Off the tee: Tidy course last chance to play 9

Tim Wilkinson has won his second consecutive Masterton-Eketahuna pro-am. Picture / Paul Estcourt

Mike Aspin reckons he has problems with exotic fungi in his greens that are found nowhere else in New Zealand. Hardly surprising as the next golf course to the north is in tropical New Caledonia.

Aspin is the course superintendent at the Houhora Golf Club, the northernmost golf club in the country, about 45km north of Kaitaia on the way to Cape Reinga.

On a blazing hot day this week he was out tending the nine holes that are testament to the Kiwi golfers' determined belief that where there's a spare bit of land you've got to have a golf course.

The club has been on its present site a few kilometres northwest of the Houhora Tavern since 1978, but its origins stretch back more then 50 years.

In June 1954, a nine-hole course was established on property owned by Fred Evans, the local hotel proprietor. Teenager Patrick Wedding, president in 2004 and still an active member, was paid 16 shillings a week to mow the greens.

After falling on hard times in the early 1960s, the club relocated south to Pukenui and later north again to a Lands and Survey property at Rarawa. When in 1976 it tried for a permanent site, the department offered 42 ha on the Te Raite block where the club finally settled.

The land was bought in 1990 for $60,255 with a big mortgage. The club settled those debts and established itself financially by selling 21ha. The downside was that the course could not be expanded from nine to 18 holes.

Members reckoned it was better to have a tidy nine-hole course than a rough 18-hole track. There are 50 to 60 members and a lot of the work around the site is done by voluntary labour.

The results are impressive. There is a well-equipped clubhouse with a viewing deck, and green-fee revenue has grown with supervision during the holiday season.

The course under Aspin's care is no share-with-the-sheep, close-the-gate affair. Wide tree-lined fairways, elevated tees and undulating ground provide plenty of variety and the greens, despite the exotic fungus, are true. The men's par for 18 holes over 5631m is 72.

There is water from a bore to all the greens, and the fairways - a mixture of kikuyu and carpet grass - profit from the heavy showers in summer. Whereas the Kaitaia Golf Club's outstanding links course at Ahipara quickly browns off, Aspin was contemplating a second mow this week to trim the growth at Houhora.

So, if the family insists on enduring the 50km of dust, desolation and tourist buses on the way to Cape Reinga, ask to be dropped off at Houhora. They can bring you back a postcard after you've completed nine holes for $10.

Left-hander Tim Wilkinson showed he is in good form for the upcoming Nationwide tour events in Adelaide and Christchurch by winning his second consecutive Masterton-Eketahuna pro-am, with a 10-under par-two round total of 132.

His three-shot victory in the ING-sponsored event last weekend was made up of a seven-under-par round of 64 at Eketahuna and a three-under 68 at Masterton.

Auckland professional Kevin Chun, playing his first pro event in New Zealand, was second. Chun broke the Masterton course record with a 64, including six birdies and an eagle with just one bogey. He had a par round at Eketahuna.

Craig Palmer was third with rounds of 69 and 67.