Waverley Golf Club
Since the turn of the century, New Zealand’s golfing landscape has been boosted immeasurably by deep foreign pockets and architecture to match its stunning backdrops. These shiny new developments and high-end resorts have entirely transformed golfers’ perceptions of the country and vaulted it onto bucket lists. This however, should not be misconstrued as what golf in New Zealand looks like – amongst a land of over 400 courses, perhaps a dozen fit this model. The remaining loiter on a far more modest continuum – tight budgets, small green staffs and working-class memberships the heartbeat of Kiwi golf.
Across the country there are a handful of wonderful collisions, where extraordinary pieces of land find their way into the right hands. None epitomise the great Kiwi golf club quite like Waverley, where golf of an astounding quality is found at a miserly honesty box sum and members treat visitors like their own.
The clubhouse porch builds anticipation wonderfully
The vista from Waverley’s clubhouse porch is a sight to behold, as tight clusters of haphazard sandhills ripple in all directions and a handful of flagsticks peak their heads. More ideal land for inimitable golf is rarely found, with Waverley’s natural chop of undulating land shaped at random by black sand blown in from the coastline.
What a wild scene it must have been for British expat and professional player Ernie Southerden as he looked over the property for the first time, its spellbinding curves could only have taken his breath away. With a couple of Open Championships under his belt, Southerden had experienced proper linksland and understood the raw potential of Waverley’s eccentric property.
Unfussy, raw and endlessly endearing
Sensibly, it feels as though Southerden tackled Waverley’s wild terrain without a pre-conceived notion of what it should look like. The most stimulating green sites were staked out and tees setting up the most captivating journey were mowed - length, fairness and the “all out in front of you” mindset tossed by the wayside. With minimal earth shifted, the rumble of the land is fully embraced as holes bob and weave amid the topographical chaos – raw and honest palaeolithic golf.
The resulting voyage of two returning loops forms one of the game’s most stimulating and fulfilling walks up, down and amongst the sandhills - captivating in its diversity, rawness and ability to enchant.
Waverley's charming greenkeepers
Bunkerless & ‘mowed’ to a single length by an army of 300 woolly greenkeepers, for some of the finest golf in the country, Waverley’s maintenance is remarkably efficient. It also busts the myth of manmade hazards being required for a proper examination, owing to the severity of its shifting terrain and elusiveness of its exacting green sites. There’s always a decision to be made and choosing the wrong line off the tee sees golfers fighting gravity with their approaches and at times blinded by the overwhelming sandhills – a delightful crossroads of excellent topography and thoughtful strategic design.
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The result of Waverley’s unfussy maintenance and Southerden’s adventurous routing which navigates the terrain with variety, is a flood of entertaining holes golfers won’t find anywhere else. It’s the type of golf which delivers everything you need and absolutely nothing you don’t, with the nagging question of just how the game got to where it is ever-present.
The Waverley rollercoaster
The Second
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Following a gently rising three shotter to open, golfers cross into a different paddock where Waverley’s tumbling terrain unravels. The bubbling fairway of the second pours downhill towards a punchbowl green nestled amongst the sandhills. At the height of Summer when Waverley’s turf is at its keenest, it’s 300 metres are well within reach for the longer hitter.​
The sunken surface tucked beyond the ridge
The Third
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​Riding a ridgeline with an angled out of bounds eating into the right edge of the fairway, the downhill third tee presents a couple of options. Those willing to challenge the fenceline are granted an unobscured view of the flag, whilst those who bail left face a view impeded by a large dune. Narrow and benched into the right hillside, the surface is characteristically elusive.
A distinctly Kiwi setting
The Fourth
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Those who find romance in the humps and hollows of the Old Course in St Andrews will be charmed by the fourth fairway. Tossing, turning and rippling like a crumpled duvet, the golfer finds a flat lie only my fortune. Amongst a flurry of crafty green sites, carved atop a dune, the elevated putting surface is yet another beauty.​
The rumbling movement of the rising fourth
The Sixth
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The greatest strength of Southerden’s routing is his willingness to tackle the dunes in a variety of different ways. At times holes thread between the sandhills, but at the sixth tee golfers get a face full of dunes as they tee blindly straight over the fifth green – a lonely marker post the only guiding light. Beyond the ridge, the fairway swoops hard to the left with a heaving row of dunes up the right side acting as a bumper. Infuriating for the pencil-pusher and 10 minutes of unadulterated joy for those without a scorecard, the sixth is a hole loaded with the eccentricities of the great links.​
Beyond the dunes of the sixth
The Tenth
A handful of Scottish links are famous for their stone walls bisecting the line of play, Waverley’s tenth finds a distinctly Kiwi twist as farm fencing cuts straight across the diagonal tee shot. At the foot of the clubhouse deck, the hilltop green makes an imposing target with anything short tumbling back down the false front.
Over the fence and towards the clubhouse beyond
The Twelfth
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The most memorable golf holes in the world find a way to stamp something original on a game of around 40,000 courses. The twelfth is Waverley’s most photographed hole and without doubt one of New Zealand’s finest two-shotters. Like much of Waverley’s golf, the last 20 yards of the 12th define the questions of the first 300. The iconic elevated punchbowl green is beautifully smuggled in a nest of dunes – a straight tee ball opening up the green, whilst anything offline blinded by the flaking sandhills. Laced with strategy, options and sheer amusement, the twelfth is a frontrunner for the hole I would love most in my backyard.
One of the world's most memorable two-shotters
The Thirteenth
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​The first of a high-class pair of closing one-shot holes, the 13th crosses tumultuous terrain from tee to green. Sitting in a slight depression with a couple of fronting kicker slopes, a low running shot across its curves is a true thrill.
The view back down 13
The Sixteenth​
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Aptly dubbed ‘The Wrecker’, the sixteenth plays across a deep valley which careens anything short down to the right. Two stout fronting mounds further compress a small target with the ideal approach threaded the gap. The elusive green tilts sharply to its front right corner, combining with the gravity of the land to foster one of Waverley’s most exacting swings.
Nothing comes easy from the 13th tee
When I think of the most admirable custodians of golf in New Zealand, Waverley is at the top of the heap – a beautifully unfussy, distinctively Kiwi club, with all of the compelling golf one can handle. The aggressive randomness of the terrain and intelligence of Southerden’s free-spirited routing combine to deliver a stimulating collection of distinct shots worth travelling across the globe for.
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Waverley’s members are unapologetically proud of both their club and course, their renowned hospitality unmatched across the country. What every visitor will agree is blindingly obvious - the world of golf would be in a much better place if there were a few more Waverleys in it.