Tom Doak does not apologize for building a course that has “only” seven holes along the water. But he does feel the need to provide some context.
The course, after all, is in New Zealand, a country so abundant in dramatic coastal layouts that players might be shocked to learn of holes that don’t kiss up against the sea.
“That’s how spoiled we’ve become by the best modern courses in New Zealand,” Doak says.
Doak has done a good deal of that spoiling himself, first with Cape Kidnappers, the cliff-edge course in Hawkes Bay that he christened in 2004, and, more recently, Tara Iti (2015), a private oceanfront retreat on the country’s North Island, roughly 90 minutes north of Auckland.
Now comes Doak’s latest New Zealand project: the North Course at Te Arai Links, which opened for play early this month.
Situated five miles down the coast from Tara Iti, the North is the second 18-holer at Te Arai Links. It joins the South Course, a Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw design that opened in late 2022.
The two designs are siblings but not twins.
“Bill got the first crack at routing a golf course there, and we tried to riff on him and make it feel different,” Doak says.
The North starts and finishes along the ocean. But in Doak’s view, the most compelling stretches of the course lie inland on a rumpled canvas of dunes and pines. Highlights include the green of the par-4 5th, which, like the 6th tee, occupies a ridge alongside the remains of an ancient Maori fortress, though Doak is also partial to the 11th and 13th holes, the latter of which takes advantage of a natural sandy crater that Doak describes as reminiscent of Pine Valley — a comparison that holds, he says, for much of the terrain.
“If there was no oceanfront, this would still be a really good property for golf,” Doak says.
But oceanfront there is, with seven holes on the Pacific.
Though Te Arai Links is a resort, it also offers memberships, and guests will have access to the North and South courses on alternating days. To hear more from Doak about the North Course and Te Arai Links, watch the video above.
