The South Course at Te Arai has 14 holes on the water.
Courtesy
Below the equator and under the radar. That’s how New Zealand used to register for American golfers, to the extent that it registered at all: a far-flung country with a few eye-candy courses but not a major target for a golf buddies’ trip.
In more recent years, though, a constellation of marquee projects have raised New Zealand’s profile in the game overseas, elevating it to an it destination, known for both its celebrated modern courses but also must-play Golden Age layouts that the U.S. market had long overlooked.
On a recent episode of the Destination Golf podcast, Simon Holt laid out a seven-day dream Down Under itinerary.
To listen to the episode, click below. And for a summary of Holt’s recommendations, keep reading.
Getting there
New Zealand is made up of hundreds of islands, but the two largest are the North Island and the South Island. Of the pair, the North Island offers the greater concentration of must-play golf. It is also home to the capital, Auckland, which welcomes nonstop flights from such major U.S. markets as Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles. That’s where you’ll be touching down.
When to go
On the flip side of the planet, the seasons are inverted. Come December, when winter takes hold in the U.S., golf season in New Zealand is just kicking into swing. But a wide, sweet window stretches from around November through April and into May.
Day 1
Titirangi Golf Club
This is your day-of-arrival course, and not just for its proximity (20 minutes) from the airport. You’re playing this one for its pedigree. Established in 1909, the course was redesigned nearly 20 years later by Alister MacKenzie. It remains the only course in New Zealand by the famous doctor-turned-architect, and it bears many of his hallmarks, set on a tussled landscape, with compellingly contoured greens, dramatic paw print bunkers and ground game options everywhere. Titirangi is a private club. But like most private courses in New Zealand, it operates on the British model, which means that it accepts outside play.
Day 2
Kauri Cliffs
Holt is a big fan of whirlybirds (and of rapid transport in general), so get ready to hop in a chopper. You’ve reserved one, right? Having bedded down your first night at T’Arai (more on that shortly), you’ll wing up to Kauri Cliffs, one of those early eye-candy courses that you’ve probably seen in photos. Built by the late New Zealand businessman Julian Robertson, it lives up to its name, with 15 holes commanding a Pacific panorama and several stretches that dangle daringly along oceanside cliffs. Kauri Cliffs has a Rosewood Hotel, but as with most of the big-name modern New Zealand courses, you’ll pay a premium to stay and play here. But for Simon’s itinerary, you’re carrying out a surgical airstrike, choppering in for the day to play the course then winging back to T’Arai that night.
Days 3 and 4
Te Arai
Maybe you’ve heard of Tara Iti, home to a Tom Doak design that is widely regarded as the finest modern course in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s one of the rare New Zealand clubs that is inaccessible to the public; you’ve got be a member — or know one — to get on. That’s the bad news. The good news is that some 15 miles away, the owners of Tara Iti built Te Arai, which, Holt describes as Pebble Beach to Tara Iti’s Cypress Point: anyone can stay and play there, for a price. The accommodations are chic and understated, the food is spot-on, and the two 18-hole courses, the North and South (designed, respectively, by Doak and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw), are the kind of tracks you cross an ocean for. They’re open to the public on alternating days. So you’re hanging out for two days to play them both.
Day 5
Kinloch Golf Club
After a 90-minute drive to the Auckland airport, followed by a 50-minute commercial flight, you’re in Taupo, preparing for a round at the Kinloch Golf Club, a Jack Nicklaus design at the heart of the North Island. If you watched the movie version of the Hobbit, you can get a good idea of what the land looks like here. It’s rolling, rustic, spliced with creeks, knotted with woods, fringed by native grasses — unspoiled scenery, straight out of the shire, with a course that Holt says reminds him of an inland Kingsbarns. As it happens, a shaper from that famous modern course near St. Andrews had a hand in the shaping here too.
Cape Kidnappers is one of the world’s most photogenic courses.Joann Dost
Day 6
Cape Kidnappers
A two-hour drive east takes you to Napier, a coast city, which sets you up for a round at Cape Kidnappers, another Down Under Doak design. “Even if you think you haven’t seen pictures of it, you have,” Holt says. He’s right. One of the world’s most photogenic courses, it features holes that run like knobby fingers along the coast, giving way to ocean and island vistas that you would swear were airbrushed until you see them for real. Like Kauri Cliffs, Cape Kidnappers has a Rosewood Hotel, but other accommodations abound in Napier as well.
Day 7
Paraparaumu Beach Club
You can’t see the water but you know it’s close. You can feel its breezy influence on this wildly entertaining links, a Golden Age delight, designed by former MacKenzie associate, Alex Russell. In 2002, at the urging of Steve Williams, his Kiwi caddie at the time, Tiger Woods played in the New Zealand Open here — a memorable appearance that still inspires conversations around the clubhouse bar. This golf here is wonderfully subtle and quirky, and the green fees ($225 NZ, or roughly $130) make it one of the greatest bargains anywhere.
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A golf, food and travel writer, Josh Sens has been a GOLF Magazine contributor since 2004 and now contributes across all of GOLF’s platforms. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Sportswriting. He is also the co-author, with Sammy Hagar, of Are We Having Any Fun Yet: the Cooking and Partying Handbook.
