Gulf Harbour Country Club: Playing New Zealand’s premier abandoned golf course after local restoration efforts

New Zealand Herald sports reporter Will Toogood chips out of a bunker on the abandoned Gulf Harbour Country Club. A group of locals behind Keep Whangaparāoa Green Spaces are taking the club back by mowing and reclaiming all the overgrown fairways. Photo / Dean Purcell

Sixteen months ago, one of New Zealand’s top golf courses closed overnight, leaving one of the jewels in the country’s golfing crown abandoned.

The Gulf Harbour Country Club (GHCC) on Auckland’s Whangaparāoa Peninsula, host of the World Cup of Golf, two New Zealand Opens and the New Zealand PGA Championship, closed abruptly in July 2023 after failed attempts to “make the running of the club financially viable” and has since been left for nature to run its course.

That was until a group of local residents formed the incorporated society Keep Whangaparāoa’s Green Spaces (KWGS) and began restoring the course and some of its holes into a “playable” condition.

Currently, the 89-hectare site is protected as a golf course by a 999-year encumbrance put in place by the Rodney District Council in 2006 that ensures the site is “used in its entirety solely as a golf course and Country Club” and that no buildings are to be erected unless “directly associated with the operation of a golf course or Country Club”.

The efforts of KWGS to restore holes at the GHCC came down to a desire from local residents to have pride in their surroundings while maintaining a green space on the peninsula as housing developments are built in the area.

Executive KWGS member Duncan Millar told the Herald that residents have certain expectations due to the encumbrance that the site will remain a golf course and his organisation’s members have taken it upon themselves to try to meet that expectation.

“You expect there to be something that’s nice outside of your home. The reality is is that many of the homes here were built on much smaller sections because there was the expectation that the green space would be here forever for them and that was taken into account when their consents were put through, when the developers even could develop.”

Locals Howard Baldwin (from left), Duncan Millar and Jason Knapp formed Keep Whangaparāoa Green Spaces and are taking the club back by mowing and reclaiming all the overgrown fairways. Photo / Dean Purcell

One of these holes is the par-four 16th, named Ta Moko – New Zealand’s top golfer Lydia Ko rates this as her favourite hole in the world and the GHCC is where she learned much of what she has taken with her on her historic success playing the LPGA Tour.

It’s not only the golf course itself that has fallen into disrepair. The cart paths that are now used as walking or cycling tracks have become overgrown, bins were overflowing with discarded dog poo bags and rubbish had seemingly been dumped and forgotten about.

As much as restoring the course, Millar says, KWGS wanted the green space to be a place to be proud of and used in its temporary capacity as a place for exercise and relaxation. Many hours have been undertaken by volunteers to reclaim some of that pride.

“If you ever see a place on the side of the road where people start dumping rubbish, it has the effect of other people thinking, ‘Oh I can start dumping rubbish here too’. Over time, it stops getting treated as a special place.”

Playing the 16th hole

The Herald was invited by KWGS to take to the course to see in person their restoration efforts and play “New Zealand’s premier abandoned golf course”.

NZ Herald sports reporter Will Toogood playing a shot on the abandoned Gulf Harbour Country Club course. Photo / Dean Purcell

The 16th hole is 417m from tee to green, with two distinct options for playing it. The tee box offers the best perspective for seeing the work KWGS have put in, with a clear fairway now available.

The vast majority of golfers will hit to the left fairway while clearing 120m across a gully, a challenging shot despite being the safer option.

Professionals like American John Daly in 1998 at the World Cup will take on the long drive right across the water and attempt to hit the green – Daly’s successful drive on Ta Moko is still a story that is told to this day, 26 years later.

KWGS have mowed the tee box and fairways into a state at which the hole can be described as playable, yet the often underappreciated work of fulltime greenkeepers is truly appreciated once you arrive on the fairway – as locating even a well-placed drive becomes a struggle in the long grass.

Once on the fairway, the work of KWGS can be fully appreciated. Photo / Dean Purcell

Should your drive indeed be well-placed, the fairway opens up into a dog-leg right and there’s a relatively clear line to the green of about 260m, depending on your driving distance. Bunkers on the right-hand side of the green complex are the major hazard to be avoided – even more so with the condition they are currently in.

Once again, professionals and amateurs have two distinct options. The amateur would be best served to lay up short of the green, taking the bunkers out of play and giving an opportunity for an up-and-down for par.

Professionals or low handicappers who took the option to hit to the left fairway can pull a fairway wood and have a clear shot with a chance making the green in two.

In the current state the course is in, where your ball lands is where you will play your shot from.

This can be a blessing and a curse, as you will be safe from your ball rolling down the right-hand slope away from the green should you not quite make it across the slight fairway gully, but will also be unable to rely on your ball rolling toward the green should your shot land to the safe plateau left.

The fairway just short of the green is mown to a level that makes it much easier to find your ball. Photo / Dean Purcell

A successful lay-up will leave a hazard-free approach with only the greenside bunkers to the right in play (amateur golfers will know bunkers deemed not to be a factor tend to have golf-ball magnets embedded into the sand).

Should you find yourself in one of these bunkers, your lie will determine just how much trouble you are in. In their current state, the sand has compacted – so if you’re lying purely on sand and back far enough of the front lip, there’s a relatively simple out for confident bunker players.

As a general rule bunkers should be avoided at all costs. Photo / Dean Purcell

If your ball is jammed up against the lip and nestled amongst some of the grass that is growing in the sand, it may be a safer option to politely ask those you are playing with how seriously you’re taking this.

From this point the professional has most likely “putted” for birdie or par and is filling out their scorecard while politely waiting for the amateur to rake their bunker – if there had been any point in doing so (a certain Herald sports reporter did his best and was greeted by chuckles from his company).

The Gulf Harbour Country Club course has become much more challenging since it was abandoned. Photo / Dean Purcell

The reason for including inverted commas when referencing putting becomes abundantly clear once you arrive at the green.

There is only so much KWGS and their ride-on mowers can do to address the decay of the putting surface and a professional touch would certainly be required to get the greens at the GHCC into a truly playable state.

Will Toogood is an online sports editor and golf reporter for the NZ Herald. He enjoys watching people chase a ball around on a grass surface so much he decided to make a living out of it.