New Zealand has two of the world’s greatest golf courses. Thanks to Californian financier Ric Kayne, it may soon count a third.
Kayne’s Tara Iti Golf Club, about 105 kilometers (65 miles) north of Auckland, offers jaw-dropping Pacific Ocean views from every hole. Opened in October, it’s the latest in a string of American-designed courses helping to drive golf tourism in New Zealand.
Investors, including Kayne and billionaire Julian Robertson, see New Zealand’s dramatic coastline and alpine valleys as potential magnets for overseas golfers. Spending by the sporting vacationers is increasing 10 percent a year, reaching NZ$170 million ($114 million) in the 12 months through September, according to the government. It plans to lure more visitors with this week’s New Zealand Golf Open, near Queenstown, that will be televised in at least 60 countries.
“New Zealand is a first-class golf destination,” said Kayne, a co-founder of Los Angeles-based Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP. “It has tremendous physical beauty, is safe and accessible. Tara Iti, we are told by visitors, is the jewel in the crown.”
Kayne said he fell for a stretch of New Zealand coastline 20 years ago, imagining how the rolling sand dunes could be transformed into a spectacular golf course. He and wife Suzanne have returned multiple times since, taking the 13-hour flight from Los Angeles and enjoying the country aboard their super-yacht.
‘Deeper in Love’
“New Zealand is far, but easy, especially for West Coasters and Texans,” Kayne said in an e-mail. “My wife and I have been back countless times and fall deeper in love with the country each time.”
Tom Doak, who worked on five of Golf Digest magazine’s 100 greatest courses, was commissioned to design Tara Iti, a former pine plantation near Mangawhai that was cleared and replanted with native dune vegetation outside of the fairways. Now a private members club, it’s the first course in New Zealand to feature fescue turf on fairways and greens to provide true links playing conditions, according to Doak’s company’s website.
New Zealand has almost 400 golf courses, giving it the most per-capita after Scotland. Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs, both owned by Tiger Management LLC co-founder Robertson, rank in the top 50 on Golf Digest’s list.
Honesty Box