New Zealand
Golf Courses:
Cape Kidnappers - Hawke's Bay

‘Golf Magazine Top 100’ recently ranked Cape Kidnappers the 27th best golf course in the world in 2005. Renowned course designer Tom Doak, President of Renaissance Golf Design Inc, designed the course using his minimalist design philosophy - characterized by the utilization of natural topographical features and restraint in earthmoving.

Tom Doak’s design has succeeded in his goal of creating interesting holes you wouldn't find anywhere else. That wasn't hard to do at Cape Kidnappers, because the site is not like anywhere else in golf. It's an overwhelming experience to stand up on the cliffs, 140 meters above sea level, and look out across the waves far below.

Cape Kidnappers is not a true links course, with the wrinkles of sand dunes; instead a series of ridges tilt the land towards the sea, jutting out on the edge of the cliffs. Yet, the play is seaside golf at its finest. The surface is firm and fast, the conditions can be windy, and the player who can best control trajectory will be master of the course. You'll hit shots over the tops of trees, and play along the edges of deep ravines. If you stray on your approaches, you'll actually hope to get caught up in bunkers hanging off the green's edge, some of them deeper than you've ever seen before, rather than plummeting to the ocean below.