Where the South Course plays to the ocean, the North turns inward. Tom Doak’s third New Zealand design – after Cape Kidnappers and neighbouring Tara Iti — routes through pine forest and sand barrens that Doak himself has likened to Pine Valley, one of the game’s most admired inland courses. Only a handful of holes touch the water directly, yet the round begins and ends on the coast.

The course asks more of the short game than most links. Doak’s greens are boldly contoured, some deliberately blind from the fairway, and reading them correctly matters as much as reaching them. The opening hole is a deliberate contrast to the South’s sturdy start – a short, drivable par four inviting an early birdie before the terrain toughens.

Since opening in October 2023, the North Course has been recognised as the highest-ranked new course of its debut year by Golf Digest, and currently sits at 98th on GOLF Magazine’s world top 100.