How it all began.
In the beginning, quite a few pieces of land were available, but at first it seemed like an impossible hurdle to purchase any of them. The Eagles were right in behind us to offer their professional services of design, legal and financial know how, so after much deliberation it was decided 'we press on'. Thus purchasing the property which was available on South Head Road, the original property size was 170 acres but the designer only required 130 acres, the designer was one of the Eagles, Jack Eccles which had designed 3 courses in Auckland already, namely The Grange, Whitford Park and Waitakere.
As soon as we signed up Jack Eccles, he was contracted and given the task of designing an 18-hole golf course that initially took him two weeks and quite a few nighttime whiskeys.
On the first day of designing the course Bill Smith, a very good Auckland golfer suggested to Jack where the first hole should be. Jack looked at him long and hard and replied "thanks Bill, now give me the other 17 and then I will listen to you". With that Bill got in his car and motored off.
After much pulling and measuring with Jack's chain measure, which by the way was a piece of red telephone cable left by the American's after the war, we came to stand where the tee is now on the 11th hole. At this stage of the design jack had a problem of getting across the gully from one side to the other. A suggestion was proposed that the hole be played from the present 11th tee up the gully that was swampland at that time, to the place that was to become our 11th green.
The full 18 hole design took 2 weeks to complete during which Jack stayed with Reg and Carrol Webber (founders, members and Reg was to become a Life member and Patron), during the weekends Jack worked at home from an old aerial photo to help complete the design.
Now that we knew what the requirements were the plan was to put it into action, and that we would form the 18 holes over a period of 2 years. The first nine holes were to be on the northern side, and as funds permitted forming the second nine holes the next year.
The machinery was finally deployed out onto this untamed canvas to start sculpting this beautiful piece of nature into the designer’s creative vision. Once the green sites were formed they were sown with New Zealand Browntop, and the Tees, fairways and rough were grown in with Kykyuyu.
In the autumn of 1971 Jack Eccles on our opening day, hit the first ball on the New South Head Golf Course. From there the decision was made to continue with the development of the other 9 holes on the Mairetahi Road side, so the machines came back and worked there magic to create a great nine holes, and once all green sites were complete the greens were again sown in New Zealand Browntop and with that the 18 Holes were complete.
A book outlining the full history of the South Head Golf Club is available though the Club and makes for interesting reading, as it was compiled by Founding member, the late Reg Webber.
South Head Golf Club History