Pupeke Golf Club

Well Well Well I had never heard of Pupeke Golf Club before today. The birthplace of Lydia Ko and Michael Hendry, so it has to be worth a look.
Our own course was closed for the Charles tour so we thought a venture to the North shore would be a good option. Only 15 minutes from downtown. The course is a sweeping up and down affair that will put the fitness to test.
Overlooking the Hauraki Gulf, with many glimpses of Rangitoto the attractive layout makes this course one of the best in and around Auckland.

We debated getting a cart cos it looked like a difficult walk. One of our 4 ball had played here before and claimed we would definitely know we walked the course come tonight.

Cart it is then……Na …..we’ll walk….we need the exercise. That is why we are here enjoying a magical windless day.

The same “played it before “companion said when he finished his round playing Pupeke some years ago, he packed his clubs in the car and turned to the course and gave a one finger salute screaming , “ I’ll never be back!!”

It is a difficult and punishing course, the reputation is for one of the toughest courses around the city of Auckland. Plenty of Out of Bounds, deep scrub rough and many other ways to lose your ball. No wonder Lydia turned out the most accurate player on the
LGPA.

I had completed 2 lessons with my new coach. My previous coach Fred left to go overseas, maybe he had been following my progress and the embarrassment sent him into hiding. Following some serious practice I was confident that the swing was beginning to turn a corner …lucky all the doglegs on Pupeke were about to test
the turning corners.

I loved Pupuke, a hellava walk that pushed my ageing limbs to get about the place. But it is fully worth it.

Greens are good and true, hard to read and can punish a poor decision. The driving accuracy is paramount, not knowing the course is a big disadvantage. OB or worse awaits a misplaced tee shot.

I had a patchy start, getting to grips with my short game around the treacherous greens. The 7th is a funny dogleg directly left, a 5 iron off the tee leaves another one of those up the hill to a plateau green.

I got to the 9th one over my 13 handicap for the day. A perfect 9 iron saw my ball inches from an ace, tapped in for birdie and promptly birdied the 10th par 5 straight after. Was I loving Pupeke at this point! Great views and a marvellous setting was constant. Unlike my run of birdies which dried up pretty fast and was replaced with a run of bogies. At 17 the signature hole, I popped another sublime 9 iron onto the green close enough to comfortably miss the birdie putt.