Ep76: Tara Iti - The best course in the southern hemisphere?

Two of the heavyweights of world golf are the stars for this episode – Royal Melbourne West and Tara Iti. Scott recently returned from a quick hit and run trip to Tara Iti and played both courses at Te Arai as well. The rounds at Tara Iti had him thinking it might even surpass the famed West course at RM as the Southern Hemisphere’s best.

We discuss the genesis of the course at Mangawhai – including the seminal GolfClubAtlas thread in which Tom Doak put out a call for people to nominate sites on which his client could develop one of the best courses in the world – turns out it was even earlier than we though it was. 2005, and long time GCA contributor Ash Towe was the one who steered the ship towards the East coast of New Zealand, north of Auckland.

https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,19775.msg351600.html#msg351600

The site, the routing, and so much more of Tara Iti is discussed. Strong holes on both layouts, contrasted with the weaker links in the chains. The assortment of holes on both courses is a focus – short and long threes, driveable fours, more testing long two shot holes as well as reachable fives. Big greens and small, aggressive greens and artistic hazards. We chat about it all. The amazing landscape on which Tara Iti is built, and more.

As mentioned, this excellent hole by hole look at Tara Iti courtesy of Golf Digest is a great entrée into a chat about the course. https://youtu.be/U6_5cGQhnDA?si=t3I69xGH5tXKiwty

We also make mention throughout the episode of the NoLayingUp piece that Soly recorded at Tara Iti back at the end of the debut season of Tourist Sauce – the link for that is here - https://youtu.be/VV40tk_5fis?si=I7YoALIqEEIv1Jwb

There’s no longer the option for unaccompanied visitors to play Tara Iti unfortunately. But both courses next door at Te Arai are well worth the travel.

For those who have an appetite for more Tara Iti content – Charlie Mercer has dedicated several episodes of his excellent NZ based golf podcast, The Yardage Book podcast, to Tara Iti and Te Arai. His episodes with Jim Rohrstaff, Tron Carter and Michael Wolff are well worth going back to for a listen.

Link to Tron’s episode here - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/tron-carter-unpacks-his-recent-trip-to-tara-iti-and/id1714222287?i=1000708867879

Those who wish to visit Royal Melbourne to play West can enquire through this link. https://www.royalmelbourne.com.au/visitors/

We round out th