Te Arai’s South Course sits on a stretch of North Auckland coastline that has drawn comparisons to California’s Monterey Peninsula, and the comparison holds. Coore & Crenshaw were given the pick of the site’s oceanfront, and it shows – sixteen of the eighteen holes look to the Pacific, eight play directly alongside it.

The course is walked, not ridden, in the traditional links manner, over natural rolling dunes and fescue turf. Design here rewards feel over force. The fourth is the hole most golfers remember first: a long par four that sweeps downhill from tree line to open links land, the course’s grand reveal of what’s ahead. Elsewhere, short, quirky par fours at the third, sixth and sixteenth ask for invention rather than raw distance.

Wind off the Tasman is a constant companion, and ground game matters as much as anything through the air. Since opening, the South Course has established itself among the world’s top 100, currently ranked 79th by GOLF Magazine.