An initiative of The Hills’ new American partners, the reworking of the 18-hole private course, due to start next week, is the work of OCM Golf Design director Mike Cocking.
In a recent podcast, he praises the playing experience, ‘‘but we felt the [golf course] architecture didn’t necessarily match the experience or the setting, so our aim is to try and elevate the architecture to something approaching the surrounding landscape’’.
‘‘If you look at the style of it, it’s a little bit resort-like, I guess a lot of the contouring’s a little bit manufactured ...’’
They want to create a golf course that’s more ‘‘sympathetic’’ with the mountains, noting the bunkers will likely become more rugged, ‘‘rather than these perfect circles or perfect curves’’.
Queenstown’s John Darby, who designed the course in the mid-2000s in collaboration with the landowner, the late Sir Michael Hill, says ‘‘I’m sure they’ll do a great job in upgrading a course which is dear to my heart, and I look forward to seeing what they’ll be able to achieve’’.
As to making The Hills’ bunkers more reflective of the rugged mountainscape, Darby says he did that at a similar time when designing Queenstown’s Jack’s Point course beneath the Remarkables mountain range.
‘‘But at the time we did The Hills with Michael, he and ourselves agreed to have a rounder, softer form of bunkering that was more appropriate to the immediate land form.’’
Darby takes issue with the term ‘‘resort-like’’, which he suggests means ‘budget’.
‘‘Well, the golf course was built cost-effectively, and we know Michael and I had a wonderful time delivering it for what has been many years of great golf, and venues for the New Zealand Open.’’
He also suggests some of the redesign’s to fit in with planned housing around the course.
‘‘I’m sure with the budget the new partners are bringing to the property and the real estate programme they’re running, they’ll be able to implement upgrades that would have been challenging back in the early days.’’
