Cape Kidnappers: The Clifftop Course at the Edge of New Zealand

Ridges, sheer drops and a Pacific horizon that changes how you play

On the 15th at Cape Kidnappers, the fairway drops away on both sides. You stand on the tee with 650 yards in front of you, a flat strip of grass laid across a ridge like a gangplank, and the Pacific Ocean waiting far below on either side. A ball that leaves the fairway does not end up in the rough. It rolls off the edge of the world.

The hole is called Pirate's Plank, and nobody who has played it argues with the name. It is also not the only reason golfers travel to Hawke's Bay, on New Zealand's North Island, to play a course that Tom Doak routed along some of the most dramatic ground ever used for golf.

A sheep station turned into one of golf's great courses

Cape Kidnappers opened in 2004. Julian Robertson, the American investor, built it on a former sheep station of ridges and valleys, and Doak was brought in to find the golf in a landscape that most designers would have hesitated to touch. It was his first project outside the United States, and he treated the land with the respect of someone who knew he had been handed something extraordinary.

What he found were finger-like landforms hundreds of feet above the ocean, with fairways that follow the ridgelines and greens that sit right on the edge. The routing makes the most of every inch, which is why the course has appeared in Golf Digest's list of the world's 100 greatest courses, where it has been ranked as high as 21st. Doak later oversaw a full regrassing of the fairways and greens and a careful renewal of the course.

The holes that stay with you

The 6th, known as Gulley, is a long par 3 across a deep ravine. It is the kind of shot where the carry feels longer than the number on the yardage book. The 12th, called Infinity, plays to a green that appears to hover on the horizon with nothing behind it but sky and sea. You pick a line and aim at the sky.

The 13th, Al's Ace, sits right on the cliff edge, around 120 metres above the water. The name comes from Robertson's son Alex, who made a hole-in-one there just days before the course opened. It is the kind of story that could only belong to a place like this.

The 15th is the one everybody remembers. At around 650 yards it is a par 5 that ends at a green perched on a bluff above the ocean. A ball that strays from the fairway can roll all the way off the cliffs, yet the ground is flat enough that the green is reachable in a calm wind. It is thrilling and terrifying in equal measure. The 16th follows with a dramatic tee box, and the 18th finishes on a punchbowl green that pulls your ball toward the hole like a final act of mercy.

What the course asks of you

Cape Kidnappers plays as a par 71 of about 7,147 yards, and the wind can make that feel considerably longer. The fairways are wide, which gives you confidence, and then the edges appear and you realise how much margin you really have. Doak has a way of building tension through the landscape rather than through hazards.

This is golf played in the open, with the whole sky above you and the Pacific stretched out on both sides. The ridgelines make every tee shot a decision. Play it safe and you leave yourself a harder approach. Play it bold and you may find the best shot of your year. That is the kind of choice that makes a round memorable.

Why play it with Golf Escape Travel

A course at the far end of the world should never feel difficult to reach. When you play Cape Kidnappers with Golf Escape Travel, every detail is handled long before you arrive, so the only thing on your mind is the 15th tee. We are a specialist golf tour operator. Our founder is personally involved in every itinerary and known for the careful touches that make a trip feel effortless, and for going to any length to get it right.

Our guests are successful and busy, and used to carrying responsibility for everyone else. For a few days they set it down. They play a course that few golfers ever see, in good company, and they come home with a story that is entirely their own.

Start planning your Cape Kidnappers golf escape at www.golfescapetravel.com.

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