(NZ) The Hills new plans revealed with Tara Iti team

POSTED ON August 20, 2024 @ 6:22 pm

Plans have been revealed for the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of The Hills golf course near Arrowtown with current members getting the first offer to be part of the new private members structure.

The Herald understands members at The Hills were earlier this month given the first opportunity at the lowest price option to join the new structure.

US private equity investor Ric Kayne and business partner Jim Rohrstaff, the duo behind Tara Iti and Te Arai Links near Mangawhai, have joined in partnership with Sir Michael Hill and daughter Emma Hill as part of redevelopment plans at The Hills. Along with Tara Iti, The Hills is one of the most exclusive courses in the country, opening in 2007, and will remain so under the new private members structure.

A full course rebuild will take place over back-to-back winters starting in April 2026. The development plans also include a golf training facility, fitness centre, on-site accommodation, cottages, and clubhouse renovations.

Financial details of the new partnership have not been revealed but Sir Michael Hill famously told media on the club’s opening in 2007 it was more than his life is worth to divulge how much he had dipped into his fortune to finance the project, which started as a 200ha deer farm in the early 90s before taking more than five years to be turned into a world-class golf course.

The extensive redevelopment of the course will be led by Australian golf architects OCM (Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead) and will involve work across both the front and back nine. The iconic clubhouse, designed by Andrew Patterson, will also get a much-needed golf shop.

Redevelopment details at The Hills

OCM are quickly making waves in the golf architectural world with The Hills being their first project in New Zealand. They were praised for their rebuild of the two courses at Peninsula Kingswood in the Melbourne sandbelt region. Golf fans will get a closer look at OCM’s work over the next few years having redeveloped the famed Melbourne course Kingston Heath, which will host the Presidents Cup in 2028 and just opened up a complete rebuild of Medinah no.3 in Illinois, which will host the 2026 Presidents Cup.

Working with OCM, the initial brief was to change three or four holes and make The Hills a more walkable course. But it turned into a much bigger project and with the irrigation nearing its end of life, it also meant having to trench up and replace pipes all over the golf course.

The OCM team look over The Hills where they will create a routing that is a significant step up. Photo / Supplied

“It’s a major construction project no matter what. As they walked around they started throwing some ideas out there… I saw straight away as huge value-adds not only to the golf experience but views from the clubhouse,” Rohrstaff said.

“By the time they [OCM] flew out of town we thought, ‘oh boy, sounds like we’re building a new course here’ but I think that’s where we got to pretty quickly. And we’re really excited about what they’ve come up with. They love the land, the scenery is out of this world and they’ve created a routing that is a significant step up.”

Because of the relatively tight growing seasons in Queenstown, the development will be done over back-to-back winters starting in 2026.

On the iconic clubhouse, Rohrstaff added: “We love that building. We’re looking at adding on a little bit to that. I’ve always joked the thing about The Hills is that it’s a golf course without a golf shop, so we’ll be adding things like a concierge, a golf shop and refreshing the entire interiors.”

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