KEY POINTS:
I was privileged to play Kauri Cliffs again last weekend. It was further confirmation that while this country has plenty of golf courses, only a very small handful are world class.
Julian Robertson's legacy to New Zealand - Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers - is something for which
everybody who calls themselves a golfer should be eternally grateful. Neither is an easy test, but it's only through playing such courses that you can improve skills in areas such as course management and short games, which separate really good players from mere players.
We hit off the white markers, which still measure just under 6000 metres, but the big difference playing this course to most others around the country is that you have to think about your strategy off every tee. There are a few straight holes, but not many. So on the tee you have to think about what club you should be using, and what angle to play.
Many of the greens need an uphill approach shot, but the distance markers on the fairway sprinkler heads are only to the front of the green. However, part of the great service provided is a pin sheet with diagrams of each green and how far on the hole is cut. So you have to think like a professional and calculate your distance to the hole exactly and not merely guess, as you do most of the time. There is the small issue of then hitting the proper shot once you've worked how far it is to the hole, but at least there's the chance to think like a good player.
The best thing about the course last week, though, was the condition of the greens. This was an ordinary Saturday with no special event on, and the greens were in as good a shape as any I've ever putted on in this country. They were fast - probably running close to 4m on the stimp meter - but they were smooth and ultra-consistent in pace and trueness. If you played on greens like that every day, you couldn't help but become a good putter.
So Kauri Cliffs, as well as its spectacular setting, is also a really classy test of golf. Wouldn't it be great if our best players could compete in a tournament there? Could a top New Zealand amateur event, like say the North Island championships be played there, or at Cape Kidnappers or the new Jack Nicklaus layout at Kinloch, which I'm told is also world class?
In other words, to improve the standard of the country's aspiring players we need to shift their top tournaments away from club courses with their adjacent, tree-lined fairways and flat greens to places of true international standard where good thinking will be just as important as good ball striking.
Such a scheme could only eventuate with the blessing of Mr Robertson, and there would also be infrastructure issues because of the relative remoteness of both his courses and the fact that both are set up for private, social play and not large tournaments. However I reckon it's an idea that New Zealand Golf should be pursuing in their constant quest to improve the quality of our emerging players.
In the meantime, gems like Kauri Cliffs exist for our pleasure. It takes a while to travel there and the green fees are not cheap.
You're quite likely to lose a ball or two as well, because no fairway here runs alongside another. But it's golf as most of us don't usually know it.
We should all do it at least once.
