Dancing On Moonlight Private Golf Course
By Mathilda Andersson
In Ohoka, a few minutes north of Christchurch, lies the beautiful estate of renowned New Zealand racehorse breeder Robert Famularo. Situated on 185-acre land, the property features stalls for 27 horses with a 1,000 metre training track, tennis courts, and since last year, the addition of Famularo’s very own private 9-hole golf course.
The multimillion-dollar horse farm, and subsequently the 9hole Par 3 golf course, bears the name of Famularo’s first horse back in 1997 – Dancingonmoonlight.
Designed by Scotsman Richard Pendlebury, the pure fescue grass course flows beautifully over the completely flat landscape, with flashes of sand appropriately placed out among inclusions of streams, waterfalls and a salmon pond.
With the longest hole reaching 150meters, the exclusive short hole course is cleverly built with a real confusion to distance, and exceedingly detailed greens.
“The course is unique and not easy, even the 75 metre long hole will test you,” Pendlebury said. “You really have to think your way round the little course.”
Growing up playing golf at his local club Peterculter in Aberdeen, Scotland, Pendlebury moved on to work on an array of golf courses around the world, including the St Andrews Beach Course in Australia, the Akbulak Course in Kazakhstan, and the Jack Nicklaus designed Kinloch course in New Zealand.
It was during his time on the Kinloch Club construction team that Pendlebury met green keeper Adrian Guiry, who later on would seek employment at Famulero’s equestrian stables and summon Pendlebury to assist in building the private golf course back in 2014.
“We had no actual plan when building Dancing on Moonlight,” Pendlebury said.
“No-one was telling us what to do. I got pretty much free reins when designing the course, just like I prefer it,”
“If you get a couple of really good people on the job of building a first-class golf course, like in this case, it’s amazing what a small team can do.”
Click here to read full article in GIC E-mag Winter issue 2016
