Routed along finger-like ridges with sheer 450-foot drops to the Pacific on several holes; developed by American financier Julian Robertson, one of the most dramatic settings in world golf. Part of the Robertson Lodges portfolio (with Kauri Cliffs), managed today by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.
This course is in our GSPro library — pull it up in any bay and play it wall to wall.
No. 15 — Pirate's PlankSignature
Par 5 · 650 yds
Plays down a narrowing finger of ridge to a green perched at the edge of a 450-foot sheer drop to the Pacific; a mis-hit approach can hang in the air for roughly 10 seconds before disappearing off 'the very end of the earth' into the ocean below.
No. 16Signature
Par 4
A tee box perched at the literal edge of the cliff-top ridge — regarded as one of the most vertigo-inducing tee shots in golf, a rite of passage for every first-time visitor.
"The exposed ridge holes are as much a mental test as a physical one; caddies help clients commit fully to the shot rather than steer away from the drop."
Tom Doak's 2004 masterpiece for financier Julian Robertson, laid across a clifftop sheep station in Hawke's Bay where long fingers of farmland run out toward the Pacific and end in cliffs that drop hundreds of feet to the sea. Robertson had been so taken with Doak's Pacific Dunes that he handed him 5,000 acres; the routing pushes greens and tees to the very edge — most famously the 15th green and 16th tee. Par 71, about 7,100 yards, and a fixture in world top-50 lists ever since.
Bucket-listers, architecture nerds who worship Doak, and anyone who wants the most photogenic round of their life — usually paired with Kauri Cliffs on a New Zealand pilgrimage.
The par-5 15th, 'Pirate's Plank,' runs dead at the cliff line with the green perched over a huge drop to the sea, and the 16th tee hangs off the same precipice. The par-3 6th across a ravine is the early jolt that tells you what kind of day this is.
Fairways are generous and the turf forgiving, but wind, length and cliff-edge carries punish big misses hard. Newer players can enjoy it from forward tees if they can stomach the visual intimidation.
In GSPro via community recreation, and it's one of the great sim flexes — the cliff-edge holes look absurd on a big screen. Nudge the wind up and 15 gets genuinely scary. A must-queue at Clubhouse for anyone who will never make the 24-hour flight.
Public if you can get there — attached to the Rosewood Cape Kidnappers lodge but outside play is welcome. Seasonal green fees run steep (several hundred US dollars, more in high season); book well ahead.
Source: — · high confidence
