new zealand Peninsula Looks to 2015

     Early this year, ground may finally be broken on the new home of Peninsula Golf Club.
     The financially struggling club has been hoping to make a fresh start for more than three years, in large part because it can’t afford to make desperately needed improvements to its 55-year-old facility in Orewa, a coastal city roughly 25 miles north of Auckland.
     Barring any further delays, by sometime in late 2014 or early 2015 the club will move to a nearby 200-acre location that features a 27-hole complex, a practice center, and a modern clubhouse, not to mention an extra sweetener: $10 million in spending money.
     Moving day can’t come soon enough for most of Peninsula’s members. Today their club has fewer members than it did in 2007, and they’ve grown weary of the flooding issues that prevent them from playing on their course for up to three weeks a year. Both the course and the clubhouse need multimillion-dollar makeovers.
     Peninsula’s new complex, consisting of an 18-hole regulation-length course and a nine-hole track for children and beginners, is being designed by Puddicombe Golf, a firm based in Alberta, Canada. Grant Puddicombe, the firm’s managing director, will oversee the construction.
     Puddicombe Golf, which was established by Sid Puddicombe, has designed courses in four Canadian provinces but does most of its work in Alberta, where it’s produced such properties as RedTail Landing in Edmonton, WhiteTail Crossing in Mundare, and Coal Creek in Ryley. The firm rarely works in foreign countries, but it’s nonetheless established a presence in New Zealand, where it’s worked (or is currently working) on renovations with at least a half-dozen clubs.
     The cost of Peninsula’s relocation is being covered by PLDL, Ltd., which plans to build 500 to 600 houses on Peninsula’s current 110-acre property.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the November 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.