NEW ZEALAND
Another course I would happily play again. Wanganui, Waihi, Turangi, Te Puke, PioPio-Aria and Ngamotu were among the Maori-named courses visited, and Ngamotu is the name given to New Plymouth Golf Club, on the west coast bulge of the North Island. It evidently refers to a group of islands off the coast. A hilly parkland layout, with towering trees lining the fairways. On each nine, there was a strong par 5 leading uphill to the clubhouse. The main surprise at Ngamotu on the back nine was to walk up a dune to the 13th tee and find our- selves overlooking a long beach. Unfor- tunately, by the 15th we were heading inland again. ECCENTRIC WAVERLEY Golf nuts from around the globe are coming to New Zealand not to play Cape Kidnappers or Te Arai, but to spend $30 teeing up at Waverley. It’s not exactly teeming with golfers though, and that didn’t surprise me as it is in remote
countryside, away from the local vil- lage. We had the course virtually to our- selves on a Monday morning, other than hundreds of sheep. Club member Allan Magee was fortunately on site, and he unlocked the charming clubhouse, and showed us how to pay our green fees. “We have people from all over com- ing to visit us,” he said, “thanks to Tom Doak raving about Waverley on social media. Some of them have arrived by helicopter, because it’s a short flight across the sea from Wellington.” It’s hard to describe Waverley, it’s that eccentric, and I was mesmerised by the sheer ruggedness and design of the holes. The wooden clubhouse stands on a hill, and while I could see flags flut- tering here and there, it was difficult to define a golf hole among them. Out the back door we had a distant view of the snow-capped Taranaki peak of volcanic Mount Egmont, renowned for its sym- metrical cone. The par-5 first hole didn’t seem to have a fairway at all, it was so lumpy.
The sheep clearly keep the fairways mown, because they were too corrugat- ed for a machine to do the job. But the course became clearer from the second onwards. Farmers built this many years ago and contrived to create a sequence of good holes (each has a name) and a mixture of superb and unusual greens around a succession of hillocks. The green on the 12th appeared to have been modelled on the shape of a VW Beetle bonnet. The course is short at 5537 metres (par 72) and once you adjust to the rough terrain, elevation changes, uneven lies, and the wandering sheep, it is immense fun and pars come more easily than ex- pected. Whether it’s worth flying half- way around the world to play is another matter.
The author posing at Kinloch’s unusual signpost near the tenth tee.
THE KINLOCH CLUB AT LAKE TAUPO
There are few countries where you won’t find a Jack Nicklaus Signature design, and one of Jack’s best outside the United States is in the middle of the North Island, with grand views over Lake Taupo. This is The Kinloch Club, the only modern high-end course which is inland. It’s a resort course, like Te Arai and Cape Kidnappers, with luxury accommoda- tion in the form of villas. Golf Digest gave it a “Best international Golf Resort” award. When playing you don’t even notice the presence of the villas. They are discreetly positioned on a hillside above the golf holes, with stun- ning views over towards the lake. Kinloch was built in 2007, before Nicklaus did Serengeti and Houghton in South Africa, and his passion for undulating greens must have begun here, because the putting sur- faces at Kinloch are something to behold. It was designed in a links style because it’s vir- tually a treeless property – there is the odd strategic tree here and there on some back nine holes. It’s built on one of the most extensive sites I’ve experienced and was the only course in New Zealand where I was happy to take a cart and not walk. The course rolls and rambles around the countryside without re- turning to the clubhouse until the 18th. The two furthest points – from the second green to the 13th green – were several kilometres apart. With some hilly terrain in between. This is the most picturesque Nicklaus design I have played. And that includes Si- mola in the Garden Route. It is sensationally beautifully, and the holes are stupendous. The front nine was fun, and the back nine was twice as good. The front nine was quite conventional in its routing, and the back had three 5s, three 4s and three 3s. Five tee op- tions meant it could be played from between 4 640 and 6 734 metres. We chose the mid- dle tee which was challenging enough. One of the 10 best layouts in New Zealand, and it’s up against some stiff competition. Lake Taupo was created by volcanic erup- tions thousands of years ago, and the golf course was built on porous pumice stone left behind by the eruptions, not sand or clay. This means the course drains exceptionally well, and the turf on the fairways were like lush carpets.
WATCH ONLINE Is the legend of New Zealand's Waverley Golf Club real?
THE KINLOCH CLUB A dramatic looking Jack Nicklaus greens complex
is framed against a rugged landscape.
118 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 119
MARCH/APRIL 2026
MARCH/APRIL 2026
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