It's 7,100 yards, not 7,100 metres. I'm the one who told the reporter the number, but I forgot they're not used to dealing in yards down there, so it got scrambled.
Campbell actually hit a driver and 3-iron into 18. The grass on that fairway is hard as a rock, so he got a bit of roll -- the hole is 480 yards, and it was into the wind that afternoon. (On the 15th, playing downwind, fairway hard as a rock, his best drive went about 365 yards.)
We also had Phil Taturangi and Darrell Kestner (from Deepdale) out the week after the NZ Open. They were both shocked when they looked over the scorecard ... but I think they can handle it.
Mr. Robertson would like to host the New Zealand Open there, but it's always been in Auckland or Wellington because that's where the sponsors are. (They say it's because of galleries, but they only get 15,000 a day anyway.) It would undoubtedly do more for tourism in NZ to have the tournament televised from Cape Kidnappers than from a parkland course in Auckland, but neither the NZGA nor IMG have a stake in tourism, so some of our back tees may go unused for a few years.