Lord of the Rings’ backdrops drive big bets on New Zealand golf
Money is pouring into projects, but getting more American and other international travellers to brave the long flights to the bottom of the world will be tricky
The golf courses are gorgeous. But they are very far away. That’s the challenge facing the wealthy investors who are pumping money into New Zealand’s golf industry in a bid to draw Americans and other international travellers to the bottom of the world. On the one hand are world-class courses tucked between snow-capped mountains and glacier-fed lakes high atop the Pacific Ocean. On the other hand? The flight from New York takes about 18 hours.
But in an era of Yolo (you only live once) travel, developers are betting that New Zealand can grab more of the roughly US$24 billion ($32.8 billion) global golf tourism market, which is expected to grow an estimated 60% over the next 10 years.
California financier Ric Kayne is backing his fourth golf project in the country this year, while former Alibaba Group Holding CEO Jonathan Lu announced plans to build a championship course on a beachside farm west of Auckland. Construction is also in progress on two exclusive courses in the South Island resort towns of Wanaka and Arrowtown, near Queenstown — favourite locations for billionaires seeking a sanctuary far away from the world’s turmoil.
Golfers tend to be relatively wealthy and, as the thinking goes, groups of North Americans who travel to play courses in Ireland and Scotland, or Britons and Europeans who go to the US, might be open to a longer journey for a bucket list trip. Closer to home, the New Zealand projects are looking to compete against courses in Australia and Vietnam for well-heeled Asian tourists.
“New Zealand has great golf, the scenery is out of this world and so is the food and wine,” said Jim Rohrstaff, an American who became Kayne’s business partner on the golf projects after meeting him at the Vintage Club in Indian Wells, California. “It adds up to a complete package — that’s why we’re bullish on it and why we’re building more.”
Dune-dotted coastline and rolling pastures
With a population of slightly more than five million, New Zealand ranks high globally in the number of golf courses per capita, alongside Scotland and Ireland. Its dune-dotted coastline and rolling pastures are well-suited for the sport, and the year-round temperate weather is a draw, particularly for Australians and Asian travellers who want to escape sweltering heat.
And of course, the scenery is hard to beat. Peter Jackson, who wrote and directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is from New Zealand, and there are filming locations across the country.
Still, New Zealand is a relative newcomer to high-end golf. Historically, it was dominated by modest, local clubs. That started to change about 20 years ago, in large part because of the late Tiger Management founder Julian Robertson, who was pivotal in spreading the word on Wall Street about golf in the nation.
The hedge-fund billionaire, who fell in love with New Zealand after a trip in the 1970s and amassed substantial assets there before he died in 2022, developed two high-end golf courses, Kauri Cliffs and the Tom Doak-designed Cape Kidnappers, in the early 2000s, each featuring a luxury lodge.
“He had everyone scratching their heads wondering what an astute investor like him was doing building golf courses in New Zealand,” said John Darby, a property developer and golf architect who has been involved in many of the nation’s top courses including the Jack’s Point course in Queenstown.
Among the frequent visitors to the courses developed by Robertson was Kayne, the co-founder of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors. He eventually called Darby “out of the blue looking for a piece of land for a golf course”.
That project became Tara Iti, a members-only course north of Auckland that opened in 2015 and is ranked by Golf Digest as one of the best in the world outside the US. They quickly followed that with two more courses at the nearby Te Arai Links.
Rohrstaff and Kayne’s current project is a redevelopment of The Hills near Queenstown, a private course ringed by mountains and overlooking Lake Hayes. They are undertaking it alongside the family of New Zealand jeweller Michael Hill. Lu’s course is expected to open in 2027 on a 500ha farm in Muriwai that he bought in 2020.
Despite the abundance of viable locations, the business of developing courses in New Zealand is not easy. It requires deep pockets — Rohrstaff estimates the two Te Arai Links projects cost a combined NZ$200 million ($161 million) — while the regulatory approval process can take many years. Then there is opposition from environmental groups and the nation’s ban on most foreigners buying property.
Darby is currently building a course at Glendhu Bay on Lake Wanaka, a few kilometres from the site where billionaire investor Peter Thiel hopes to build a luxury lodge. The project was in the works for 20 years before a shovel hit the ground.
Repeat visitors
New Zealand’s golf tourism industry grew in value to NZ$425 million in 2019, three times what it was in 2012, partly by targeting country clubs in US cities with direct flights to the country. They also appealed to Australians to make the short trip across the Tasman Sea.
That momentum was derailed by the pandemic, and now, as travellers once again jet across the globe, the competition for golf tourism dollars is even more intense. Golfers tend to spend more and stay longer than average leisure travellers, according to David Griffiths, events manager at International Golf Travel Market. And other countries have taken notice, as courses pop up in locations such as Kenya, Vietnam, Bermuda and Barbados.
New Zealand is 5,500 miles (8,850 km) from Tokyo, 6,500 miles from Los Angeles and 11,400 miles from London, and the geographical isolation means most people see it as a once-in-a-lifetime destination. With that in mind, the industry has deliberately shied away from the socalled “buddies trip” model that is popular with Americans who visit Ireland and Scotland — not to mention Arizona, South Carolina and Florida — for shorter trips where the mostly male groups do not do much else besides golf. This is according to Ryan Brandeburg, an American golf pro who runs a consulting business behind the course that Lu is developing and another near Queenstown.
Brandeburg first travelled to New Zealand in 2009 to oversee Robertson’s courses. On a flight on his first day in the country, he happened to sit next to then-Prime Minister John Key, who invited him to play a round. He was subsequently tapped to help develop a golf tourism strategy and has been involved ever since.
These days, he said, it is pivotal to boost development, so that there are “clusters” of courses near Queenstown and Auckland that help golf tourists justify the long trip. He also wants them to bring the whole family.
“We want couples travelling together, families travelling together,” Brandeburg said. “Golf is still the hero of their visit, but if they played four or five rounds of golf in 15 days, we would be very happy because all those other days, they’re spending money doing other things.” —