(the other 4 courses I played in NZ would demonstrate that-in fact I drove past a comped Kauri Cliffs offer to pay green fees at a local muni)
Since this thread has already been derailed, where else did you play Jeff? Any thoughts/favourites?
Well Clyde. I originally was not going to derail THIS thread with other courses, but ...as you said, that ship has sailed. I have a couple pictures posted on Facebook of some of the courses.(no chance i could post a picture here due to lack of skill)
Tom gave me great advice to visit the South Island as well (for non golf reasons), rather than trying to squeeze in Melbourse, where my daughter is, so she met us in Queenstown on Tom's advice.
There is so much to do in and around Queenstown and the scenery is incredibly diverse and dramatic.
We happened to stay in Arrowtown in a very rustic cabin about 500-1000 up feet overlooking the course(funny how that happened).My son said we should play down to the course like that hole in Africa but the occasional grown up in me decided that wasn't prudent.
We played Arrowtown late in the afternoon the day we arrived after a member shotgun so we had the course to ourselves, and played the back nine first-which turned out to be perfect.
The back nine is quite good and winds through the fantastic mountain scenery-a few ordinary holes, but coupled with the firm and fast lightly irrigated conditions and fiery fast nonirrigated rough, it was fun to play.
My wife and daughter walked with us on the second nine (the front original nine), which they've never done before.
The front nine(our back) was absolutely stunning-every hole-fantastic.
There was one hole that I thought might be a bit boring-#8 about 320. I hit a decent heelish drive down the right side-my son ripped a low left handed fade.
I had about 80 yards in with a grassy pimple between me and the hole-a la Friar's Head #5. My ball hit the back side of and went scurrying to the back of the green and it was then that I realized my son was about 15 feet putting for eagle, having navigated his low bullet through a series of similar mounds.
The sun was setting and the weather was absolutely perfect.
Even my wife and daughter commented on all of the unusual landforms on the course, accentuated by wildly firm and fast conditions. Many shots needed to be curved to hold the fairways.
A few valley fairways played wider due to the firm rough, and some wild, exciting tee shots.
The pro had suggested I hit 4 irons off tees, but my son and I hit drivers every hole as it was great fun to try to shape it and see the ball bound.
Great colors and textures with the green , amber and brown hues of the fairways, rough, and natural mounds and dramatic landforms.
and a really cool small rustic clubhouse hanging over a canyon overlooking the course.
One of the most unusual, attractive, thought provoking and inspiring landscapes I've played on, to say nothing of the ball being launched against the backdrop of dramatic mountains.
The most memorable holes were probably 2, 4,5, and 7 but they all were really good on the front.
On the back 14 was a standout par 3 and plenty of good holes.
Probably the favorite course I played in New Zealand,and I would put in my own personal favorite 25 courses
(as opposed to Tara Iti where I suggested it would be ranked in the World Top 25(by others i.e. actual raters)-two very different things)
We also played Oreti Sands which was very rustic(honor box) as well, ironically on the outside of a reasonably sized city. The front nine was pretty good, wide enough fairways, but the penalty was lost ball if straying at all into the 2 foot tall vegetation/high grass. My son lost 6 balls on the first 8 holes and he didn't lose another ball the entire rest of the trip.The course entered a bit of pine woods around 9 and I actually enjoyed that quite a bit more as it was an attractive and varied landscape with the pines, brown fairways, and brown tall rough.
Interestingly, on the 10th hole I managed to make a hole-in-one on the wrong hole (many rustic NZ courses have 2 cups on every green)
We played 1-11 back to the clubhouse late that evening and came back and played the last 7 the next morning. We really enjoyed the last 7 holes (the back nine in general) and for whatever reason we both played much better(maybe the definition of the pines), my son (a 14) hitting all 7 greens that day.
An interesting course-very rough and ready with the greens stimping maybe 6 when we played.(but certainly capable of more speed after cutting)
We played Titirangi upon our arrival on the North Island with Doug White the pro and Jonathon Cummings, a rater.
Very enjoyable Mackenzie course, felt very much like Southern California. Great bunkering, very pleasant and a course that seemed like a great place to be a member.
Upon leaving Tara Iti, we stopped and walked around at Waipu, taking a few pictures over the panoramic views and holes near the clubhouse. beautiful landscape with scattered attraactive pines adorning a sandy, scrubby landscape overlooking high water views of the beach and islands. (similar to tara Iti, but higher up)
It looked like carts(saw a lot of carts) had beaten up the fairways quite a bit exposing a bit more sand in the fairways than one would like.
I also took a look around Mangawhai GC as I drove by it every day on the way to Tara Iti. The few holes I quickly looked over from the road and parking lot were attractive, rolling, and tightish, though the vegetation was pretty well cleared.
Would have liked to have played it, and especially would have liked to have played Waipu.
Our last night there my son and I played a quick 18 at Waitangi, finishing 52 minutes after sunset in total darkness. Beautiful scenery overlooking the Bay of Islands, some very good holes, a few holes made worse by the planting of multiple saplings-sadly these will sour the long views down to the water someday. At the moment they simply clutter the place, making recovery more penal and boring.
We played the last 5 holes in 25 minutes, and he managed to play the entire round with one ball,making par in total darkness. (I did not).
Simon,
To put it back on topic, I played 14 downwind in the practice round and hit a high killed draw over the left mound which seemed way too far left to the caddies (it was right where I had been aiming as I was driving it well that day-esp on the back)
The ball still ended up on the right edge of the fairway, although it was only about 60 yards from the pin.
i'm not sure how one could get it left of that.