Paraparaumu Beach gets the exposure it deserves

The return of tournament golf to one of New Zealand’s finest golfing layouts is the feature of this week’s New Zealand PGA Championship at Paraparaumu Links in the Kapiti region, just north of Wellington.

The New Zealand PGA Championship is being staged at the venue for just the second occasion after being first played there in 1959.

Designed by a former Australian Open Champion and a one-time design partner of Alistair McKenzie, Alex Russell, the course received the plaudits of one of the greatest links specialists, Peter Thomson, who won one of his nine New Zealand Opens there in 1959 and had this to say.

“I loved it instantly. We had nothing like it in Australia, which must have struck Alex Russell, who did the layout. Course designing approaches an art form, especially done in a perfect modelling form like volcanic sand. Russell must have been ecstatic. What was left after his departure was a gem of enjoyment, a monument to the game and a gift to the future.”

Since its creation in 19489, Paraparaumu Beach was, for many years, considered New Zealand’s only truly international class facility and even now, after the arrival of courses such as Wairakei International, Millbrook Resort, Jack’s Point, Cape Kidnappers, Tara Iti, Ti Arai and others, Paraparaumu is still considered an outstanding example of links golf and one of New Zealand’s best.

The venue staged numerous New Zealand Opens between 1959 and 2002, with some of the game’s greatest names successful, including Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle, Sir Bob Charles and Corey Pavin.

Michael Campbell won his only New Zealand Open at Paraparaumu Beach in 2000, five years before his sensational US Open victory at Pinehurst # 2, and in 2002, Tiger Woods competed there.

The New Zealand PGA Championship, is a lesser event in terms of prizemoney on the PGA Tour of Australasia, but it comes with a great heritage. Coming a week before the New Zealand Open at Millbrook, many of the field this week will get to play this iconic feature of New Zealand golf for the first occasion and most will leave with a love for one of the southern hemisphere’s finest examples of links golf.