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— Explore New Zealand 18 Holes at a Time —

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A seaside golf resort for the middle class that courts families and keeps its beautiful course-side beaches natural and open to the public. Who knew that exclusive could be inclusive, too?
                                                                                                                                                Photo courtesy The Dunes Golf Resort

THE DUNES GOLF RESORT
Matarangi Drive, Matarangi
RD2 Whitianga, Coromandel,
North Island, New Zealand
TEL: +64 7 866 5394
FAX: +64 7 866 5394
EMAIL: thedunes@matarangi.co.nz
WEB SITE: www.thedunesmatarangi.co.nz/

1. Their designs are probably less natural and more man-made. This ensures that big-name course architects have a greater voice in the evolution of the game of golf than does Nature. Great “natural” courses, where designers do little more than interpret an existing landscape into a golf layout, stress the harmony of the game within each unique natural setting. This ensures that each course contributes its own set of environmental conditions to the accumulated challenges of the game. Man-made courses tend to include holes from a pre-determined bag of gimmicks (an island green par 3, a blind drive hole, a dogleg defined by tall trees that dares the big hitters, and other design clichés) that have more in common with mini-golf than with “natural” course design.
    
2. They often privatize land that could be otherwise of great recreational value to the public, and make it available only to the very few willing to pay dearly (“subscribe”) to gain access for just one elite recreational activity. Notably, in places (like Ireland) where golf is historically not an elitist activity, there has been considerable public outcry to the development of several of the exclusive resort courses of the past fifteen years, especially along stretches of pristine coastline that had attracted walkers, swimmers, fishermen, and others, but are now off-limits to all by high roller golfers.

THE DUNES OFFERS GREAT SEA VIEWS, BUT, DESPITE ITS SAND BASE AND DEEP BUNKERS,
IT PLAYS MORE LIKE A COASTAL COURSE THAN A TRUE LINKS. TALL TREES AND NARROW
FAIRWAYS ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES AT THE DUNES.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Photo courtesy The Dunes Golf Resort

FROM THE AIR THE MATARANGI PENINSULA
DISPLAYS ITS IDEAL SETTING FOR GOLF.
RIMMING THE TREE-LINED DUNES GOLF
COURSE ARE PUBLIC-ACCESSIBLE BEACHES.
                                                    Photo courtesy The Dunes Golf Resort

          The Dunes Golf Resort in Matarangi, New Zealand, occupies a curious middle ground between traditional “natural” and American-style resort course development.
The course covers the arrowhead tip of a superb peninsular setting: the bar protecting Coromandel’s Whangapoua Harbour from the South Pacific Ocean. The site was first
developed in 1988 as the 9-hole Matarangi Golf Links. The developers were ambitious but not especially well endowed. They hired New Zealand’s left-handed golf legend Sir Bob Charles to design the modest 9-hole course, but they publically stated their intentions to expand to an 18-hole championship course “in a couple of years”. Meanwhile, the community of Matarangi grew steadily, bringing vacationers, retirees, and dropouts to its pristine beaches. After the turn of the millennium developers expanded the Matarangi Golf Links into the envisioned 18-hole

championship course, and added an expansive development of townhouse villas and an upscale restaurant on property adjoining the course. They renamed the complex The Dunes Golf Resort, and began the search for “subscribers” to buy into their golf lifestyle development. Meanwhile, other golf resorts have been springing up across New Zealand, led by Kauri Cliffs in Northland and Cape Kidnappers in Hawkes Bay, two coastal resort courses on the North Island with ambitions to offer world-class golf to the highest of international rollers.
          Like Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers, golfers can fly in to Matarangi by private plane from Auckland. And, like resort courses everywhere, The Dunes offers golf plus
lodging and quality dining. But, the ambitions at The Dunes do not reach quite so high as at most resort courses. Where a round of golf at Kauri Cliffs or Cape Kidnappers is beyond the budget of most golfers (NZ$400 or about US$300 at this writing), a round of golf at The Dunes costs an affordable NZ$65 (US$50 as of this writing). The Dunes, it turns out, is seeking medium rollers to its Pacific seaside course.

BOB CHARLES — NEW
ZEALAND'S GREATEST
GOLFER — DESIGNED THE ORIGINAL 9 HOLES
AT MATARANGI.
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WHEN THE WIND IS BLOWING, THE MORE
EXPOSED OCEAN HOLES AT THE DUNES
BECOME MUCH MORE CHALLENGING.
                                                     Photo courtesy The Dunes Golf Resort

          The course at The Dunes is seaside, and set on sand — expect it to be open all year long — but is not a true links, despite its name. There is water on the course, but only fresh water ponds and streams that have been added to the natural setting of the front nine. The ocean doesn’t come into play, although it does provide a beautiful backdrop to several holes. Likewise, the rugged mountains of the Coromandel Peninsula are eye candy — there’s scarcely a hilly rise on the golf course. And, unless the wind is blowing (always a possibility on the tip of this peninsula nearly surrounded by water), the course doesn’t play very long, even from the back tees at 6,754 yards.

However, the course is noted for its tight fairways lined with tall trees, especially on the longer back nine, with its four par-5s, where long, straight drives are the key to scoring a good round.

THE WALKING PATH AROUND THE DUNES COURSE PERMITS PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE
UNDEVELOPED WHITE SAND BEACHES SURROUNDING THE TIP OF THE MATARANGI PENINSULA.
                                                                                                                                               Photo courtesy The Dunes Golf Resort

          The Dunes property attracts golfers, first and foremost, but not exclusively. It maintains a walking trail around the perimeter of the course that provides access to
the still pristine beaches of the Matarangi peninsula. Several of the resorts townhouse villas are kept available as rental properties, and at rates that come with and without golf. Visitors to The Dunes have a wide range of other activities available, including sea kayaking, mountain biking, horseback riding, jet skiing, tennis, swimming, and walking. The Dunes may not be a golf resort for Everyman, but it considers the middle class, families with children, and non-golfers customers worth pursuing. Meanwhile, it offers golf of a reasonable standard in a very attractive setting, and has done so without extensively remaking or restricting the dramatic New Zealand peninsula it has carefully developed. The Dunes has made an effort to keep their development natural and democratic. If resort golf is the wave of the present, The Dunes has chosen to interpret the resort concept by creating as little harm as possible, while offering the most possible to as many people as possible.
 

THE REGION: The Dunes Golf Resort is on the Pacific (eastern) coast of Coromandel, about two-thirds of the way north from the base of the peninsula with the mainland of New Zealand’s North Island. By air, the Matarangi peninsula is less than 60 air miles east of Auckland. The rugged mountains and two coasts of THE COROMANDEL have long been a sleepy refuge of dense, condensed beauty attracting weekenders escaping the pressures of vital, teeming Auckland and dropouts from the modern rat race from around the world. Lately the Coromandel peninsula has shown signs of activity-based modern development in several corners, including Whitianga and, to a lesser

THE COROMANDEL COAST ABOUT FIVE
MILES EAST OF THE MATARANGI
PENINSULA. THE COAST ROAD
OFFERS  A FEAST FOR THE EYES.
                                                                       Photo © HOME AT FIRST

extent, Matarangi on its fabulously scenic east coast. While most settlements of the Coromandel remain inhabited by New Zealand farmers, Maori natives, and laid-back, counter-culture types, new development foretells a challenging future to its fragile ecology.