Tara Iti

Tara Iti is situated a hundred kilometres north of Auckland on the east coast of the North Island, close to Bream Bay. Local developer, John Darby, (who boasts an enviable track record of successful golf projects in New Zealand at Millbrook, Clearwater and Jack’s Point) in partnership with Los Angeles-based financier Ric Kayne, created the facility.

It’s here, on what was formerly a heavily forested coastal site, that architect Tom Doak was invited to lay out his thirty-fifth golf course design and the routing devised for this layout allows golfers to enjoy uninterrupted views of the nearby Little Barrier, Great Barrier, Mokohinau and Tauranga islands.

Before shaping began, acres of pine trees and wattle had to be removed (though much of the extraneous material was buried then covered up to form some of the bigger dunes on the property) and this clearance left a naturally sandy site for re-vegetation with fescue grass and native plants like spinifex.

Fescue grass covers the fairways and greens and there are no trees, water hazards or any penal rough to speak of. There’s also a lack of formal bunkering – everything is regarded as ‘through the green’ – but in place of conventional bunkers there’s an abundance of attractive, sandy waste areas to contend with.

Holes of note include the 445-yard 3rd (played blind all the way to a punchbowl green), the 460-yard 6th (the seriously rumpled fairway lies closest to Te Aria beach), the uphill, short par four 13th (with its green set on the highest point of the course) and the par five 18th, where the fairway splits to offer multiple routes to the home green.

Tari Iti operates as a private member club, but if there is a will there is usually a way. The tee time is pretty difficult to get but the club appears to allow both accompanied and unaccompained play. If you want on, best find a member!