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Gulf Harbour Country Club, which hosted the New Zealand Open in 2005 and 2006, and the World Cup of Golf in 1998, closed this summer after the owners said that it had been ‘unable to make the club financially viable’ after two consecutive years of loss-making.
The club, which is located 25 miles north of Auckland, closed on July 20, with owner Greg Olliver owing thousands of pounds in unpaid wages to staff, while members who had paid their fees in advance were left out of pocket and with nowhere to play.
A letter sent to members by club director Wayne Bailey at the time of the closure said: “After two years of unsuccessfully looking for ways to make the running of the club financially viable the Gulf Harbour Country Club will close with immediate effect. While it’s appreciated many of the members have absorbed the higher fees in recent times, costs continue to outrun revenue”.
The letter highlighted that the 25-year-old clubhouse would most likely need a complete rebuild, the cost of which would be ‘prohibitive’.
The club sits on a significant amount of land and directors had looked at ways to utilise selling some of the surplus in order to reinvest in the course.
The letter continued: “The nature of the course layout meant that this was only possible with the acquisition of other neighbouring land as well. Negotiations to date have meant that this is not only unviable but ultimately a worse outcome than the status quo. Thus, we have no option but to cease operations.”
Gulf Harbour opened in 1997 and boasted the only Robert Trent Jones Jr design in New Zealand. Rated the 15th best course in the country by Top100golfcourses.com, it hosted the World Cup of Golf just a year later, which was won by the English pairing of Nick Faldo and David Carter, followed by back-to-back New Zealand Opens in 2005 and 2006. As recently as March of this year it staged the New Zealand PGA Championship.
Despite the course being officially closed, members continued to play on the 18-hole layout over the New Zealand winter, putting makeshift flags into the greens before they became too overgrown to putt on.
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