Waitikiri Golf Club

Overview: Waitikiri Golf Club is a wooded parkland course in eastern Christchurch, about 10 kilometres from the city centre. Its official course tour highlights a colourful mixture of established trees, lush fairways, undulating greens and strategically placed bunkers. The current course reference measures approximately 6,642 yards. Doglegs are a major part of the design, and the layout includes four par threes plus several longer holes that change the rhythm of the round.

History: A.R. Blank designed and built Waitikiri in the late 1930s. His design idea was that doglegs could be either the golfer’s best friend or worst enemy, and the club says the course contains thirteen doglegs of varying severity. That gives the historic layout a clear architectural signature: the tee shot is often about choosing the right side of the hole before the green is even visible.

Did You Know? The third and ninth are both longer par threes that demand a well-struck club with little room for error, while the twelfth and seventeenth are shorter but guarded by the need for accurate tee shots. Together they show how Waitikiri varies the par-three challenge instead of repeating one standard template.