The Cape Kidnappers golf course, with green fees of $400 a round, has been rated the world's best by England's Daily Telegraph newspaper.
It heads a top 10 that includes, in order, Royal County Down, Northern Ireland, Pebble Beach, United States, Leopard Creek, South Africa, Green Monkey, Barbados, Domaine de Sperone, Corsica, Turnberry, Scotland, Canouan, The Grenadines, Doonbeg, Ireland, and Royal Melbourne.
Telegraph travel news editor Charles Starmer-Smith says: "This course, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, comes top of our list for its dramatic location.
"Built on what was a sheep station, its fairways play out along a series of jagged ridges that jut out like fingers into the Pacific before plunging down to the rocks below.
"Players must contend with fearsome ravines, contoured fairways and fast, tilted greens."
The Tom Doak-designed par 71 course will host Australian Adam Scott and Americans Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan and Brandt Snedeker in the made-for-TV 36-hole Kiwi Challenge event later this month .
- NZPA