How do you intertwine golf, love and laughter? It turns out there’s a simple recipe
Being a low-handicapper who also manages a leading New Zealand winery, one with a brand new, nine-hole golf course, sounds like a divine combination for Cristina Griffith. She’s also engaged to a professional golfer. We spoke to her about achieving the ideal mix across all facets of life.
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Australian Golf Digest Women: How did you get into golf and did it come naturally?
Cristina Griffith: I was lucky enough to start playing golf as a kid and even luckier that my first coach was my uncle, Ron Moracco. At the time, he was coaching one of the local high school teams in Las Vegas and he taught me the game with real patience: a strong focus on mechanics and technique, balanced with humour and lightness. He always made it fun. He’s still my favourite uncle.
But the real reason I started in golf was my dad. He was convinced that learning golf would “get me places in life” – you know, the saying about how the best deals are made on the course. His dream was always for my brother and me to be involved in the family business and he saw golf as another tool we’d be grateful to have later on.
Ironically, while I may have started for business reasons, golf has become one of the most meaningful personal connectors in my life – starting with my husband-to-be, Jesus Santos, who helped me rediscover the game.
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How did golf become more than something you just ‘knew how to do’?
When Jesus and I first started dating, he loved two things: red wine and golf. Then he met me, so now he loves red wine, golf and me (in that order). It took him a while to actually get out on the course with me, though. He’d been in the golf industry for more than a decade and still plays off a 4 handicap, so playing with someone who hadn’t played seriously since high school understandably gave him pause.
When he finally visited New Zealand in 2023, he bit the bullet and played with me at The Hills. From that moment on, golf became our thing. We’d play early every Sunday – it was our version of church. No matter how the week had gone, we always had that time together to look forward to. And somewhere in there, as I was falling more in love with him, I started falling in love with the game.
Before Jesus, I’d only picked up a club sporadically, usually on family holidays and as any golfer knows, you don’t get much back if you put that little in. I’d get frustrated quickly and often wouldn’t even finish a round. Jesus made it fun again. He knows me well, so we added incentives. A par meant a 375ml bottle of my favourite champagne delivered to us on the course; finishing 18 meant a celebratory lunch. He reminded me that golf is humbling, demanding and beautifully indiscriminate – and that it’s still just a game at the end of the day.
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Who helped you take your game to the next level?
Jesus was the catalyst. After not playing seriously since high school, it was his encouragement and his insistence that golf could be fun again, that gave me the confidence to take the game seriously. He helped me rebuild belief in my ability, which was the real turning point.
That confidence opened the door to something even bigger. As I grew more comfortable calling myself a golfer, I started seeking out other players – which led me to my “golf mum”, Sally Goodall. Sally is powerful, smart, blunt, a little sassy and an exceptional golfer. Early on, she paid me the highest compliment by saying I reminded her of herself. She also gave me my favourite golf motto: Focused fun. Because honestly, who enjoys being bad at something?
Through Sally, I was welcomed into a community of women golfers that completely changed my relationship with the game. I found myself on a girls’ weekend in Waitaki learning how to chip onto greens over sheep fences, discovering meat raffles and realising the worst possible time to break in new golf shoes is when you’re walking 18 holes three days in a row.
What struck me most was the diversity of women the game brought together, vineyard tractor drivers, pharmacists, leadership coaches, all united by golf. That’s where I met Janie Reese, founder of Kiss My Putt and regional representative for She Loves Golf. Her enthusiasm is contagious, her kindness endless and she has an incredible ability to make golf feel welcoming rather than intimidating.
It shifted golf from something I did into somewhere I belonged.
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How did it feel to play as an amateur in the New Zealand Open?
Surreal and quite daunting, in the best possible way. I was one of just six women in a field of 156 and I didn’t take that lightly. Standing on that first tee wasn’t about proving anything, but about showing up, for myself and for the women who might have seen themselves reflected in that moment.
What made it especially meaningful was that my dad was there watching. At the same time as he was seeing a vision he’d held for years come to life, he was also watching his daughter take the field as an amateur. Holding both of those moments at once, as a daughter and as someone stepping into her own confidence, carried a weight and pride I didn’t anticipate.
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How exciting was it to open a brand-new golf course at Gibbston Valley?
Honestly, it’s pretty epic. The idea of a golf course had been floating around our family conversations for more than a decade. My dad, Phil, along with Greg Turner and many others, spent years imagining what it could be and quietly backing that vision with a huge amount of care and commitment.
To now be part of bringing it to life feels incredibly special, especially getting to do it alongside Jesus. Sharing the moment together, combining his deep love for the game with my connection to the place and the wider Gibbston Valley story made the whole process even more meaningful (and a lot more fun).
There’s definitely a sense of responsibility in opening something new, but there’s also real excitement. Adding the golf club marks a new chapter for Gibbston Valley and being able to help shape that alongside the people I care about most is something I don’t take for granted.
