Travel Special: A Golfer’s Dozen

Plan your golf travels for the new year based on our advice about where to play and when during the next 12 months.

Auckland’s famed Gulf Harbour course facing a bleak future

Gulf Harbour Golf & Country Club, which occupies a stunning isthmus location on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, north of Auckland, is facing an unwelcome fate in a similar manner to several suburban courses in Australia.

Where We Play: Te Arai Links, New Zealand

Positioned alongside a pristine piece of New Zealand coastline, Te Arai Links is arguably the world’s best new golf destination. Boasting two pure links golf courses – the South course designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw that’s been open for little more than a year, and the recently opened North course designed by Tom Read more…

2023/2024 New Zealand Top 50 Courses

If it’s world-class golf you’re after, two of the best new courses in the world lie in the north of New Zealand’s North Island. They lead the pack when it comes to our ranking of the best layouts ‘across the ditch’.

New Zealand: Alpine wonders

Queenstown, Christchurch and Dunedin combine to offer southern-latitude golf in exceptional and unique environments.

New Zealand: The immortals

The story of how Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers transformed New Zealand’s golf landscape.

New Zealand: North Island Gems

Titirangi Golf Club Visiting Auckland’s Titirangi Golf Club is a must for any golfer, especially if you’re a fan of Tom Doak’s Cape Kidnappers or Tara Iti. Titirangi is conveniently located just 15 minutes from downtown Auckland, where the native New Zealand bush surrounds justify Titirangi’s name, a Maori word for “fringe of heaven”. Doak’s Read more…

Landscapes: Palmerston North Golf Club

Few golf clubs have experienced a rockier climb to the top than Palmerston North. The club has changed the location of its course on four separate occasions, each time having to start development from scratch. Four times it has created a new establishment and twice it has had to re-establish itself from wreckage – in 1947 after World War II and in 1965 after a disastrous flood.

Landscapes: Christchurch Golf Club

Christchurch Golf Club has the distinction of being the second oldest course in New Zealand (behind Otago Golf Club), and the sixth oldest outside the United Kingdom. It also came in as the 15th best layout in New Zealand Golf Digest’s inaugural ranking of our Top 50 Courses earlier this year.

Landscapes: Maungakiekie Golf Club

Winter doesn’t have to mean total hibernation for Kiwi golfers. However, Auckland and the north of the country can be counted on to offer friendlier conditions than the lower reaches of the South Island might present. And Maungakiekie Golf Club in the city’s south is one place you can capture a little mid-year sunshine.

New Zealand: Nobody does it better

When it opened in 1993, Millbrook Resort was a bit of a novelty. A deer farm had been transformed into a thoroughly modern golf course. The farm’s homestead was converted into a restaurant complemented by luxurious lodgings, all in a spectacular alpine location just outside Queenstown. The resort golf phenomenon had finally come to New Zealand.