New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, is many things.
It has been listed in the top-10 friendliest cities in the world and you will also find it on a roll call of 20 of the world’s best waterfront cities. Check out any list of cities from around the globe voted the most liveable, and you’re likely to find Auckland somewhere in the top-10.
But chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re a golfer and you’re in luck as Auckland is all of those aforementioned things, as well as being the gateway to one of the hottest golf destinations on the planet.
If – like nearly 75 percent of the international visitors embarking on a Kiwi journey of discovery – you touchdown at Auckland Airport, you can be on the 1st tee at the world-class Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club less than 25 minutes after clearing customs.
Royal Auckland and Grange is the oldest ‘new’ golf club in New Zealand. As the name suggests, the current club was formed in 2015 through an amalgamation of neighbouring Royal Auckland (established in 1894) and The Grange (1924).
Two years later, The Grange course was closed, and construction began on what the club called ‘Project Legacy’ – a 27-hole layout spread across land previously occupied by both clubs and created by Chris Cochran of Jack Nicklaus Design.
The first phase of construction saw 13 new holes built on the former Grange course, the building of two long span bridges linking the two properties and a new clubhouse. The second phase saw the remaining 14 holes and a driving range constructed on Royal Auckland’s Middlemore property. There is also a large Himalayas-style putting course alongside the new clubhouse.
The merged club officially opened its 27 holes – with three nine-hole loops named Grange, Tamaki and Middlemore – in 2021 and soon gained a reputation for some of New Zealand’s best prepared playing surfaces – aided by state-of-the-art SubAir systems, like those found at Augusta National – beneath its greens and surrounds.
The Grange nine boasts arguably the club’s best golfing terrain with good undulations, while most holes feature macrocarpa trees. The Tamaki nine is split evenly between the Middlemore and Grange properties, with the par-3 6th hole being memorable for the tee shot that must be played over the Tamaki Estuary, a mangrove filled hazard that flows through the heart of the layout.
The Middlemore nine, which were completed last year, is very much a parkland setting with tree-lined fairways and slightly smaller greens. But the bunkering, greenside and otherwise, is dynamic and memorable. Many believe the Middlemore layout offers the best collection of holes – with the well-bunkered opening trio setting the scene – across the entire property.
Less than a year after the 2015 closure of The Grange ahead of its merger with Royal Auckland, another well-established club – just 20 minutes’ drive to the south – was embarking on a new era.
Windross Farm opened in 2016 after the members of Manukau Golf Club voted to sell their course, which had been their home since 1932, to residential developers and move to the new site six kilometres away.
The club moved from a tight, tree-lined parkland layout to a wide, windswept links style course designed by Brett Thomson, who had previously worked alongside John Darby in creating the highly acclaimed Jack’s Point and The Hills courses near Queenstown on the South Island.
Thomson and the construction team moved heaven and earth to transform the flat site into a dune-covered terrain, dotted with bumps, hollows, bunkers and swales. The entire site was
