Another new one in New Zealand

Tom Doak’s latest New Zealand course, set amid high dunes 90 minutes north of Auckland, officially opens for play on Oct. 1. The anticipated North Course at Te Arai Links will bring the resort to 36 holes.

Doak and the team at Renaissance Golf Design have fashioned the North Course in the shadow of their own work: the ultra-private Tara Iti Golf Club just up the beach. Just down the beach, the Bill Coore- & Ben Crenshaw-designed South Course at Te Arai Links opened on Oct. 1, 2022.

“It feels a bit weird to apologize for having seven holes on the ocean, especially when the rest of our North Course plays through terrain where the best comp might be Pine Valley,” Doak said. “At Tara Iti, you’re looking at the Pacific Ocean from every hole. On Bill’s course, all but the first few holes play directly at seaside. That’s just the reality down here, yet everyone is pleased with the way the North Course stands on its own, beside each of these world-class golf courses.

“We honestly didn’t feel we were competing with Tara Iti or the South Course. But we did want the North Course to be different — and fun. We’re quite certain that we succeeded on both counts.”

The South Course at Te Arai Links, the South Clubhouse, Ric’s Pizza Barn and The Playground — the resort’s massive putting course and beating communal heart — have all been operational for a year. The debut of the North Course underlines the ongoing development progress at Te Arai Links. A dedicated clubhouse serving the North Course will open in October 2024.

“The physical, linksland attributes of this property obviously enable what we’re creating here,” said Te Arai Links managing partner Jim Rohrstaff, who also owns Auckland-based real estate brokerage, Legacy Partners, and directs property matters at Te Arai Links and Tara Iti. “Other natural factors also play to our strengths: Winter in the Northern Hemisphere is high summer down here, meaning longer, warmer days you just won’t find wintering in places like Palm Springs or Florida, for example. Folks may not realize that this portion of New Zealand’s North Island is sub-tropical, so even the ‘winter months’ of June, July and August feel pretty darned summery to anyone visiting from North America, East Asia or Europe. And with the potential change in government, the idea of foreigners buying a slice of this paradise, here in New Zealand, could well become a reality.

“It’s honestly a dream come true, for our entire team to have all 36 holes in play. Tom Doak and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have each done such incredible jobs designing these two golf courses. Their work has exceeded our expectations. Yet we’re equally proud of the casual, inclusive vibe that prevails here. We wanted Te Arai Links to feel different — to welcome and engage traveling golfers but also non-golfers, spouses and kids. It really does, and that’s rare.”

Doak’s 6,931-yard, par-71 North Course opens and closes at seaside, with another sweep down to the Pacific Ocean at Nos. 8 and 9. Elsewhere, the unique routing explores what had been a pine forest set on dunes high above the beach. Doak spent months on site — personally shaping green complexes and fairway features behind the controls of a bulldozer. Typically, the architect jets into a project, inspects and suggests for several days, then leaves the earthmoving to his long-time associates in the Renaissance shaping and construction crews. Because the North Course took shape during the COVID-19 pandemic, Doak traveled to New Zealand in the spring of 2022, and stayed for two full months.

“I’m still not that great on the dozer, but I do love it,” Doak says. “Some of the results are pretty wild, like the greens at seven and four. Maybe too severe at first glance. But in the end, they looked really cool and we all agreed: Let’s keep that.

“To be honest, for this course to be spoken of equally, alongside the South Course, we felt we had to do more with the golf. This is legitimately great inland terrain — pure sand and dunesy, with big undulations. But we couldn’t rely on that. We agreed that if we’re going to produce something different, we should probably be a bit edgier. The overall shaping, greens and fairways, speak to that, I think.”

The routing includes several seaside holes — including the par-3 17th and a par-5 closer that tracks the shoreline all the way home. Throughout the routing, Doak and his fellow shapers Angela Moser, Clyde Johnson and lead associate Brian Slawnik (who also shaped Tara Iti) each managed to create dramatic features.

When discussing the North Course, the inland holes are what Doak talks about first — especially those that occupy a massive valley in the middle of the routing.

“Before we moved any dirt, we all identified that natural bowl and I think we used it very well. I really like how the holes in there, four through seven, came out. All of them. Eight plays down to the water from the edge of that bowl, and I love the way nine comes back uphill into the bowl. Really cool, with a blind approach — over a road! The last 150 yards of that par 5 are just awesome.”

Doak’s routing also produced a traditional, linksland staple: half-par holes: “At one point, we had the potential of five or six par 5s out there. The course will play to a par of 71, but the routing does affect difficulty. There are some very strong par 4s on this golf course. Good short ones, too — but some real beasts. The reality is everything on the North Course remains very close to the ocean. On any given day, each of the 18 holes can play completely differently depending on wind direction. That’s what golf by the sea is all about.”