese winner on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia since Isao Oaki won the 1989 Coca-Cola Classic at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

“It was a really tough day but I have the trophy so I am feeling very happy now,” said Hataji after taking ownership of the Brodie Breeze Trophy.

“I’m happy but he played very well so when his putt missed I felt a bit sorry for him too,” he added of Hend’s final hole misfortune.

Kiwi hope Josh Geary (69) required treatment for his troublesome back on the 12th tee yet battled on gamely to keep himself in the mix.

A birdie at the par-5 17th kept his faint hopes alive, a par at the last earning a share of third with Griffin (70) and Anthony Quayle (67), the fourth top-five finish in his national Open.

“I am absolutely proud of my week, especially as I have lacked international play the last few months,” said Geary.

“To come here and hold my nerve when things weren’t going great is rewarding. Couple of putts here and there and who knows.

“I would love to come back here and get the job done. Sometime we will do it.”

One back at the start of the final round, Hataji joined Hend and Griffin at 14-under with a birdie at his opening hole and was never headed at the top of the leaderboard.

Australian Ben Wharton rocketed into contention with a final round of 7-under 64, posting 14-under in the clubhouse as the lead groups were just getting their final rounds underway.

That stood until Quayle signed for 15-under but Hataji was always just out of reach.

Hend missed a number of birdie opportunities early in the back nine but drew to within one when he converted a birdie chance from just four feet on the par-4 16th, the hole where he holed out for eagle 24 hours earlier.

Seeking to surpass Kel Nagle as the oldest winner of the New Zealand Open in the modern era, Hend backed up his birdie on 16 with birdie at the par-5 17th to join Hataji at 17-under and set up a thrilling climax for the large crowd gathered around the 18th green.

His tee shot released to the back edge after landing just to the right of the flag, his three putts a cruel way to be denied his own shot at history.

Although they finished two shots shy of the winner, both Quayle and Griffin enhanced their Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit aspirations in Queenstown.

Winner of the Heritage Classic in January, Griffin will pick up 218.67 points to join the race for a DP World Tour card while Quayle picks up his first points in his third start this season.

“It’s my first event back in three months,” said Quayle, who missed the cut at both the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship and ISPS HANDA Australian Open.

“It’s kind of nice to know that the work I’ve been doing in the off-season has been productive and kind of validate where I am in my position in the game a little.”

In the pro-am team competition, Indonesian Jonathan Wijono and amateur partner Jubilant Harmidy shot 14-under 57 in the final round to win by two strokes at 39-under par.

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They got there in wildly fluctuating fashion, yet Aussie pair Matthew Griffin and Scott Hend will start the final round tied for the lead at the 103rd New Zealand Open.

After three birdies in his first seven holes, Griffin [pictured] ground his way to eight straight pars before dropping a monster putt for birdie at Millbrook Resort’s par-4 16th hole to take the outright lead.

That lead seemed short-lived when he hit his second shot at the par-5 17th into the scorers’ tent left of the green. Yet, after receiving a free drop, he chipped on and two-putted to keep his card bogey-free.

Griffin made par at the final hole for a four-under 67 to be the first to post 14-under, joined late by Hend whose back nine scorecard resembled a colour chart.

The 50-year-old went out in one-over 36 before a coming home in three-under, consisting of an eagle on 16, four birdies, a bogey on 15 and a double-bogey on the par-3 11th.

It looked anything like a round that would earn a share of the lead until it did, rejoining fellow first-round leader Griffin at 14-under with a round of two-under 69.

Kiwi Josh Geary kept alive his hopes of a maiden New Zealand Open title with a round of three-under 68, in a share of third at 13-under with Japanese pair Kodai Ichihara (63) and Takahiro Hataji (66).

The New Zealand Open champion in 2016, Griffin will draw on his wire-to-wire win at the Heritage Classic on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia in January when he tees off in the final group on Sunday. That win was his first since his NZ Open triumph almost eight years earlier but will be a source of confidence as he seeks to become a multiple winner of New Zealand’s national open.

“Going into the Sunday at Heritage, I didn’t know how I’d feel leading a big tournament,” Griffin admitted.

“Having the confidence that I was able to head off some good challengers on the last day means I’ll be positive heading into tomorrow. There are a lot of good players just behind me, but I’ll make sure I’m hard to beat.”

A 10-time winner on the Asian Tour, Hend struggled in the middle part of his round as the wind switched direction, only to play his way into contention again with a perfectly executed sand wedge from 118 metres at 16.

“Didn’t want to miss to the right of the green so played it up the spine hoping for a little kick. It did, got lucky and went in,” Hend said of his timely eagle.

“Got a chance to win a tournament now so got to be happy.”

For Geary, tomorrow presents yet another opportunity at his national open. His runner-up finish to Zach Murray in 2019 is one of three top-five finishes in the event, keeping his hopes alive with five birdies in his final seven holes.

“I hit it in the right spots most of the day. The two bogeys were actually from really easy positions,” Geary said. “Overall very good. I kept it in play and did my thing. The putting didn’t feel that good but I made a couple at the end, which helped.

“I have had so many close calls here over the years, it would be amazing to win it. It would be pretty cool to get this one across the line.”

With 760 points up for grabs on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit, Griffin knows there are added incentives to notch a second NZ Open title. Currently 13th and 557.91 points behind provisional No.1 Kazuma Kobori with two events left in the season, Griffin would leap into top spot with a win given that Kobori missed the cut.

“It’s a great opportunity and if I can get the win it will shoot me right up probably to the top,” Griffin said. “It’s an added bonus but a national title would be nice along the way.”

Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho (67) and South African Ian Snyman (65) are two shots off the lead in a tie for sixth at 12-under, Kiwi James Hydes and Australian Justin Warren both launching up the leaderboard and into a tie for eighth at 11-under with rounds of seven-under 64 on Saturday.

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Two-time New Zealand Amateur champion Daniel Hillier can push for a matching crown at the New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport, after a blistering finish to his second round today at Millbrook Resort near Queenstown.

A breakthrough winner on the DP World Tour in 2023, Hillier showed his class on the more difficult Coronet course on day two, making birdie on each of his final four holes for a round of six-under 65 to climb into a tie for second, two shots behind Australian veteran Scott Hend (66).

Fellow Kiwi Josh Geary is also in a share of second at 10-under par after he too shot a six-under 65 on Friday, the pair among five New Zealanders inside the top 12 at the halfway mark of the tournament.

One-under through 10 holes of his second round, Hillier tried to stay patient through the middle of his round, taking full advantage of the scoring opportunities as the wind abated late.

“Definitely a bit of a grind out there, but a few chances coming in and managed to make the most of them,” said Hillier, who for the second straight year has Tiger Woods’ former caddie, Steve Williams, on the bag.

“The key today was staying patient and hopefully I can keep that up tomorrow.”

Hillier and Geary were among the few players in the afternoon wave to make an impression on the leaderboard.

Starting his round from the ninth tee on the Coronet course, Geary built his round through a string of three straight birdies from the 15th hole, picking up shots also at the first and third holes before parring his way in for 65.

“It was quite tough being up the top when the wind got up and the greens got a bit crusty,” Geary said. “I just had a really good ball-striking day which was good timing given the conditions. It was one of those days that felt, not easy, but easier than most.”

The Kiwi pair are part of a five-way tie for second after two rounds, level with Aussie veterans Sam Brazel (67), Marcus Fraser (66) and Matthew Griffin (68) at 10-under.

With a share of the lead overnight, Hend added a five-under 66 to his first-round score of 64 to take the 36-hole lead at 12-under. Twelve months ago, Hend was two shots off the lead going into the third round of the New Zealand Open and, at 50 years of age, knows the reality of the task at hand.

“You can’t win every tournament but as long as you give yourself an opportunity come the weekend,” reasoned Hend, a 10-time winner on the Asian Tour.

“If someone shoots a better score than you, then that’s the way it goes. But just give yourself opportunities. The more opportunities you get, the more you’re going to win tournaments.”

Reflecting the international nature of the event, there are 11 different countries represented in the top 29 on the leaderboard through 36 holes.

The last Kiwi to win the New Zealand Open was Michael Hendry in 2017, the only local winner of New Zealand’s national championship since Mahal Pearce in 2003.

Other New Zealanders in the mix are Nick Voke (T-7, 65), Ben Campbell (T-12, 69) and Kieran Muir (T-12, 68).

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One was close to quitting while the other never stops playing and now Matthew Griffin and Scott Hend are co-leaders after day one of the 103rd New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sports.

Winner of the Heritage Classic on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia in early January, Griffin had eight birdies and a lone bogey in his round of 7-under 64 on the Remarkables Course in perfect conditions at the Millbrook Resort on Thursday morning.

It looked to be enough to hold the outright lead until Hend swooped late with a 64 of his own, also on the Remarkables, making five birdies in eight holes for a back nine of 5-under 30.

In a jam-packed leaderboard littered with international flags, there are a total of 36 players within just three strokes of the lead after Round 1, the Remarkables Course playing to an average of 69.03 and the Coronet 70.57.

Local favourite Ben Campbell, Korean pair Soonsang Hong and JungHyun Um, Thailand’s Gunn Charoenkul and Aussies Ben Wharton, Jay Mackenzie, Sam Brazel and Kevin Yuan all posted 6-under 65 to share third through 18 holes.

Now 40 years of age and a father of two, Griffin has recently pulled back from his long-time commitment to the Japan Golf Tour to spend more time at home.

He’d been exploring new opportunities outside of professional golf but went wire-to-wire at The Heritage Golf and Country Club last month.

Griffin again finds himself on top of the leaderboard at Millbrook as he seeks a second NZ Open title to go with his triumph at The Hills in 2016.

“It’s nice to roll a few putts in and make plenty of birdies and get right into the leaderboard,” said Griffin after his morning round.

“I feel like my game’s in great shape and feel like if I can continue playing the way I have, I’ll give myself a good chance.”

Hend only squeezed in one practice round after arriving from last week’s Asian Tour event in Oman.

Dividing his time between the Asian Tour – where he is a 10-time winner – and the senior circuit, Hend has not yet given up showing the young guys how it’s done.

“I still don’t want to admit that I’m 50,” Hend joked. “I keep telling myself I’m 18 and I can keep up with all these young guys.

“It’s more about being smart these days. I’m not too smart so it takes all I’ve got to keep up with them.”

A perennial Queenstown contender, Campbell is seeking to become just the second home-grown winner of the NZ Open since Mahal Pearce in 2003.

He was runner-up to Michael Hendry in a playoff in 2017 and climbed into contention with a long bomb for eagle at the par-5 18th on Thursday.

Campbell leads a group of six Kiwis within three strokes of the lead after Round 1 and content with where he finds himself heading into Round 2.

“It was good to finally hold one there on the last,” Campbell said of his final flurry.

“I probably had four or five putts sort of just come up short that I thought were in so nice to make one there on the last.

“My game wasn’t too far away today. It could have been a really low one so nice to start like that.”

Given the number of points on offer, this week is pivotal in determining the top three on the Order of Merit.

Projected No.1 Kazuma Kobori got off to a difficult start with a round of 1-over 72 while Brett Coletta (third), Daniel Gale (fourth) and David Micheluzzi (fifth) are among the 19 players at 4-under par.

“Played with ‘Micha’ today and we’re kind of just egging each other along towards the end there,” said Coletta.

Now plying his trade on the DP World Tour, reigning Order of Merit champion Micheluzzi shot 67 despite some struggles off the tee.

“I started off a bit all over the shop to be honest,” Micheluzzi conceded.

“I kind of hit it everywhere, but I managed to score all right.

“It’s close. If I can get the driver in play, which it has been of late, I like my chances of being up there in contention.”

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Cancer survivor Michael Hendry firmly believes he can add a second New Zealand Open title to his résumé when the 103rd event tees off in Queenstown next week.

Now cancer-free, a leaner, fitter Hendry – more worldly for his experiences – is confident he can play a major hand at the New Zealand Open at Millbrook Resort. And what has changed, should he not attain his goals, is that he is at peace with his journey to return to the game he loves.

Hendry’s last biopsy came back negative of any trace of leukaemia and now he is turning his attention to achievement on the golf course.

“Success nine months ago would have been just being able to turn up,” Hendry said.

“Fortunately, the hard work I have done has put me in a position where I feel I have a genuine chance to win the tournament if things click.”

He believes golf has been his medicinal solution.

“One thing that became apparent when I was at a stage where I was unsure how much longer I was going to live, was that I was going to enjoy every day I had left. My priorities were my family and what I do for a living.

“Golf was such a huge part of my recovery in my opinion. The mental drive and the goals push you to do things I wouldn’t necessarily have done in terms of health stuff – like the extra work in the gym – and I am convinced that made a massive difference to my recovery.

“The things driving me were my family and getting to full health to fulfil my responsibility to my kids and be the dad I want to be. And how do I earn money – it’s golf.”

And as Hendry made improvements with his health, so too the hard work in the gym and a more rounded mental approach paid dividends. He has even found a few more metres off the tee as a benefit of his leaner and stronger frame.

“I have seen a massive difference in my mental health and in the way I approach my life on a daily basis. It is much more about maintaining balance and a sense of enjoyment with what I do, even when it is not going perfectly.

“I am enjoying golf for what it is and it seems to have helped me with my mental and emotional situation.

“Golf is such a hard game. Skill is 90 percent of it and the more I play, the more I am convinced that the other 10 percent is purely fate.

“One thing for sure is there will be no one happier to be playing that golf tournament next week more than me.”

The field of 156 players will be looking to claim their share of the $NZ2 million prize purse in the 103rd New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sport starting on Thursday, February 29 at Millbrook Resort outside Queenstown.

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New Zealand’s top-ranked male golfer Ryan Fox has chosen to forge ahead on the PGA Tour over contesting his national open.

The 37-year-old announced on social media overnight that he had made the difficult decision to continue his campaign on the PGA Tour, where he is playing full-time for the first time, and forgo a chance to win the New Zealand Open. The PGA Tour of Australasia event begins at Millbrook Resort outside Queenstown next Thursday, February 29, and conflicts with the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic (formerly the Honda Classic) in Florida.

The 41st-ranked golfer in the world was one of 10 graduates to the PGA Tour via the DP World Tour’s moneylist in 2023 and Fox knows the value of making a fast start in America in a bid to maintain his card, especially in a shorter PGA Tour season, which only runs from January to August this year. The Kiwi has started slowly, sitting 147th on the FedEx Cup points list after a missed cut and T-41 result in his only two starts to date.

Fox has a strong history of supporting the New Zealand Open but is yet to win the championship. Australia’s Brendan Jones is the defending champion.

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Kiwi tour pro Michael Hendry is using his cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment regime as inspiration to fuel a return to professional golf.

In the days before his third cycle of chemotherapy in mid-July, Michael Hendry played Te Arai Links, north of Auckland, for the very first time. It was the first time he had played golf since receiving the shock diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in April and spent six straight weeks in hospital to bring his blood count back to a level where the medical staff could identify exactly what they were dealing with.

When he and wife Tara arrived at Te Arai Links, Hendry was 13 kilograms lighter, had a PICC line still inserted in his left arm and on a drizzly, windy North Island day, wondered why on earth he was even considering teeing it up.

“It’s a beautiful place up there, right on the beach,” Hendry recalls. “Beautiful restaurant, there was an All Blacks Test on and I was like, Why am I even thinking about going outside? My wife convinced me to come down because she was hitting balls and when I got down there, my bag was on a trundler waiting for me next to a few balls on the range.”

The 43-year-old chipped a few drivers 180 metres, decided to play a few holes, found himself even-par through five playing off the tips and suddenly morphed back into a professional golfer.

“I hadn’t played golf in two-and-a-half months. I’ve been through the loss of 13 kilograms of muscle mass and bone density and fluid, basically been poisoned twice and nearly died once, and there I am going, Why the f–k aren’t I under par?” Hendry adds. “It’s just completely unrealistic goals, but there I am after five holes going, Yeah, I can do this, I’m going to shoot under par today.”

As he fights for his life, his family and his career, that type of fierce determination is serving Hendry well.

I had some funny things going on with my skin, which was odd. It’s an odd skin tag that started as ingrown hairs, or whatever. You just pluck them out, no drama, but one on my jawline, in particular, blew up. It became just a big giant welt. I was like, There’s something weird going on here.

I played a run of events – New Zealand Open, New Zealand PGA, New South Wales Open, Hong Kong Open – and then the first event in Japan. From NSW Open week on, I felt like I might have had a cold coming on. At the course we played in Japan, every tee is kind of elevated. As I got to each tee, I’d be blowing like crazy. I said to my caddie, “Man, I’m getting so unfit, I’ve got to start doing some more cardio.”

When I got back to Auckland, I got really crook. All I could do was go from the bed to the couch. I thought I might have got a decent case of COVID, but when I went to the doctor, he thought I might’ve had a pulmonary embolism. He sent me to the hospital to get some tests and that’s when they found it. I didn’t go home that day and then never left the hospital for six weeks.

The diagnosis came and I thought, S–t, I know how bad this is, but my concern wasn’t so much for me. Obviously, you want to live as long as you can, but I’ve been pretty fortunate. I’ve lived a pretty cool life and I’ve achieved a lot of things that I never thought I would. At times I’d look back and go OK, if this does take me out, I’m happy with what I’ve done personally. But the thing for me was always thinking about my daughters (Maddison, 8, and Harper, 5) being so young. It’s not fair on them. That was the hardest thing, just not knowing what the future held for them in terms of whether I was going to be around. It was difficult, it was scary, so many things happening at once. It was all a bit of a blur at times as well.

It’s a cliché, but you see your life flash in front of your eyes a bit and then you also see what you think you might be going to miss out on flash in front of your eyes. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to get through it.

Every piece of news I’ve received since my initial diagnosis – once we knew exactly the specific type of leukaemia it was – has been good. I coped with the chemotherapy well, even though I felt it knocked me around a bit. I lost a heap of weight and it fatigued me like crazy. Some days I could hardly keep my eyes open, but I wasn’t vomiting all day and I wasn’t getting rashes and shakes that you can get from it.

The one thing that really annoyed me is that it messes with your taste buds. People were making beautiful homemade lasagnas and sending in these different food packages, and I’d take one mouthful and I’d be like, Oh, I can’t eat it, because everything tasted like medication. It was like tasting a pill all the time, it was just horrible. I just had no appetite whatsoever.

To find out that I was in complete remission after my first round of chemotherapy was surprising to me and my doctor. She’s not a very gleeful person – she’s a very straight shooter – but she had a sense of glee in her voice that said to me that this was a really good result at that stage. That was exciting news to receive, obviously, and that’s where you’re like, Yes, we’re going to get on top of this. We’re going to beat this.

After my third round of chemo, the doctors did a PCR test to see if the leukaemic cells had been eliminated completely. The first test is called a FISH test. It’s very surface-level and it goes to one-in-a-hundred cells. They’re looking at how many cells out of 100 do you have that are leukaemic cancer cells and they couldn’t find any at that level. The next test takes it to one-in-a-million, which is very, very deep, obviously. That test result came back and there were still leukaemic cells at that level. I was hoping for the all-clear, which was probably an unrealistic expectation on my part. If I do get clear at that level, I won’t need a stem cell transplant, which is what I’m really hoping for. My future doesn’t necessarily get any worse if I have to go through a transplant, it’s just a longer, far more toxic process that they want to avoid having me go through. My doctor is more confident that I won’t need a transplant after seeing that test than she was prior.

I made my diagnosis public by posting my player’s badge for  The Open at Royal Liverpool. I’d only just come home out of hospital and I saw it sitting there. Even though I’d qualified, I knew I wasn’t going to get to Liverpool, and I thought people were going to ask why I wasn’t playing. What better way to announce that I’m sick by saying that I won’t be able to play The Open because of it? I thought that was a good way of going about it.

I never knew so many people cared. Initially, a few close friends knew. It got around the closer golf community pretty quickly because obviously I’ve got mates in the golf world, and I wanted them to find out from me rather than through an Instagram post or a newspaper article.

I let my close friends know and they let a few other friends know and three days later I was getting an e-mail from Steve Williams saying, “Me and Scotty are thinking of you,” and he was in America playing tournaments. I was getting messages from people I hadn’t talked to or seen in years. Frank Nobilo sent me a message. This was all happening within the first week or 10 days of receiving the diagnosis. I have messages from the other side of the world. Once I put the post out there, it went crazy all over again. My phone was going berserk, getting messages from far and wide again. It was pretty awesome, actually. Very overwhelming. I just had no idea that so many people cared.

I met Jarrod [Lyle] when I was about 21. We were all still amateurs at that stage. We were playing the New Zealand Amateur Championship and me and a good friend of mine were playing the Foursomes Championship. We got paired with Jarrod and Michael Sim, so we spent a couple of days together playing golf and all got on pretty well.

I know when Jarrod died… it wasn’t like we weren’t expecting it because we knew for a while that he was not going to make it. I still remember shedding a few tears, but it was not so much the fact that a friend of mine had died, it was thinking about his kids and his family. That was the emotional part of it. I think that’s where people’s empathy comes out.

Playing the Australian Open in December is a very realistic goal, to be honest. It’s a realistic goal because I know what my situation is at the moment. After my fourth and final cycle of chemo in August, it’s going to take me six weeks to two months of hard work in the gym pretty much every day to get back to a physical place where I’m even going to be happy to consider playing. I’ve been trying to keep myself as fit as possible in between rounds of chemotherapy, so that the road back isn’t as long as it potentially could be. I’ve got a goal in mind of getting back into playing tournament golf in October and then if I’m comfortable with the way everything is going, my target is the middle of November. There’s a couple of tournaments in Japan that I’d quite like to play before the season ends up there, and then the Aussie Open.

My goal, to be perfectly honest, is to come back better than I was. That might be difficult to do, but that’s my goal and I figure I might as well because there’s no point in coming back as good as I was, I want to be better than I was. That keeps me motivated and, to be honest, pretty upbeat about the whole situation.

I never once thought about not playing golf again. I never once thought about giving it up. I want to be the guy that beat it. I want to be the guy that had this hurdle come up in a period of his career and got over it and came back. 

Images: Getty Images

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If it’s world-class golf you’re after, two of the best new courses in the world lie in the north of New Zealand’s North Island. They lead the pack when it comes to our ranking of the best layouts ‘across the ditch’.

In modern golf design, great courses rarely emerge alone. Environmental and economic realities mean that new ventures are frequently mapped out with more than one great creation in mind. The environmental aspect often means that the characteristics of the land for one golf course are shared by the adjoining space, giving rise to the possibility of more than 18 holes, while the economic part can require more than one set of player traffic to be commercially viable. It’s a tremendous happenstance for the game and for golfers – a two- (or more) for-one deal that increases the enjoyment and wonder.

And so it is for New Zealand’s two leading layouts, which share the same stretch of coastline on the Hauraki Gulf where the Greater Auckland region meets Northland. In our third ranking of New Zealand’s Top 50 Courses, Tara Iti retains the top spot it held in both the two previous rankings (2016 and 2019), with its sister layout – the South course at Te Arai Links – seeing just enough play in the few months since it has been open to rank second. With the North course at Te Arai set to open this October, it’s not difficult to envisage all three new layouts occupying lofty rankings next time around.

Youth has certainly been served in New Zealand golf in recent years. Tara Iti is a mere seven years old, while Te Arai is brand new. Likewise, none of Kinloch, Kauri Cliffs, Cape Kidnappers, Jack’s Point or The Hills – all ranked in the top eight here – existed when the 1990s became the 2000s. Couple that with the additions to and renovation of Millbrook to become 36 holes and the redesign of Royal Auckland & Grange, and you have a decidedly youthful feel to the pointy end of the ranking. Yet the inherent beauty in any assessment of the best courses in New Zealand is how older, traditional layouts sit comfortably among the newer ones.

It’s this intoxicating cocktail of old and new that draws golfers from around the world. Imagine an itinerary that takes in the old-world delights of Titirangi or the quirks of Arrowtown meshing with relative newcomers like Kauri or Kinloch. Any geographic logistics aside, it’s the kind of mix that gets the pulse racing faster than a bungy jump into a Queenstown stream.

As ever, ranking lists are subjective. Thanks to COVID, our New Zealand judging panel spent an additional year compiling scores for this ranking but were just as thorough as in the past, if not more so. Use this list to plan your next venture to the Land of the Long White Cloud and there’s no chance of you returning disappointed.

Two becomes three

Public and private courses sitting adjacent is not a new thing, but operationally it is rare. Tara Iti is largely the domain of its members and will remain so, however visitors can secure a tee-time – just once – by staying in the on-site accommodation. Nowhere else in golf does the cliché “once in a lifetime” feel more real. Things are different at neighbouring Te Arai Links, though. Access is split between members and non-members and will become more defined when the North course opens. Once Te Arai has its full 36 holes open, one of the two courses will always be open to the public each day on an alternating basis. So visitors can stay for two days knowing both courses will be available to them during their two-day stay.

Tara Iti opened to great acclaim in 2015 and instantly became a hit for New Zealand and the South Pacific region. Tom Doak masterminded a golf course that looks even more perfect than if the land had been left untouched. Golf-wise, it’s a strategic gem – the kind of course likely to out-fox you mentally without absorbing your supply of golf balls. Doak’s layout revealed the natural undulations in the land (which was previously covered in pine trees) and used them to great effect in creating a course where the ground game rules. To catch it in the low light of the early morning or evening is to see even more character in the shapes. It’s a layout that will never become boring, such is the subtlety in the contours and the in-built variety evident in the green complexes and available pin positions.

Te Arai Links sits a mere three kilometres away yet is markedly different. Bill Coore, another celebrated course architect, was chosen to pen the layout of the South course, an ideal fit for a man with a magnificent résumé of drawing great golf from such sites.

Coore recalls a lot of dune clean-up along the ocean, surmising that the government planted a lot of pine trees many years ago to stabilise the dunes. At some point a fire ripped through, so there was burnt wood and stumps that needed cleaning up. In the course-construction process, a lot of the dune vegetation disappeared and is now revegetated with flora other than marram – all approved dunes vegetation, he says.

“They don’t have cliffs there – the dunes rumble down,” Coore enthused to Australian Golf Digest last May before drawing a comparison to his other creation in this part of the world. “It’s amazing… [at Barnbougle Lost Farm] you’re much closer to the ocean but you feel much further away because of the primary dune. [Te Arai South] is more like Ireland or Scotland as there you kind of feel like you’re right on the ocean even though you’re set back from it.”

Some Tara Iti members were playing 12 holes at Te Arai on a restricted basis last autumn ahead of the full course opening last October.

Much interest, from an architectural perspective, lies in the differences between the two – and soon to be three – courses (Doak is the designer of the North course at Te Arai). Those differences are both subtle and overt, a fact noted by those closest to the broader project.

“What separates the three courses?” muses Jim Rohrstaff, managing director of Te Arai Links and Tara Iti. “The land. Even though it’s the same stretch of coast, the land is dramatically different on each property. People are stunned when they see it the first time. This summer, we’ve got a bunch of our Tara Iti members who haven’t been down here for three years – they were finally able to come back – and they’re just blown away at how different the land is. When the topography is different and the land is different, that allows them to change up the look and the aesthetics in an easier way than if it were the same crumpled dunes all over the place.”

An example is evident early in the round at Te Arai South where Coore encountered a dramatic ridgeline that he sought to incorporate into the routing. In deciding whether to go around it or over it, he called upon his considerable architectural nous. The result is that the third hole plays up the rise to a blind punchbowl target, then the fourth is a monster par 4 that cascades down the hill and around the corner.

“He really navigated this huge ridgeline brilliantly,” Rohrstaff says. “He managed it in back-to-back holes, and that was his biggest piece of the puzzle with the routing – ‘How do I get over this ridgeline sensibly?’”

The elevation change is dramatic. The fourth tee is the highest part of the course, perhaps 40 metres above sea level, while the tee at the par-3 fifth is no more than 10 metres above sea level. For context, the famously downhill 10th hole at Augusta National descends approximately the same distance, 30-odd metres.

“He solved it in a way that was absolutely genius,” Rohrstaff says. “One of the biggest changes on the course was the fourth and fifth holes, from pre-reconstruction. Before, four was going to be a par 3 and then five was a par 4, and he made a last-minute change and made four a big sweeping par 4 of almost 500 yards from the back tee and made five a par 3. It was a far, far better solution. Once he said, ‘This is what we’re gonna do,’ it was like, Oh, this makes all the sense in the world, but it was not obvious at all prior to him coming out with them.”

The land is different, but the briefs given to Doak at Tara Iti and Coore at Te Arai differed only slightly. The former is a very small, very private club, so architecturally you can ‘get away with’ more. Design quirks are revered rather than maligned and elements that some might perceive to be complicated or more difficult instead have their place. “The two architects have somewhat similar philosophies and they’re called – not by themselves, but by others – minimalist in their work and the way they go about designing and their architectural style,” Rohrstaff says.

He recalls providing Doak and Coore with similar, simple briefs – written on sticky notes, of all things – comprising three bullet points. First was to create the best course in the world possible on each piece of property. Second, make it fun and fair. Lastly, it had to be a golf course where the four-hour round could be revived. Pace of play is important at Tara Iti and Te Arai, but the design aids the quest. Even an 18-handicapper or higher stands an excellent chance of not having to dip into the ball pouch of their golf bag for another sphere mid-round.

“We view Te Arai Links as our opportunity to recreate 17-Mile Drive in the Southern Hemisphere,” Rohrstaff says. “I love Pebble and Spyglass and all the courses [along that part of the California coastline]. And of course I love Cypress Point and Monterey Peninsula Country Club, but those are highly, highly private. Pebble – Pebble’s a five-and-a-half-hour round. Who wants that? So we refused to accept that that’s OK.”

While our ranking makes a decision (for 2023, at least) as to which course is superior of the two to open so far, the members’ collective take is certainly valid. The sample size will become deeper with time, and Tara Iti had the head start when it came to garnering members’ affection, yet much like the birth of a second child, the love is now falling equally.

“They love and have raved about the South course and love that it’s so much different than Tara Iti and gives them soon-to-be three courses to play,” Rohrstaff says. “Every day when they wake up and go, ‘Where do we want to play golf today?’ it’s a pretty good little group of options that we have, but they’re vastly different from one another.”

Next come the viewpoints of those who have only ventured to the region for the first time in recent months, since Te Arai South opened. Anecdotally, these fresh perspectives are close to an even split between the two courses, which will make the three-pronged decision even more interesting and intricate later this year.

“When we set out, we said to Tom and then to Bill and Ben [Crenshaw], ‘We want three courses that are distinctly different, so that somebody could play the three of them each one time, and they will never ever confuse which is which.’ But we also want them all to be good enough that they can sit down and have a burger and a beer and argue and debate over which is better and why. And if we can get anywhere close to that, we’ve hit an absolute home run. And I think that’s where we’re heading.”

Shuffles and slides

Elsewhere on the ranking, curiously, there were far more falls than rises, although few slides represented major descents. Tieke Estate, near Hamilton on the North Island, was the only other brand-new course to enter the list, doing so in 19th place. Royal Auckland & Grange returned to the ranking (in 15th) after its deliberate omission last time due to the scope of the redesign work taking place. And Millbrook officially became a 36-hole resort last year, giving it two courses on our list (11th and 20th) from now on.

The rest of the list saw mostly minor dips, driven largely by the inclusion of new and returning courses in the top 20, along with the occasional uptick. Ever-popular Paraparaumu Beach bucked the trend to leap from eighth to third, while Arrowtown and Muriwai continue to have legions of supporters, including on our judging panel.

An important section of the ranking is the part most golfers might view in a cursory fashion: the final 10. Our original list included just the 40 best layouts in New Zealand before we expanded it to the Top 50 Courses in 2019. We’ve maintained the range this time and note that, while there was movement within the 50 courses, only Whakatane on the Bay of Plenty came from outside the Top 50 in 2019 to make the 2023 list. Which isn’t to say the leading 50 are set in stone – that just happens to be the way it played out this time. The courses to fall just outside the list are absent by only small numerical margins.

It’s an exciting time in New Zealand golf. A change in prime minister hopefully means a more dedicated approach to showcasing the nation’s finest golf courses to the rest of the world. However, if that proves not to be the case, there is still no disputing the extraordinarily high calibre of golf courses from the tip of the North Island to the southern realms of the South. Golf in New Zealand has so much to offer and a magnificent collection of courses about which to feel immensely proud. 

How the ranking was compiled

Our judging panel visits and scores courses using seven criteria:

Shot Options (score out of 20): How well does the course present a variety of options involving risks and rewards and require a wide range of shots?

Challenge (out of 10): How challenging, while still being fair, is the course for a typical scratch golfer playing from the tees designated as back tees for everyday play (not from seldom-used championship tees)?

Layout Variety (out of 10): How varied is the physical layout of the course in terms of differing lengths (long, medium and short par 3s, 4s and 5s), configurations (straight holes, doglegs left and right), hazard placements, green shapes and green contours?

Distinctiveness (out of 10): How individual is each hole when compared to all others on this course? Additionally, how fun and enjoyable for all levels of golfers would this course be to play on a regular basis?

Character (out of 10): How well does the course design exude ingenuity and uniqueness and possess profound characteristics that you would consider outstanding for its era?

Aesthetics (out of 10): How well do the scenic values of the course (including landscaping, vegetation, water features and backdrops) add to the pleasure of a round?

Conditioning (out of 10): How firm, fast and rolling were the fairways? How firm yet receptive were the greens? How true were the rolls of putts?

To arrive at a course’s final score, we total its averages in the seven categories, doubling Shot Options to create a score out of 80.

For their time and input, we thank our panel of judges: Scott Ball, Ginny Bolderston, Steve Brent, Bob Brereton, Geoff Burns, Ian Charlton, Terry Cochrane, Dan Crook, Paul Dunn, Ray Ellis, Ryan Green, Nicholas Healy, Tolan Henderson, Raymond Hinton, Macaulay Howell, Chris Hunt, Andrew Jackson, Regan Johnston, Ray Jones, Erik Jorgensen, Loren Justins, Devon Kay, Steve Keipert, William Leipnik, Kerry Manderson, Regan McCaffery, Richard Middleton, John Murcott, William Owen, James Pearson, Gerald Ponsford, Mike Reid, David Ross, Tim Ross, Dave Saunders, Andrew Sloane, Jonathan Smith, Mike Smith, Tom Starr, Mike Wharepouri, Anaru White, Adam Williams and Brendon Williams, along with Ryan Brandeburg who assisted in a non-voting capacity.

*Millbrook didn’t have 36 holes in 2019 when just the premier 18 holes was considered (and ranked ninth).

**Royal Auckland & Grange was intentionally omitted last time, due to the scope of the redesign work taking place at the time.
Whakatane came from outside the Top 50 in 2019 to make the 2023 list.

The post 2023/2024 New Zealand Top 50 Courses appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

Queenstown, Christchurch and Dunedin combine to offer southern-latitude golf in exceptional and unique environments.

If you are searching for an affordable yet world-class golf trip in New Zealand, look no further than the nation’s stunning South Island. To the south-west of the island on the shores of Lake Wakatipu lies Queenstown, one of the most strikingly beautiful towns on earth, and about six hours’ drive away on the east coast is the historically captivating city of Christchurch. Golfers can build an enviable itinerary at either destination, and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

QUEENSTOWN

Thrill-seekers have long converged on Queenstown in Otago for its abundant ski resorts and water sports, though the town’s reputation for sublime golf courses is a more recent phenomenon.

“It’s sort of a cross between alpine golf and desert golf,” says former tour professional Greg Turner, who is now among New Zealand’s most revered golf-course designers.

In this magazine’s new ranking of New Zealand’s Top 50 Courses [see page 68], six of the top 35 belonged to Queenstown: Jack’s Point (ranked fifth), The Hills (eighth), Arrowtown (ninth), Millbrook (11th and 20th) and, at No.32, Queenstown Golf Club.

“They’re resort-style with a New Zealand twist and magnificent turf quality – as good a turf quality as you’ll get anywhere in the world. Right up there with Melbourne,” Turner says. “It’s a stunning alpine environment. You fly two-and-a-half hours from Melbourne and you’re in a different world.”

Twenty-five minutes is the most time you will spend in a car getting to any of Queenstown’s golf courses, which leaves plenty of time to discover everything else the famous town has to offer.

Jack’s Point

Can you think of a golf course on clifftops with panoramic views of a vast lake and set against the backdrop of an imposing mountain range? It might sound too good to be true, but that’s exactly what you experience at Jack’s Point – the top-ranked course on the South Island – which is wedged between Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables.

Set on rugged and wildly undulating terrain, the fairways meander between rock formations. The highlight of the round is the four-hole stretch beginning at the dogleg-right, par-5 fifth where the green is set on one of the high points of the course overlooking Lake Wakatipu. The short par-4 sixth can be reached with less than driver by longer hitters, though the threat of the gorse-covered cliff to the left looms large. The sharply downhill par-3 seventh is just a flick wedge for some as your ball descends against the backdrop of the lake, and the uphill par-5 eighth features a double-dogleg and a blind lay-up before a steep climb to the green.

Another highlight at Jack’s Point is the dramatic downhill par-4 16th where you drive towards the Remarkables, which are several kilometres away but feel much closer in the moments while your ball is descending against them.

Queenstown Golf Club

Located on a peninsula of land surrounded on three sides by the lake, Queenstown Golf Club provides an enviable setting and doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Formerly known as Wakatipu Golf Club, Queenstown’s current layout opened for play in 1975.

Hundreds of magnificent pine trees dot the property, although you wonder whether the superb views might be even better if the fairways were less treelined. The standout hole at Queenstown is the sweeping dogleg-left fifth, which frames the lake and dares golfers to drive over it for the shortest route to the green.

Arrowtown Golf Club

There is no fanfare at the charming Arrowtown, which is like going back in time. Barely more than 5,400 metres in length, the par-71 course is short, most of the fairways are narrow and the major obstacles include a public road dividing the course into two nines, countless hills and mounds with exposed rock and wacky natural slopes on many of the greens. There appears to have been no attempt to move earth at Arrowtown, which was originally a nine-hole layout until the early 1970s.

“I think people are really attracted to the fact that it doesn’t feel like it’s manufactured, that it’s a really interesting piece of terrain and it’s just great fun,” Turner says. “A lot of people who play there don’t realise that there’s not a bunker on the golf course because it doesn’t need a bunker.”

The modest clubhouse was built in the 1950s and only adds to Arrowtown’s appeal. The narrow outdoor deck overlooking the 11th hole below and mountains beyond is the place to be after your round.

Millbrook Resort

While Arrowtown appeals to the old-fashioned golfer, Millbrook will attract those wanting a golf experience with modern luxury. Home to the 2023 New Zealand Open, Millbrook now features two 18-hole courses – Remarkables and Coronet – with five sets of tees on every hole and a world-class resort to enjoy when you’re not on the golf course.

Previously a 27-hole hole venue, Millbrook opened nine new holes in early 2022 – designed by Turner and Scott Macpherson – to complete the Coronet layout and this month’s NZ Open will be the first time the event has been staged exclusively at the resort.

The Hills Golf Club

As such, this year will be the first since 2012 that The Hills’ spectacular 18-hole course has not co-hosted the New Zealand Open with Millbrook. A private club, The Hills offers limited tee-times to the public.

In 2019, The Hills opened ‘The Farm’ – a bunkerless, nine-hole short course – though the venue’s most unusual feature is its vast collection of sculptures on display throughout the course.

Queenstown’s appeal extends far beyond just golf, especially during the high season of October to March. Jet-boat rides on the lake and through ravines on nearby rivers will give you a burst of adrenaline. If you’re attracted to rough waters, then you’ll fancy whitewater rafting and river surfing while more relaxed options include canoeing and kayaking tours. For a mind-blowing view high atop the town, take a ride 450 metres up Skyline Queenstown – the steepest cable car in the Southern Hemisphere.

Otago is well-known for its pinot noir and wine lovers can get lost among the many tours available. If you like gin, check out Altitude Wine Tours, which launched the world’s first ‘heli-gin’ tour – transporting customers in luxury to three cellar doors in six hours.

At night, take your pick from a plethora of premium dining options in the centre of Queenstown, including Botswana Butchery, Little Aosta, Nest Kitchen at Kamana Lakehouse, Eichardt’s Grille or Tanoshi Cow Lane. If you’re looking for a drink, try Little Mez or Rhinos Ski Shack in Queenstown, while your best bet in Arrowtown is the recently opened Hyde, Liquor & Social.

Recommended accommodation options include The Glebe apartments and Queenstown House. The Glebe has a wide selection of living spaces, from studios to four-bedroom apartments, and six penthouses, available for any type of getaway for couples or large families. Located close to the starting points of Queenstown’s popular activities, such as jetboating, rafting, bungy-jumping, hiking, cycling, wine tours and fly fishing, The Glebe is the perfect place to plan your next holiday. 

For more than 40 years, Queenstown House has been an iconic and luxurious bed-and-breakfast accommodation provider. Located a short walk from the heart of Queenstown, this property offers stunning views of the township, Lake Wakatipu and Walter Peak Station. 

Guests can choose from a range of luxurious rooms, from three-bedroom apartments with fireplaces and sweeping views, to the more intimate king rooms in the main house.

CHRISTCHURCH

The flight from Queenstown to Christchurch is only 55 minutes while the drive is about six-and-a-half hours, including stops. 

One way to break up the drive about 50 minutes into the trip is a visit to Cromwell Golf Club, which is an inland links-style layout that hosted the final qualifying event for the New Zealand Open in February and bears a resemblance to the layout at Arrowtown.

Once you’re in Christchurch, there’s an impressive suite of golf courses to consider, while we recommend staying at the gorgeous Pavilions Hotel, which is right near an elbow in the River Avon. 

With 90 rooms, suites, apartments and cottages, the Pavilions Hotel Christchurch is a dynamic social hub where guests and visitors can work, relax and take in some old-fashioned Kiwi hospitality.

Christchurch Golf Club

Dating back to 1873, Christchurch is the second oldest golf club in New Zealand. Only 20 minutes from the airport, Christchurch was redesigned by the late Peter Thomson with pot-style bunkers, creeks and ponds adding to its challenge. Christchurch is also the home club of Kiwi golf legend Sir Bob Charles.

The clubhouse was rebuilt after the 2011 earthquake and re-opened in 2016. Upstairs, the Sir Bob Charles Gallery pays homage to the 1963 Open champion.

Christchurch has staged the New Zealand Open 11 times – second only to Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club – and in 1990 staged amateur golf’s most prestigious men’s teams events, the Eisenhower Trophy.

Clearwater Resort

Situated in the city’s northern outskirts, Clearwater has been a prolific host of professional golf tournaments this century, including seven New Zealand PGA Championships, two New Zealand Opens and five New Zealand Women’s Opens.

The resort-style course is best known for providing the launching pad for Lydia Ko’s extraordinary career. The 25-year-old shot to international fame by winning the 2013 Open at Clearwater as a 15-year-old amateur before she hoisted the trophy there twice more in 2015 and 2016.

Water features prominently at Clearwater, particularly at the long par-4 18th, where a lake framing the entire left side ensures a nerve-jangling finish.

Fable Terrace Downs Resort

An hour or so west of the city in Canterbury’s high country, Fable Terrace Downs is a destination in its own right. Twenty-five luxury villas complement the golf course, which offers parkland golf on the front nine and more open expanses on the closing side.

The views of the nearby Southern Alps and Rakaia River are sensational, and four sets of tees provide options for both seasoned and beginner golfers.

Harewood Golf Club

This year marks 100 years since Harewood Golf Club was originally formed. Previously a 36-hole facility, the club sold land in 2008 to make way for the expansion of Christchurch International Airport. The funds from the sale paved the way for a comprehensive revamp of Harewood’s Woodlands course in 2012 by Turner Macpherson Golf Design. New greens and tees were built while native areas were regenerated.

“I’m really happy with what we managed to achieve there,” Turner says. “With as little elevation change that exists across the site, I think it plays with a lot more undulation change than people expect.”

Pegasus Golf & Sports Club

Half an hour north of Christchurch, Pegasus is a three-time host of the New Zealand Women’s Open and staged the NZ PGA Championship in 2019. The golf course is modern with plenty of water to trick you up if you miss the generous fairways and greens.

Pegasus’ points of difference from most other Christchurch venues are its off-course facilities, which include a partially undercover driving range, tennis courts and gymnasium.

Russley Golf Club

Known for its impeccable conditioning, Russley’s parkland layout built much of its reputation in the 1970s as the host venue of the Garden City Golf Classic, while it also staged the 1985 New Zealand Open.

Turner Macpherson redesigned the back nine at Russley, intent on adding variety and reinstating playability to what were demanding playing corridors.

“Trees don’t only grow up, they grow out,” Turner says. “What felt like the right width of avenues 40 years ago gets really, really, really narrow [over time]. We were able to add, over certainly nine or 10 holes, a bit more space and a bit more strategic golf.”

Of course, golf on the South Island is much more than just Queenstown and Christchurch. Dunedin – where Turner grew up – is home to New Zealand’s oldest golf club, Otago Golf Club, and the rugged clifftop layout at Chisholm Links.

“[Otago] is a quite hilly inland course whereas Chisholm’s a true links so they were a nice combination of golf styles to grow up playing,” Turner says. “In Dunedin, golf is relatively inexpensive.”

At opposite ends of the South Island are two more courses worth exploring, Nelson Golf Club to the north and Invercargill Golf Club to the south. However you choose to divide your time on the South Island, the golf will leave you more than satisfied. 

The post New Zealand: Alpine wonders appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

The late Julian Robertson – visionary American billionaire and philanthropist who founded New Zealand’s famed Kauri Cliffs – had a saying he used tongue-in-cheek when explaining why there was an unsealed gravel road leading up to his wildly opulent resort on the North Island: “You need to go through rough times to get to paradise.”

Robertson was joking about the road, but there was wisdom in his words. The journey to a happy place often includes dark times, and the origins of Kauri Cliffs are no different.

The North Carolinian wanted to leave the United States in the early 1990s despite creating one of the biggest hedge funds in the world, New York’s Tiger Management. Crime was soaring across America, Los Angeles had rioted after the violent arrest of Rodney King in 1992, and the World Trade Center experienced its first terrorist attack in 1993.

Having already spent some time in New Zealand in the 1970s, Robertson and his wife, Josie, purchased a 2,500-hectare farm on the ocean at Matauri Bay, almost 300 kilometres north of Auckland. Robertson, who Forbes estimated to have a $4 billion fortune, commissioned Florida’s David Harman to build a golf course at the subtropical Northland site for visiting American friends to play. But Josie convinced her husband to convert it into an operational, high-end golf resort.

Kauri Cliffs opened in 2001 and quickly developed international acclaim. That success laid the foundation for a sister property on the North Island – Cape Kidnappers. It’s a stunning, rustic estate perched high above the wine country of Hawke’s Bay with a course designed by Tom Doak. Then came Matakauri Lodge, an unfathomably opulent resort, sans golf course, in Queenstown that once welcomed Prince Harry. Pouring fuel on the hype was a handful of iconic aerial photos showing Cape Kidnappers’ collection of holes that run along a series of cliffs high above the sea. To this day, they still float on social media but have been superseded by drone photography.

The meteoric rise of the lodges was also fuelled by their public accessibility. Yes, the price may add exclusivity, but anyone who can afford the premium rates can stay and play. “Julian Robertson built Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers because he loved New Zealand and wanted to attract more people there,” Doak tells Australian Golf Digest. “The fact the course was open to the public was key to it getting so much attention. If it were private, the golf magazines wouldn’t run all those pictures of the course because the readers couldn’t go there.”

What did finally render the two courses inaccessible, at least to foreigners, was the global COVID-19 pandemic. New Zealand’s strict international border closures forced Robertson Lodges to think outside the square given their properties are usually 70 percent occupied by American guests. The remaining guests are mainly from Australia, with Europe and Asia a small percentage. Australians love the discounted lodge rates in the shoulder seasons of autumn and spring, as well as winter. Americans populate the lodges during summer (their winter).

The pandemic resembled the tough times Robertson often alluded to; all three properties were closed for at least six months in 2020. In 2021, only domestic travellers could visit the lodges. Even then, Auckland residents couldn’t leave the city limits. But Robertson Lodges saw an opportunity to undergo significant maintenance work at Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers. Kauri Cliffs now has brand new greens and restored fairways, while the near-20-year-old greens at Cape Kidnappers were restored to their original perimeters. Greens staff then resurfaced the bentgrass greens and fairways.

“We’ve utilised COVID to re-imagine and upgrade the infrastructure,” says Callum Farnell, director of hospitality at Robertson Lodges. “Both courses had a significant amount of money invested in them. The feedback has been phenomenal.”

A return to paradise

It’s January 2023, and the rough times seem to be in the rear-view mirror. Kauri Cliffs’ timber exterior has the look and feel of a mansion in the Hamptons. It’s bustling with well-heeled guests, mostly Americans looking to escape the Northern Hemisphere winter.

From the deck of this palatial lodge, the view down the golf course, through the scattered patches of rainforest and across Matauri Bay, are a picturesque reminder that this writer has also navigated through a tough period to get back to paradise.

Paradise, for me, is doing what I love and what I love doing is writing about golf. Mostly that’s golf news, but sometimes there’s travel writing. From 2016 to 2020, I was the golf correspondent in the US covering the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour for the Australian Associated Press (AAP) newswire as well as Australian Golf Digest. It was the dream job. But in February 2020, just before COVID
kicked off, AAP’s major shareholders withdrew. The newswire very nearly closed and had to slash its newsroom in half. That meant no more golf writers on the PGA Tour.

I had to move back to Australia, where I took a job with News Corp covering general news: crime, COVID and everything in between. When the world picked back up in late 2021, Australian Golf Digest offered me a return to the magazine and sent me back to the US. This New Zealand work trip was a bonus while back in Australia for Christmas.

Kauri Cliffs had not changed since my first visit in 2015. The front nine is still as majestic as I remembered. Golfers begin the round high up on the property and zigzag down the valley towards the ocean. There are no weak holes before the turn. Stopping to take photos is irresistible; particularly at the fourth hole, a par 5 named “Cambo” after 2005 US Open winner and proud Maori man, Michael Campbell, as well as the beautiful and daunting par 3s at the fifth and seventh. The former is a downhill wedge shot but the latter requires a 160-metre carry across a cliff to a green perched right on the edge of the property, with the enchanting Cavalii Islands directly behind. While holes 10 to 13 are relatively mediocre, they set up a thrilling finish. The par-3 14th begins an exhilarating four-hole stretch full of twists, turns and hero tee shots high above the sea. All up, 15 holes at Kauri Cliffs face the South Pacific Ocean; six traversing tall cliffs that plunge to the water below.

What had changed – or evolved – since 2015 was my understanding of Kauri Cliffs as an American-style golf resort now that I live in the US. It’s built for relaxation and comfort and that is reflected in the resort-style course: all the trouble is visible and the bunkers are manageable. Providing one plays from the correct tees, it’s a relatively forgiving layout. The views, topography and routing are awe-inspiring, but architecturally the course can’t compete with Cape Kidnappers. In a way, Kauri Cliffs is like Pebble Beach Golf Links or the Plantation and Bay courses at Kapalua Resort in Hawaii (though Kauri Cliffs has far superior accommodation). Cape Kidnappers is more comparable to Pinehurst or Bandon Dunes. Both Kauri and Cape regularly feature in the top 100 courses in the world, with Cape Kidnappers reaching as high as 16th. But playing both on your trip provides a wonderful contrast; their sum is greater than the individual parts.

The overall experience is more quintessentially and wonderfully American at Kauri Cliffs than at Cape Kidnappers. That’s evident in the traditional Hamptons feel inside the lodge, restaurant and villas. But the resort has a pure New Zealand twist; when they’re not playing golf, guests are hiking up to a forest, to marvel at a 900-year-old Kauri tree and then down farmland to a waterfall. This is no gentle stream; it’s a raging miniature version of Niagara Falls. Families are also fishing on the resort’s handful of private beaches, including the very tranquil Pink Beach, or riding horses along the mesmerising ridges.

Although Kauri Cliffs is the original property, the star of the portfolio is Cape Kidnappers. There’s a heightened sophistication found in the golf course, the atmosphere, the service and the rare local wines.

The centrepiece of Cape Kidnappers is the golf course, which ranks high among Doak’s finest architectural achievements. That is saying something for a sought-after designer from Michigan whose stable includes Pacific Dunes at Bandon in Oregon; Tara Iti, a course located two hours north of Auckland ranked No.2 in the world; and the wildly popular Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania. To build and route a world-class layout on the difficult site Doak was given at Cape Kidnappers is perhaps forgotten among the dramatic aerial imagery of the property.

“Cape Kidnappers was an interesting routing to do,” Doak says. “The topography insisted on routing holes north and south on the fingers of the land. Going out along those fingers was obviously super-dramatic; the golfer is playing towards the ocean and generally hugging a deep valley on one side of the hole. Those valleys were too deep to play east-west across them.”

Cape Kidnappers may not have quite as many holes with ocean views as Kauri Cliffs, but it does more with its panoramas and finds intriguing solutions to its inland holes. To achieve that, Doak employed design principles similar to Barnbougle Dunes or layouts on the Melbourne Sandbelt, like Yarra Yarra, which he recently restored: there’s always more room off the tee than the eye can see. The fairways are generous but have sides from which hitting the green can be either straightforward or nearly impossible; and the ground game is encouraged on most approach shots. There are also elements of links golf in the many blind shots you’ll hit.

“From the cliffs at Cape Kidnappers, you look down at Hawke’s Bay 130 metres below, and the waves coming to shore look like the ripples after you’ve thrown a pebble into a pond,” Doak once wrote on his website about the land. “We could not compete with such drama, so instead we tried to use it as best we could.”

Several stetches at Cape Kidnappers showcase Doak’s thoughtful use of the land. After three dramatic ocean holes – the par-5 fourth to the par-3 sixth – the course turns south back towards the clubhouse. There, Doak took the rolling valleys and created three exciting holes starting at the short par-4 seventh. The elevation changes, perched greens and rugged bunkering give the trio the appearance of a San Francisco-area course like the California Club.

“That was the difficult part; finding a variety of ways to use the topography to create interest on the holes that played back to the south without much view,” says Doak.

Holes 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15 are the stars of the back nine. The par-4 12th has a green positioned cleverly between a flat fairway and the horizon to give the golfer the feeling of putting on the edge of the earth. “It’s the natural tilt of the land towards Hawke’s Bay that gives the greens their infinity backdrop, and also makes it hard to get your approach to stay on them,” Doak wrote.

The par-3 13th is a brilliant uphill one-shotter with the ocean left and a concealed, rugged bunker more on the cliff-face than the green. “There are only 40 bunkers on the course, and many of them are unseen, hanging down into a valley well below the fairway or green,” Doak writes.

The par-5 15th [see page 94], called “Plank”, is Cape Kidnappers’ most famous hole. At nearly 600 metres, this three-shotter runs almost as straight as an airport runway along a cape with a 50-metre drop to the ocean on either side. But the driveable par-4 14th before that – which is wide open from the tee but incredibly demanding on approaches hit from inside 70 metres – is just as much fun. The course ends deservingly on a classy trio of inland holes.

Cape Kidnappers had long enjoyed the mantle of New Zealand’s best course before it was usurped in 2016 by Doak’s other New Zealand masterpiece, Tara Iti. But the man himself says Cape Kidnappers is probably the most unique course he’s designed.

“While people may like the vibe of links golf at Tara Iti better, there are lots of links courses in other parts of the world that [Tara Iti] has to compete with for attention,” Doak says. “There is really no other course with the setting of Cape Kidnappers in the USA, or in the UK, or Australia. You’ve got to go to New Zealand for that.”

One also must go to New Zealand for the food at Cape Kidnappers. Without exaggeration, it alone is worth the trip. Head chef James Honore and his team harvest an abundance of crops from the resort’s own vegetable, fruit and herb gardens. Combined with incredible New Zealand meats and freshly caught seafood, the fine dining menus are as memorable as the golf course. Some of the highlights of these seasonal summer dishes included a Middle Eastern lentil salad with candied walnuts, a Thai curry of kingfish and a ribeye with red wine jus and beetroot puree.

The food at Cape Kidnappers is expertly paired with incredible local wines, some of which you may never have heard of, and would struggle to purchase in Australia. That’s because the celebrated Hawke’s Bay wine region is at the doorstep of Cape Kidnappers. It’s the second-largest wine producing region in New Zealand. Hawke’s Bay’s gravely soil and extended growing season allow for rich red blends, as well as merlot, spicy syrah and pinot noirs. For whites, there’s also delightful full-bodied chardonnays, oaky sauvignon blancs, crisp viogniers and aromatic pinot gris. Almost daily, Cape Kidnappers’ sommelier visits the cellar doors after hearing from the chefs about the menu and collects wines to complement the ever-changing dishes. During our stay, the highlights came from Hawke’s Bay winemakers like Topsy Turvey, Te Mata, Church Road, Smith & Sheth (which is at Havelock North) and the more heralded Craggy Range.

Where all this delectable food and wine is consumed within the Cape Kidnappers main lodge adds to the experience. The dining room has floor-to-ceiling glass doors that look over the garden and Hawke’s Bay towards Napier. There are also private dining rooms like The Snug – a cylindrical room within a red silo – creating the feeling guests are inside the barn of a billionaire’s ranch in Colorado or Montana. While the oak and stone transports guests to the American Rocky Mountains, there’s also an array of furniture pieces that add to Cape Kidnappers’ cosmopolitan décor. There are coffee bean barrels from Indonesia, the “divorce chandelier” bought from Bruce Willis and Demi Moore’s property auction when the actor couple split, and Ralph Lauren tobacco leather sling chairs.

And then there’s the accommodation. Both Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs could make a claim to have the best accommodation in world golf. Both have been widely celebrated in annual awards by non-golf travel media, like Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure, among others. The inconceivably plush villas at both properties range from suites to the Owners Cottages (Kauri Cliffs even has four-bedroom apartments called The Residences). The rooms are as breathtaking as the courses they gaze over. Kauri Cliffs’ suites have a coastal retreat atmosphere courtesy of blue and white tones, while those at Cape Kidnappers have a rustic look, an example being horse saddles hung from the walls.

This is all capped off by world-class service from an international array of hospitality virtuosos. It’s no wonder why billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates has previously hired the entire Kauri Cliffs resort, or why The Beatles icon Paul McCartney rented the Owners Cottage at Cape Kidnappers during a 2017 visit.

Hospitality director Farnell says it wasn’t just the two golf courses that put New Zealand on the map. He’d know, being a veteran hotelier who has previously worked in luxury lodges throughout New Zealand and even the Savoy Hotel in London. Farnell asserts that Robertson Lodges forced New Zealand’s entire luxury industry to elevate its food, accommodation and service.

“It wasn’t just golf in terms of how much the Robertson Lodges lifted the bar for re-imagining what a luxury lodge means in New Zealand,” Farnell says from inside the library at Cape Kidnappers. “These properties really set a benchmark. I’ve been in the industry for 30 years, and I’ve seen [New Zealand] elevate itself beyond being just a great country that had some good food and good service. But the infrastructure was never really there. These properties made New Zealand’s luxury sector lift its game tenfold. New Zealand really came of age when the Robertsons first launched Kauri Cliffs and many other properties have aspired to follow in its footsteps.”

As Farnell speaks, I notice a curious artwork on one of the library shelves. Farnell turns around and reveals it’s an original Picasso. The late Robertson passionately collected artworks from iconic artists like Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Henri Matisse. Before Robertson died last August, he donated 15 masterpieces to the Auckland Art Gallery worth an estimated $300 million. It was part of Robertson’s philanthropic efforts to give back to a country that gave him so much. The artwork is nice, but it could be argued Robertson’s greatest gift to New Zealand was putting its golf industry on the map.

Did you know?

Autumn is the best-value period for Australians to visit Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers, with Robertson Lodges offering Australian guests unlimited green fees per person (golf carts additional) included in their lodge rate. This offer is valid from April 1 to May 31, 2023.

Rates: Suites $1,035+GST per person, per night. Deluxe suites $1,160+GST per person, per night.

Standard inclusions apply, including breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as pre-dinner cocktail hour and the unlimited green fees per person offer. Visit robertsonlodges.com/ for more.

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