Tee off in style

VICTORIA BARTLE* checks out Christchurch's new luxury golf course where the stunning Southern Alps provide the backdrop.

If you want to chip a few digits off your golfing handicap - or even tee off for the first time with expert instruction - you might as well do it in style.

Clearwater Resort, a luxurious golf course named for its setting between meandering streams, small lakes and ponds, is already open to members but opens to the public in just over three weeks.

Dug, ploughed and smoothed out of 180ha of farmland at Harewood - about an eight-minute drive from Christchurch International Airport - Clearwater Resort has the stunning Southern Alps as its backdrop.

And its accommodation is equally stunning.

Staying on site at Clearwater is not part and parcel of the golfing tuition packages, but if spoiling yourself in a tranquil environment is your self-prescribed medicine, then this resort - more like a hidden estate - offers just the right dose.

Construction is under way for a $50 million, five-star, 200-room hotel. The first stage comprises 16 hotel villas - due for completion in September - with private decks extending to the edge of one of the resort's six lakes.

Available now are the terrace apartments, spacious, two-storey, two-bedroom apartments fronting another lake and with uninterrupted views of the 18th (golf-speak for the final green).

Each of the 11 apartments was built and furnished from a plan - right down to the paintings on the walls and the linen on the beds.

Most of the owners live in or near Christchurch and treat their apartments as an investment, a holiday house or retirement home. The resort manages and leases the apartments on behalf of the owners. Rates for each begin at $370 a night, GST included.

Every room is super-generous and the sleeping arrangements are perfect for either a couple with two children or two couples. Both bedrooms have ensuites, and there's a third bathroom off the living area.

And for the stressed-out office worker who needs absolute peace and quiet - this is it.

Despite its relative proximity to an international airport, Clearwater feels a lot more "away from it all" than it really is and, as it is away from busy roads, nights are definitely peaceful.

While the golfers go it alone on the greens or take daily tuition on the driving range, others can laze in the luxury accommodation, take walks or jog on specially designated tracks, fish for trout in the streams, or - once the courts are completed next month - play tennis.

Nearby Christchurch City has an enormous list of places to see and things to do, aside from shopping.

Choose from punting on the Avon River, hot-air ballooning at dawn across the Canterbury Plains, exploring the Antarctic Centre or the Southern Encounter Aquarium or the casino.

Worth-visiting destinations on the day-trip list include the historic French settlement of Akaroa, at the tip of Banks Peninsula and, 90-minutes' drive away, Mount Hutt, which offers the longest ski season in New Zealand.

Clearwater's master-planned, 72-par golf course (the first for Christchurch) has been designed by New Zealand's golfing icon, Sir Bob Charles, and one of the resort's principal shareholders, New Zealander John Darby.

Darby is a Harvard University-trained golf course architect and resort-planner who also worked with Sir Bob in developing and designing Millbrook Resort in Queenstown.

There are plans for a golfing academy to be set up that will offer three- to four-day packages which comprise golf tuition, accommodation, airfares and meals.

The search is on to find a second teaching golf pro to give lessons. For now, the resort's director of golf, Colin Hunt, is on hand to give tuition to beginners and tips to those wanting to improve their game. He will also join visitors who arrive alone and want a challenging game.

While coaching has always filled most of his golfing days, Hunt has an impressive list of highlights on the greens. He has won a dozen Pro-Am events and took second-place in the 1998 NSW PGA Matchplay Championship in Australia and the 1991 Australian Club Pro Championship.

He has worked as a touring golf professional, a golf teacher and a director of golf for well-known luxury golfing names like Millbrook, the Hyatt Regency Coolum, Sanctuary Cove and Terrey Hills in Australia.

Golf lessons cost $35 for 30 minutes. Usually given on the driving range, this tuition is structured to suit the individual's needs, such as working on their weaknesses.

Packages include six lessons and an 18-hole playing lesson for $400 (at retail rates, this would usually cost $520) and three lessons and a nine-hole playing lesson for $200 (usually $255).

For the dedicated student, a full day's tuition package with specific focus on a short game, a long game and course strategy, costs $600, including equipment hire, a nine-hole playing lesson and a Clearwater polo shirt.

If you're happy with your putt, your chip and your swing, play a full round of golf at Clearwater for $90 - or $60 if you're a member of a golf club anywhere else in New Zealand.

A nine-hole round costs $50, or $35 for members of other clubs.

The bargain fee of $40 for 18 holes comes when you're a playing buddy of a Clearwater member.

Golfing gets really serious at Clearwater on Thursday, March 14, when some of the world's best golfers compete in the United States Professional Golf Association-sanctioned Clearwater Classic. At $1.2 million, it is the largest purse to be competed for in New Zealand golf.

Part of the PGA Buy.Com Tour, the four-day event will get 12 hours of live television coverage throughout the world, including New Zealand.

The resort will be open to the public on March 25.

* Victoria Bartle was a guest of the Clearwater Resort.

Clearwater