Tieke — superb links golf

By Neville Idour

Tieke Golf Estate is destined for great things and is already in the top echelon of New Zealand’s golf offering.

Caption: An aerial view of Tieke golf course.

It has been born from the Waikato’s Lochiel and Narrows Golf Cubs. Lochiel was established in 1938 and was on the other side of the river from Narrows when they combined in 2014 to become Riverside Golf Club.

However, shortly after New Zealand Transport Agency designated an expressway would pass right through the Narrows course. The club agreed to sell which enabled the development of Tieke Golf Estate. In 2018 Brett Thomson and Phil Tataurangi were approached to design a new course. Their design proved to be ground breaking in more ways than one. It was centred on four specific pillars.

1 The removal of 1000 old trees, shrubs and bushes.

2 An enhancement of the natural riverbed landscape.

3 Exposing the sandy soils which had sat dormant beneath the turf for over 25,000 years.

4 A routing with flexibility, adaptability and variability like no other in New Zealand.

It is hard to fault the complete and outstanding accomplishment of all the above in the finished masterpiece. The fine fescue and creeping bent grass was chosen for the putting surfaces because they complement the free draining soils and reward both a bump and run shot and a skilful lofted wedge shot. So the end result is a course and style of golf that mirrors a coastal links course despite being more than 50 kilometres from the nearest beach.

The visual appearance of the expansive sandy wastelands give a unique character to the course that is beautifully in tune with the history of the land. Tieke Golf Estate recognises and celebrates the history of the river, land and the peoples. The Tieke is a saddleback bird usually glossy back and can only fly short distances. The Tieke has a conservation status of at risk so Tieke Golf Estate is proud to support the continued preservation of Tieke through golf.

Caption: Tieke golf course near Hamilton. Photo credit: Des Frith Photography.

We played from the white tees at 5609 metres. The championship tees stretch to 6489 metres.

The first hole is a short par five with a spacious fairway to welcome players, however the green is fronted with a large bunker. A feature is there are no bunkers on the course.

All sand areas, whether bunkers or not, are considered waste areas where you can therefore ground your club. When we were there you could also place your ball in sandy areas because of the mix of small stones. This certainly helped with enjoyment. Whether this will always be the case director of golf Richard Ellis said time for the course to continue to mature will need to happen before that can be answered.

The third hole, although measuring 185 metres on the card, was only 145 metres for us. Distances can vary from day to day as the course is set in a way that it can be a different challenge every day. Waste bunkers left are to be avoided on the third.

The fourth is an attractive long par four of 404 metres with a generous fairway to offset the length a little. We were heading towards Mystery Creek which stands out at the southern end of the course.

The 357-metre fifth hole played to a slightly raised fairway then to an outstanding green with waste bunkers left. With subtle difficulty, the slopes are gentle and very deceptive with a nice upslope right which allows you to work a ball from nicely on to the green. The overriding feeling after playing it was what a beautifully designed hole.

The sixth, a par five, says position A is right of centre fairway to give the best shot to a large green with a restricted width entry. The seventh was a delightful par three of 137 metres with large bunkers fronting the left hand half of the green and a slope you can use to feed the ball onto the green depending on flag placement.

One of the features as we plotted our way round was the views of the course which could be described as flattish with a variety of undulations and raised tees. On any given hole, especially on raised ground, a number of holes could be seen which all added to the uniqueness of this inland links course.

The eighth at 502 metres was a challenge into the wind for a shorter hitter like myself. It has a reasonably generous fairway. From about 180 metres it provides a narrow entry with waste bunkers both sides.

The ninth is a pleasant par four which feeds down to the long green with wasteland around the back. Then we head to the 10th which is a somewhat special par four. We were privileged to play with one of the pro shop staff James Fellows-Ford, a scratch golfer who plays the Charles Tour and his mate Thomas.

James was a fund of knowledge and explained this hole could also be played from the clubhouse across water for a longer option. Our option had hazard left all the way to the green while right there were trees to swallow up a less than well thought out tee shot.

No 11 was a slight dogleg to a raised green full of interesting slopes and with very deep bunkers greenside (caught out the pro!) Another superb hole.

The 12th, alongside the Waikato River, is a par five with greatly enhanced views thanks to the felling of many of the pine trees during construction. A beautiful little drop down very short par three was the challenge of the 13th — several birdie chances, none realised.

Caption: The clubhouse at Tieke Golf Estate.

The 14th called for less than driver off the tee due to the 45 degree dogleg, however the bigger hitters can cut the corner to get close to the green. The 16th, a short par four, had a waste area on the right to avoid plus a mound of rough and a bunker 20 metres short of the green to catch the big hitters.

It would have been difficult to miss the wide fairway on the 17th, another par four. However 50 yards out from the green there is wasteland to avoid and a raised green necessitates a good shot to make for an easy par.

The par five 18th returns us to the clubhouse and welcome refreshments. It provides the coup de gras to a wonderful round of golf on a course destined for a top five ranking in New Zealand in this writer’s humble opinion.