Maungakiekie is my 2nd of the 20 golf courses in Auckland. New Zealand was in the midst of a heat wave, roads melting, train tracks buckling, sweat pouring from suited men on Queen Street and at Bunnings if you are looking for a stand up fan you’ll find nothing but out of stock signs.
It was a noon tee off in the heat of Mount Roskill. We decided to have a pre-match lunch at the course. My feeling is that if you are going to any golf course, BUY SOMETHING!
If we want our golf courses to survive we need to support them with the purchase of a pie now and again. I always buy a drink and tees at least. Contribute to the bar after your round. We bought 2 pies and drinks to see us off. I also bought a glove – you can find cheaper elsewhere but hey support the clubs.
Now I am not using this forum to be a golf course critic and assess service levels to provide Trip Adviser with more fodder. BUT note to every golf course – be VERY welcoming. Ask your visitors if they need course advise, or where they are from or what brings them to their course today?
Maungakiekie is the Maori equivalent of One Tree Hill. Maunga for mountain or peak. Kiekie is a native vine that was found growing on the hill, which is all but gone today. Is hard word to say, I won’t be repeating it again in recommendation for the golf course. It didn’t feel like a happy place and certainly not grateful for our business.
Onto the golf. Following a solid round at Howick last time out, plus I had a very intense range session which resulted in me straightening up my driver following Fred’s instruction. I also played 9 holes of Twighlight at Akarana ( my home club) – scoring was okay but ball striking was great! Positive signs for today’s outing!
The course is not pristine the fairways were pretty dry but not super hard. The greens were very true and in good condition but a bit slow for my liking – do you here the rhetoric of a man laying the foundation of excuses? There are ups and downs galore here which I love. It gave us a tremendous work out in the heat of the day.
The course is interesting, the first is all down hill and sets up a lovely golf course from the get go. The last is a killer, long and uphill all the way.
The heat was killing us but our spirits were on alert as we approached the 6th. I pared the sixth following a monster drive( thanks Fred).
On the card there was a hole listed as 6A. We had no idea what this meant, was it a choice hole? Could you take it or leave it? Maybe if you failed on 6th, could 6A be your mulligan ? Who knew ? I’d never see it before.
6A was a short par 3 back up towards the 7th tee box. We assumed this was added to give the poor bag carriers some interest factor as the 7th was a long walk back up the hill. Had we found the 19th hole? It was so bleedin hot that I would have settled for the 19th at this point in the round.
At the 10th ( now actually the 11th) we had a big drink and totted up the scores – not flash. The 10th Tee pro tip ( i’ll give you my opinions on the pro tip in due course) said “hit out over the hazard – it will require distance and accuracy to make the fairway… blah blah. We looked up and didn’t really see “the hazard” The sugary drinks and the exhaustion set in as we manufactured a hazard that didn’t exist. I teed up aiming left over the trees over my mirage of a hazard. A blocked slice send my ball onto the right hand fairway. My partner send his ball after mine also to the wrong fairway. We walked down to hopefully see the left hand – unknown – over the hazard – fairway situation. There was no left hand fairway is was just housing behind the trees. Lucky our golfing god was watching as we were both in the middle of the correct fairway and we didn’t end up in somebodies living room.
found the willows in “willow Glen”
The 15th was interesting… it didn’t exist! Ahhh now it made sense, 6A replaced 15 which was seemingly under repair – there was not a 19th hole – and on all days we needed an early trip to the 19th.
I scored 85 on the par 70 my 12 handicap is climbing fast, I might visit Fred for some advice.
No warm welcome as I donated my hard earned foldies to the bar. We slugged cold drinks down after match to cool off. I fear for
Maungakiekie’s future. The green fee is low, the membership is dwindling and the service delivery is almost accepting it’s fate.
There are 18 more golf courses in Auckland to get my teeth into.