"Having both Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers courses named in the Top 40 of the revered Golf Digest (US) annual Top 100 rankings only reinforces what a fantastic destination New Zealand really is for golf", Cape Kidnappers (and Kauri Cliffs) director of golf Jon McCord said.
"The past sixteen years have seen both Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers regularly named among the best 100 courses in the world, a compelling lure for golfers from around the world to visit New Zealand."
Famed golf course architect, American Tom Doak, who designed the course in 2014, told Hawke's Bay Today that Cape Kidnappers was a "special place" and unlike any other famous course in the world.
"I've worked on two courses in New Zealand and they both finished highly in that top 100 list, and I would put a large part of the credit for that down to the natural beauty of New Zealand and to the relaxed atmosphere of both places.
"Cape Kidnappers is a stunning place , really unlike any other famous course because it sits so far above the water; people expect it to be like Pebble Beach but it is four times as high up. The feeling on the ground is quite different than a lot of visitors expect, because all of the photos they've seen are from the air, where you get a sense of the deep valleys between the holes, but not of how far below the bay really is.
"One of my favorite spots is the 5th tee, which sits on the rim of an amazing valley tumbling down toward the bay.
"The features of the golf course are very restrained, because the scale of the place is so vast that man made features look silly and small.
"On a hole like the 12th there are no bunkers at all; we took care to make it look like there was nothing behind the green but the ocean, to make golfers scared to go over the back, even though the next tee is hiding back there.
"The ground naturally tilts toward the bay and on a lot of the most photographed holes the green lays on the ground and runs slightly away from the golfer, making it hard to stop an approach shot where you want - that's the main reason good players respect the course.
"It was a special place to go to work every day and I will never tire of going back there."
