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The once-bustling Gulf Harbour Country Club, nestled in the heart of the Whangaparāoa Peninsula in Auckland, is now deteriorating in a state of haunting abandonment.
Since its abrupt closure in July, the course, which hosted the 1998 World Cup of Golf and New Zealand Golf Open in 2005and 2006, has transformed into an eerie spectacle, a testament to nature’s silent resurgence. The course, once an emblem of manicured beauty, is now an amalgamation of wild overgrowth.
Frazer Bond, its former director of golf, visited the course and captured the surreal decay in photographs, telling the Herald it was “terrible” to see its sad demise.
The meticulously-tended fairways, once a carpet of green precision, now stand cloaked in a surreal hue of purple and brown. The roughs, once navigable, have succumbed to the tangle of dense undergrowth, rendering them virtually impassable.
The clubhouse, a ghostly relic frozen in time, paints a sombre picture. Abandoned golf clubs and bags lie scattered and forlorn, embodying a poignant narrative of human departure. Shirts and other apparel not bought before the closure from the pro shop sit waiting, hanging on racks. Maintenance equipment lies dormant in sheds, and while the once-pristine bunkers bear the weight of neglect, their sands merge with the reclaiming earth.
Despite the desolation, traces of human existence linger. Overflowing rubbish bins stand as silent sentinels of a forgotten past. Their neglect resonates with the abandoned air that shrouds the once-thriving club. And people continue to play the course, navigating through the overgrown grass and tangled roughs, making the most of the free entry fees which usually had a price tag of $75 for 18 holes for affiliated members.
Image 1 of 13: The sad state of Gulf Harbour Country Club which closed suddenly in July. Photo / Frazer Bond
Bond, who was in his role for seven years, helped run the course but was blindsided along with the members of its sudden closure.
“To see how fast it went downhill is unreal. When you go from a strong membership of around 600 or 700 to see just no one there, it was nuts. [The grass] is long as but I saw a few people playing out there when I went out.
“It’s unreal. Those indoor photos, it just looks like people walked out one day like when we had the Covid lockdowns. A bunch of suppliers have come and grabbed all their stuff and some companies got as much as they could like two or three days after [it closed] and then they locked the doors.
“One photo I didn’t get but wish I had is that someone has ripped all the brass letters of Gulf Harbour off the front gate.”
Bond said he decided to visit the course after some people posted photos of the course looking okay on social media but wanted to find out for himself and show what it was really like. He said it was possible to play on the course but was tough given the conditions.
There were parts of the course that had been mowed but Bond said it was only some rough on road frontage and nothing else.
If there were any positives from the overgrowth, Bond said there were plenty of native birds on the course and it provided the local community with green space.
Back when it closed, members of Gulf Harbour Country Club received a letter from a director, Wayne Bailey, saying the facility would no longer operate. Bond said it was the last time members and staff heard anything more from the club.
The letter included: “After two years of unsuccessfully looking for ways to make the running of the club financially viable, the Gulf Harbour Country Club will close with immediate effect. Unfortunately, the club continues to lose money. It is appreciated that many of you have absorbed higher fees in recent times, however, notwithstanding this, costs continue to outrun revenue.”
In addition, the club required significant capital investment, with Bailey writing: “As many of you will be aware, the club has had very little investment in it since it was built 25 years ago. The lack of investment is directly linked to the lack of return.”
The fate of this once-vibrant hub remains shrouded in uncertainty, with locals fearing housing development on the course, leaving its legacy suspended in the delicate interplay between time and nature.
Luke Kirkness is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He previously covered consumer affairs for the Herald and was an assistant news director in the Bay of Plenty. He won Student Journalist of the Year in 2019.
