New Zealand
Golf
December/January 2000
Golf in New Zealand is
wonderfully plentiful
and unbelievably inexpensive. Around Christchurch, where we've settled in, there are supposed
to be 27 golf courses within 20 km (12 miles) of the city. We won't get to
play them all, but we hope to play some of the better ones.
Since we're here for 2 months, we've
joined a Golf Club. McLean's
Island Golf Club is a friendly club,
with a typical mid-price range course.
Here's a photo of the clubhouse. The
course is long, and sometimes narrow, with large pine trees blocking the mostly back and forth parallel fairways from each
other. There are no homes on the course (or anywhere nearby), and usually
the course is pretty empty. Tee times are not needed during the week and only week-end
times are available for booking. The club has over 500 members,
but based on course availability, it seems people don't feel obligated to play
very often to get their money's worth, as we do in the US.
Our course accepts
"greens fee players", as do almost all New Zealand courses. The system for green's fee players at our course seems
rather lax. If someone
is in the starter's booth or at the bar, then greens fees are collected by them.
If not, which is sometimes the case, then payment is on the honor
system. There's a box to put money in (green fees are NZ$15 = about US$7.50).
However, there aren't always stubs to
show that one has paid. It's easy to cheat, and apparently quite a
few people, mostly students, do.
We drove about 45 minutes north
of Christchurch to Amberley
Beach to play the
course there. The greens fees were NZ$10, but since we had purchased a
"Golf Guide" book, we paid half price. (THay6's US$5 for the two of us!!!!)
Amberley is a links-type course, with some ocean views beyond the trees. It was sunny
and warm when we played,
but we've been told that the breeze comes off the ocean after about 11:00, and it
can be cool. The course was in great condition with fast, well maintained
greens. Very nice.
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Since we're here for 2 months, we've
joined a Golf Club. McLean's
Island Golf Club is a friendly club,
with a typical mid-price range course.
Here's a photo of the clubhouse. The
course is long, and sometimes narrow, with large pine trees blocking the mostly back and forth parallel fairways from each
other. There are no homes on the course (or anywhere nearby), and usually
the course is pretty empty. Tee times are not needed during the week and only week-end
times are available for booking. The club has over 500 members,
but based on course availability, it seems people don't feel obligated to play
very often to get their money's worth, as we do in the US.