Local heroes Sir Bob Charles and 2005 US Open champion Michael Campbell have played important roles putting New Zealand on the international golf map but it’s been the work of a North Carolina boy who added a pair of very high profile pins. Julian Robertson traded Wall Street for the life of a golf resort developer, coming up with World #41 Cape Kidnappers and World #63 Kauri Cliffs in the span of four years on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. He is the “golf father” of two of the most striking siblings in the game.

-- The Editor

Article Adapted With Permission by PerryGolf travel partner “Golf Odyssey: The Insider’s Guide to Sophisticated Golf Travel”.

Kauri Cliffs
Matauri Bay

At the top of New Zealand’s North Island, the land mass becomes narrow and the terrain folds up and down as if it were pinched by God’s fingers many millennia ago. The coast is a jagged mélange of coves, cliffs, and cornices; islands jut out of the sea in shattered fragments; and everything is textured by volcanic rock and rare flora. Here in the Northland is Kauri Cliffs, a golf course etched into the coastal cliffs of Matauri Bay overlooking the Bay of Islands National Park and the Cavalli Islands and blessed with the nation’s best weather.

The course was designed and built by David Harmon, who earned his stripes working for Palmer and Nicklaus, and who made more than 40 visits to the property dutifully analyzing both the land and the seasonal prevailing winds. The result is a beautiful, fun and playable track offering some of the finest views in golf. Mostly treeless and windswept, each hole on this championship-caliber links poses a unique challenge and offers thrilling shot values to match the breathtaking scenery.

Five holes run along the edge of the cliffs, ten overlook the ocean from slightly higher inland elevations and three rest in a small valley. Several are amazing and two stand out. The signature hole is seven, a mid-length par-3 along the Pacific with the beautiful Cavalli Islands to the right, and a tee shot that is all carry over an inlet fiord, Kauri’s answer to Cypress Point. The fourth is a very reachable and very risky par-5 that Michael Campbell, the resort’s touring pro, places among the five best par-5s in the world. A good drive almost demands going for it in two, since you will be left with between 200-230 yards slightly downhill. But, the green is perched on the edge of a precipitous drop-off where long is gone. And, two large bunkers guard the left side of the green, while a penal jungle ravine guards the right.

The layout does not have a weak link and thanks to four sets of tees, offering Kauri Cliffs from 5,847 to 7,000 yards, it packs in a lot of variety. Harman positioned the tee boxes so that each varies the distance, line, and elevation golfers play to the hole. There are two drivable par-4s, only one forced carry besides each of the excellent par-3s, and interestingly enough, it is the three inland “valley” holes that many guests consider the best stretch strategically. From the white tees, irons will do the job on several holes, but from the back, long drives are a must. Like many courses with wide fairways and no water hazards, the main defenses are the wind, which can howl, but often does not, and the greens. They are among the finest we have seen, an amazing combination of being very soft and receptive to well hit shots, while being fast and true.

Your greens fee at Kauri Cliffs allows for all-day unlimited play. It is a long routing but a pleasure to walk (have camera ready for the bridge on six that crosses one of the property’s two waterfalls) particularly with a caddie.

Cape Kidnappers
Hawke's Bay

For his second project, Robertson teamed up with red-hot architect Tom Doak of Pacific Dunes fame and the single word that best describes Cape Kidnappers Golf Club is “extraordinary.” Located on the North Island’s eastern coast in the heart of the popular Hawke’s Bay wine region near Napier, Cape Kidnappers opened in January 2004 on a 250-acre tract resting on the top of a dramatic promontory that juts out into the Bay – and climbs to a whopping 500 feet above sea level.

The approach to the club is a microcosm of the adventure and natural beauty that are New Zealand’s signatures. The entrance road, rumored to have cost $10 million, begins at sea level and then winds upwards for five miles through beautiful pine forests and pastures. About half way up, Hawke’s Bay suddenly comes into view, but you cannot see the course itself until you are within a few hundred yards of its understated and elegant clubhouse. The Cape’s terrain is gently rolling and has several ridges and valleys that reach like fingers out to the sea. Steep seaside cliffs border half of the holes, and the Bay is visible from all eighteen.

Doak first sketched his routing on a topographic map, and then followed it up with fifty days of on-site refining and shaping, far more than the handful of days most big-name architects spend on their “signature” projects. Very little dirt was moved, and the project was built in less than a year using Doak’s minimalist style. Doak’s design beliefs are rooted in the classical tradition, and at Cape Kidnappers, this includes Alister MacKenzie touches such as heavy greenside bunkering and limited fairway hazards.

The routing is brilliant in a place where the scale is grand and epic. Except for a couple of bridges over 300 foot ravines, the holes seem to follow each other very naturally. On many, cart paths are not paved or even identified. The teeing grounds themselves are camouflaged by the terrain and are intentionally ragged at the edges. Similarly, the edges of the fairway merge and meld into the primary rough with a distinctly un-modern feel. The primary rough of two to four inches merges in turn into the native fescue -- sometimes waist high -which is left to brown-out and shift in the wind. And there certainly is wind --on some days it hits 50 miles an hour. By design, the fairways are accordingly generous and wide off the tee, and like Scotland or Ireland, they run hard and fast. The heart of the course lies around the greens where wide aprons, grassy mounds and numerous bunkers challenge not only the golfer’s skill, but also the short game imagination. The bunkers use local river sand, which is grainy and coarse, but what really makes them distinctive are their edges, which are often uneven and edged with tufts of high grass. There are only a few deep pot bunkers. The putting surfaces themselves are gently contoured with very subtle breaks that make them look easier than they are. One thing we quickly learned is that the correct approach shot to the greens is seldom right at the stick. There are no weak holes, and this consistency puts it in a league with the world’s best. There are, however, some standouts. The sixth, “Gully,” is a beautiful par-3 stretching 225 yards from the tips over a deep ravine. It’s a double-trouble-gully because if you clear it but do not quite reach the green, your ball rolls back down the steep approach. When this happens you might feel you have been duped, an experience the locals like to call “being Doaked.” The par-4 twelfth (460-yds.) is named “Infinity” in honor of its infinity edged green at the cliff’s end and also because it is the most wide-open driving hole. The thirteenth hole, a short (130-yrd.) par three, is named “Al’s Ace” because Robertson’s son Alex aced it during his first round. While this is surely Alex’s most memorable hole, ours was the signature “Pirates Plank,” the splendid, 650-yard, par-5, fifteenth, the number one handicap, which forces golfers to live dangerously on a narrow cliff-bordered fairway heading into the prevailing winds.

Article Adapted With Permission by PerryGolf travel partner “Golf Odyssey: The Insider’s Guide to Sophisticated Golf Travel”.

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