Paraparaumu Beach is the perfect collision of word-class quality and golfing soul. It’s a place that oozes character, intrigue and an incredible sense of place. With holes routed through towering dunes, deep mounding and rumpled fairways, Paraparaumu is the home of New Zealand’s purest linksland. An endless variety of crazy landforms scatter the property and as you move deeper into the property it’s rugged, natural and wild tones have the feeling of a traditional Irish or English seaside links- New Zealand’s golfing heartbeat.

Paraparaumu offers golf in its purest form, firm turf conducive to the ground game- there’s always something special about watching the ball bound over mounds and through swales. In true links fashion It forces players to consider the land between you and the hole, and offers width in the right places, creating strategic angling with clearly better sides of the fairway to hit approach shots.

Dunes are utilized impeccably to create blind shots if you find yourself in the wrong spot and on most tees it pays to figure out where the flag is and work backwards from there- a mark of strategic excellence.

Paraparaumu offers plenty of variety across the round, driven by the ability of course designer Alex Russell to thread a number of holes between the dunes and route a number over the top of them. With only 34 bunkers across the layout (Expertly positioned I should add), it would be easy to assume that greens are relatively unprotected, however Paraparaumu’s character is built around its greenside surrounds- some of the most dramatic and bold land formations you will see on any golf course around the world. Sharp cut edges, giant drop offs (Some exceeding four metres!), large kickers and deep swales guard a wide variety of green sites and make for some thrilling approach shots! The lack of bunkering offers wide entry points to greens, but the natural greenside shapes demand execution of whatever path you take. Offering plenty of options, Paraparaumu is a shotmaker’s golf course and one which demands strategic thinking and creative execution.

Paraparaumu features arguably the greatest set of par threes in New Zealand, mixing up their length, shape and characteristics to perfection. All four one-shotters demand a completely different shot and the fact that two of them are bunker-less speaks to the quality of the natural drama surrounding the green complexes. The postage stamp 16th is my favourite hole on the course, playing a mere 110 metres it features a long green which is 5 paces wide with a massive dune kicker to the left and steep drop-offs short and left. This is the spirit of Paraparaumu- opportunities for an easy birdie or a double bogey, but the creative hero shot is always in play!