The hole Gary Player described as the world’s best natural par three

Caption: The par three 12th hole at Taihape which Gary Player once described as the world’s best natural par three.

By Neville Idour

According to the late Arnold Palmer where do we find the best natural par three golf hole in the world?

Believe it or not, at the Taihape Golf course in central North Island of New Zealand. That was Player's assessment when he visited the course in 1970. More on that hole later.

After driving through Taihape so many times in my lifetime and being aware of the golf course, the last such time recently it was on my bucket list to stop and find out just what this course was like and in particular the famous drop down par three.

My wife and I were fortunate to have the clubhouse manager Marian Cleaver drive us to the course to provide us with a cart and bring us up to date with happenings in the last few years.

This is actually the third site for the club which was established in 1960 and the clubhouse was built not long after that. Cleaver said membership numbers had been dropping for some time, but had stabilised now, although there were not too many younger club members.

The club, however, is in good heart and there were several other visitors playing when we were there. There is no detailed history of the club available but some memories of the early days by Albert Evans are well worth relating.

Apparently the first course was at Beban’s Hill on Steve Beban’s land. Evans doesn’t remember any clubhouse but thinks they may have used one of the farm sheds. Nor does Evans remember mixed foursomes being played, although women turned up playing their own game.

“The nineteenth was restricted to any bottles of beer or whiskey brought to the course or perhaps at the hotels in town,” Evans said.

Evans relates about Tom Garrett, the local chemist of the day, who had a new ‘brassy’ club and was prone to get annoyed over a bad round.

“My father Jack had picked out the club for him. He was trying out the club one morning.

``When he got to the fourth hole his drive just trickled down the hill. He walked across to a nearby stump, smashed the club across it, picked up the pieces and broke them again across his knee.

``Then he said that is what I think of your club Jack Evans. I watched in astonishment as I could not understand anybody smashing a brand new club like that.”

This course was grazed by sheep. A free drop was allowed from a sheep track or a rabbit scrape. The greens were cut with a hand mower and occasionally rolled with a roller.

The course was then moved to Sam Shergold’s property on Papakai Road. The fairways had to be cleared of logs and stumps. A team of bullocks were hired to pull logs to the side of the fairways.

Greens were dug, levelled, sown and enclosed in square shaped fences as the course was now on a cow farm. Although there were only six holes is was still set up for 18 holes.

“Most players carried about seven clubs and played half shots with their irons when necessary. This art is now lost with 14 clubs.”

Caption: The par three sixth hole at Taihape.

This next anecdote is priceless.

“Another problem with playing on a cow farm was whether to take a free drop or not.

``A ball touching dung could be lifted and dropped no nearer the hole.”

There were other scenarios as well, as Evans relates.

“Fortunately the players made up their minds quickly. Had they behaved like a lot of our modern golfers before they played their shots, the day would not have been long enough to complete the round in daylight.”

These were the days when players walked or rode a horse to the club. There were also quite a few caddies back then. They received a shilling a round and if they kept an eye on the caddieless opponent’s ball they often collected a shilling from him as well.

The six hole course was getting too small for the growing club which made the move to the current site. Time now for a brief look at the course.

The first hole plays down to the flat and needs some accuracy to avoid off fairway trouble. The par five dogleg second hole is quite tight with trees right and trouble left. Holes three and four are doglegs left and five is a dogleg right. Six and eight are challenging long par threes of more than 170 metres. Nine is a long 479-metre straight par five.

No 11 plays uphill to the green and the famous par three 12th tee, with it’s 15-metre elevation.

It’s world ranking billing would always be up for debate. So we came to it with some anticipation. It did not disappoint.

I have no qualms admitting that my wife and I drew a deep breath at first sight thinking how in the heck can we negotiate our ball to the narrow green which seemed to be guarded, to a degree, by trees and the Hautapu River which had to be cleared. Add to that the green falls away on three sides.

Caption: The 12th hole at Taihape from the yellow tees.

If that isn’t enough it is 133 metres off the white tees and 154 metres from the blue. From the yellow tees it was 94 metres and the access was narrow in the extreme. Quite a daunting challenge. Somehow we both managed to escape without damaging our scorecard.

No 13 is a pretty 298-metre par four while 14 is a short 115-metre par three to a very raised green with a difficult, virtually blind tee shot requiring a shaped shot. Hole 15 is the big daddy being a pretty 493 metre par five with a gentle double dogleg. No 16 is another gentle dogleg with trees to be avoided while 17 was the third par three of more than 170 metres. A tough ask.

Interestingly the 18th is a par five although only 389 metres from the white tees. Trees either side and a narrow entry for the shot to the raised green are probably the reason. A good finishing hole.

All of the greens were in wonderful condition, mainly flat with not too many contours.

All in all it was an excellent experience and if Taihape is on your route make the time to play golf. It is worth it for the 12th alone. Green fees are a steal at $20. Carts are $40 and I suggest you phone in advance for them.