North Island

Cliffs, Coasts & Classic Links

North Island

The North Island houses New Zealand's most decorated golf collection — from clifftop drama at Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs to the modern Coore & Doak masterpieces at Te Arai Links, and classic parkland at Titirangi and Paraparaumu Beach.

Key Courses

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North Island — Course Map

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South Island

South Island

Queenstown Golf Country

4 courses

🇳🇿 North Island, New Zealand

Cape Kidnappers

Location
Clifton, Hawke’s Bay
Opened
2004
Designer
Tom Doak
Rankings
#1 in New Zealand, top100golfcourse.com

Straddling cliffside inlets overlooking the South Pacific Ocean, Tom Doak once again delivers an excellent, social-media worthy golf experience over the gently rolling terrain on the west coast of New Zealand’s north island. Sure, the drone shots are spectacular, but playing in and out above the canyons while navigating Doak’s usual varied and interesting green complexes is the reason Cape Kidnappers has been a mainstay in World Top 100 lists since openings.

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🇳🇿 North Island, New Zealand

Paraparaumu Beach

Location
Paraparaumu Beach, Kāpiti Coast
Opened
1949 (club founded 1929)
Designer
Alex Russell
Events
New Zealand Open (12 times, most recently 2002 — won by Tiger Woods)
Rankings
#2 in New Zealand, top100golfcourse.com

Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club is New Zealand's greatest true links — a genuine pot-bunkered, wind-swept, tumbling dunesland course on the Kāpiti coast an hour north of Wellington. Alex Russell (Alister MacKenzie's Australian partner) laid out the current 18 in 1949 using the natural sand ridges of the coastline, with firm, fast fescue turf, tight lies, and the constant threat of the prevailing westerly off the Tasman. It has hosted the New Zealand Open twelve times — most famously in 2002, when Tiger Woods won by a shot — and it is the only course in New Zealand consistently ranked in world top-100 lists as a pure links.

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🇳🇿 North Island, New Zealand

Te Arai — North

Location
Te Arai, New Zealand
Opened
2023
Designer
Tom Doak (Renaissance Golf Design)
Rankings
#3 in New Zealand, top100golfcourse.com

Tom Doak's Te Arai North opened in 2023 as the second course at the private Te Arai Links resort, joining sister course Te Arai South on a spectacular stretch of Mangawhai coastline north of Auckland. Doak's minimalist routing weaves through native marram-fringed dunes with almost no earthmoving — greens sit naturally in the terrain, fairways rumple and roll into each other, and the Pacific serves as a constant reference point. In a matter of months it climbed onto every world ranking, quickly earning its place alongside Cape Kidnappers as one of the finest golf experiences in the Southern Hemisphere.

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🇳🇿 North Island, New Zealand

Te Arai — South

Location
Te Arai, New Zealand
Opened
2022
Designer
Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw
Rankings
#4 in New Zealand, top100golfcourse.com

Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw's Te Arai South opened in 2022 as the first course at Te Arai Links, sister to the neighbouring Tara Iti Golf Club and Tom Doak's Te Arai North course. Coore & Crenshaw are masters of minimalist links routing, and Te Arai South is arguably their finest ocean-side work outside Cabot Cliffs — playing over natural sand hills with wide, generous fairways and vast, subtly contoured greens. Combined with the resort's luxury accommodations and its two sibling courses, Te Arai has quickly established itself as one of the great modern golf destinations.

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🇳🇿 North Island, New Zealand

Kauri Cliffs

Location
Matauri Bay, Northland
Opened
2004
Designer
David Harman
Rankings
#5 in New Zealand, top100golfcourse.com

Located in the furthest north part of New Zealand’s north island, Kauri Cliffs is often compared to Cape Kidnappers because of the similarities. Stunning views of Tākou Bay provide some of the best views in the country, and unlike Cape Kidnappers, Kauri Cliffs plays lower and closer to the ocean. The highlight? Getting to play along the bluffs with the Pacific Ocean at the bottom, including the stunning par 3, 7th.

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🇳🇿 North Island, New Zealand

The Kinloch Club

Location
Kinloch, Lake Taupō
Opened
2007
Designer
Jack Nicklaus
Rankings
#6 in New Zealand, top100golfcourse.com

The Kinloch Club is New Zealand's only Jack Nicklaus signature course — a private links-style layout on the northern shores of Lake Taupō in the volcanic heart of the North Island. Nicklaus routed the course across rolling, tussock-covered hills with pot bunkers, revetted fairway edges, and long views over the lake to the Tongariro volcanoes. Firm turf, quick greens, and near-constant wind give it the feel of a Scottish links transplanted to the Southern Hemisphere, and its member-guest hospitality and adjacent lodge make it a premier North Island stop.

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🇳🇿 North Island, New Zealand

Titirangi

Location
Waitakere, Auckland
Opened
1927
Designer
Alister MacKenzie
Events
New Zealand Open (multiple)
Rankings
#7 in New Zealand, top100golfcourse.com

Titirangi Golf Club is Alister MacKenzie's only New Zealand design — a mature parkland set among native ferns, nikau palms, and tōtara in the Waitakere foothills west of Auckland. MacKenzie stopped in Auckland en route to Melbourne (where he was designing Royal Melbourne) and laid out the course in 1927; his signature strategic bunkering, tumbling green surrounds, and short-uphill par-4s give the course a genuinely MacKenzie character. It has hosted the New Zealand Open multiple times and remains one of the most cherished members' rounds in the country.

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🇳🇿 North Island, New Zealand

Royal Wellington

Location
Heretaunga, Upper Hutt (~30min N of Wellington)
Opened
1895 (Herbert Fowler layout 1907)
Designer
Herbert Fowler (original 1907)
Events
Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (2017), New Zealand Open (co-host)
Rankings
#15 in New Zealand, top100golfcourse.com

Royal Wellington Golf Club is one of the oldest and most storied clubs in the country — founded in 1895 and set on the Heretaunga estate in the Hutt Valley north of Wellington. Herbert Fowler laid out the original course in 1907 and it has been progressively refined by successive architects over the following century into a classic parkland test with mature exotic trees, strategic bunkering, and quick, small greens. It hosted the 2017 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship and is a regular co-host of the New Zealand Open.

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