Magazine - Locked on to Kinloch!

By Rob Jenkins in Golf on 25th Aug 2010 12:30

Taupo is a well known tourist location in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand. The town is memorable for one rather big reason, a giant lake! It really is a bloody big lake, in fact the biggest freshwater lake in Oceania created some 26,000 years ago from a huge series of volcano eruptions. With a perimeter of 193 kilometres and with a depth of 186 metres in some parts, once you see it you won’t be forgetting Lake Taupo in a hurry.


Not that the town doesn’t have a lot more going for it; the whole area around Lake Taupo in part of the thermal explorer tourist route makes it a popular destination for tourists. As many as 1.2 million people make the trip every year to visit the region. As much as I’d like to educate everyone on the lovely Lake Taupo it’s time I got to the point of this article.

Twenty minutes from Taupo is a smaller town Kinloch, also located on the banks of the stunning Lake Taupo. Kinloch is a sleepy little town that’s barely a blip on the map next to its big brother. All this is beginning to change with the help of the town’s dramatic new golf course, the Kinloch Club.

The Kinloch Club is the only course in New Zealand designed by world famous golfer and course architect, Jack Nicklaus. Jack and his Golden Bear brand are famous around the world and have been behind some fantastic courses; big Jack won’t go putting his stamp on just any piece of land. Trust me when I say the Kinloch club is not just any piece of land. This place is a wonderland and it would be no be surprise if Alice came tumbling out of one of the many crevices in the surrounding picturesque hills. Jack Nicklaus fell in love with New Zealand on his first visit over 30 years ago, he has since visited the area numerous times since for fly fishing and holidaying. So when he was approached to design this course he jumped at the chance. Jack Nichlaus has said Kinloch is the best course he has built and you don’t take that lightly from the man responsible for courses such as “The Australian” and “Glen Abbey”.

Jack has had 63 of his courses featured in National and International top 100 lists so it’s a pretty large tag for this club to carry.

Not playing down the achievements of Jack Nicklaus and his design company when I say this but, they had a great canvas to work with. Rolling hills on the edge of a lake so vast it takes your breath away, natural undulations that can’t be bought a good dose of natural wild, rugged and untouched beauty that New Zealand is so famous for.

On Pitchcare’s recent visit to New Zealand this course was one on the top of my list to see, not just for the obvious reasons listed above but also to have a chat with the guys looking after the turf. An old friend of mine had recently taken up the post as the new Assistant in a re shuffle that also saw Chris Downes take his first Superintendent title.



Chris and Mark are over seeing a team of 10 full time staff including a full time mechanic. Over the summer the numbers will increase to around 13. As the entire course is hand cut, the numbers are required to keep the course in premium condition all year round.

Chris has been at Kinloch for about 4 years pretty much since its beginning. He has moved up from the Irrigation Tech then to Foreman, Assistant and now the top job. Chris spent time mastering his craft overseas at Ilford Golf Club in London and also at Chigwell Golf Club were he helped the course establish during it’s grow in phase, which turned out to be great practice for Kinloch.

Mark has been at Kinloch for a few years and moved his way up from his original title as a Senior Greenkeeper. Mark also worked in England on the famous Richmond Golf Club in London and before that in Australia at the exclusive Riversdale Golf Club. Interestingly, Chris and Mark both started out together back in Wellington at Duck Creek Golf club, which closed in 2003 after the site was sold for housing development.

Kinloch is still very much an undiscovered golf course for the rest of the world and even at home in New Zealand, but this is slowly changing with more of the general public being allowed onto the course and some great reviews from people coming and having a hit. It was recently voted NZ’s best golfing secret but it won’t be for long. The cost of $170 NZ dollars for a round of 18 might sound expensive but you’re setting foot on a masterpiece, up there with the most exclusive and beautiful clubs in Oceania.

Chris states one of the great features of the holes is how many different ways there are to play them. “Every hole on the course is unique there are 3 or 4 different ways to play each hole, which makes it a real challenge”.
Chris explains “Taking on bunkers, allowing for the ever changing wind, or playing it safe seem to be a factor on every hole, it’s made to test and challenge every level of golfer.”
Chris wasn’t lying with 152 bunkers currently on the course positioned with the upmost care and thought to make them the biggest pain in the arse as possible for the game golfer!

What I found just as beautiful as the demon bunkering was the abundance of native areas around the whole course and on every hole. Not only does it give the course that “wild” effect it will give the best golfers a thorough assessment of their accuracy. These native areas still require plenty of work mind you; they are often kept in check by the club’s herd of cattle, which get roped in around certain areas. This helps thin out the grass without taking away all the length like a mower would, leaving the impression of a rugged untouched landscape which only nature can produce. Not only are the cows great for the job, they save on manpower and fuel which makes them an important part of the working team.

During winter the team catches up on labourious jobs including thinning out native rough vegetation, bunker maintenance and hand weeding of presentation areas. Last winter the course had around 16 frosts in a row which meant the grass growth was down to zero. In the event of frost, golf play is cancelled until the frost has subsided to minimise any damage to the manicured surfaces.

Throughout summer the crew is primarily all hands on for presentation. The greens are cut as often as possible to keep them in the condition that’s expected of a course of this caliber.

If you’re lucky enough to be chosen to work on the team at Kinloch you need a strong work ethic and an eye for detail that’s second to none. Chris’s apprentices are being well trained in all aspects of golf course management, so when it’s time to leave the club they can proudly list Kinloch as the course where they honed their skills. Having worked on a course like this it should open doors to any course in the world. But be prepared for an early start, days start at 5.30am during the summer! However, with summer days between 18 and 26 degrees Celsius, it’s a perfect climate to enjoy the outdoors.

The course is wall to wall fescue on all fairways and roughs (hard, chewing and creeping mix). The only exception is the tees and greens which are creeping bent. Greens are Dominant Supreme creeping bent mix. The greens are hand weeded of poa annua regularly as Chris finds this is the only way for complete control. As the fairways are fescue they tolerate being sprayed more effectively for poa control, they are also hit with a pre emergent to prevent poa being able to establish.

The greens are all made to U.S.G.A specifications, one of only a small number of courses in New Zealand meet this spec. The course has a detailed drainage layout but as a whole it drains very well on its own with the soil being Pumice. Pumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that becomes solidified when super-heated. What makes it great for drainage is the large amounts of porous (air) inside the rock.

One problem the pumice soil has brought is Tomos. Like me, if you haven’t heard of this term Chris explains. Tomos is a term to describe when water tracks its way through the pumice, the pumice will hold it as it grows bigger until the water bursts through. Usually this takes place when someone drives over it, and results in a dirty big hole. Chris says this happens predominately in the natural wilderness but the course still has some humdingers! 

Kinloch is wall to wall irrigated including all the roughs. The grass varieties in place needing regular watering during the summer months to keep them kicking along. All sprinklers are valve in head and the new computerised Rainbird system allows them to turn on any one sprinkler at a time over the whole course which means no water is wasted.

Back to the grass, Chris keeps the heights low most of the year round with the greens allowed out to 3.5mm during winter and back to 3.25mm in summer. He finds any lower and the greens don’t like it. Tees and collars are also low all year round at 5.5mm. While the fescue on the fairways stay at around 15mm year round. Chris has a fleet of TC-22 Jacobsens for the hand cutting, which have the floating cutting heads making them ideal for the undulating greens.



Inside the shed the machinery is all pretty much orange (Jacobsen), with some John Deere tractors. Chris explains that the TC 22 was a major factor in going with Jacobsen, they are only up the road and the service has been impeccable from day one.

The course started off trying to avoid any renovation work on greens and tees, the idea being it would only encourage poa annua into the surfaces. Therefore heavy and regular topdressing and dusting was used to try and combat the growing thatch levels. This ultimately proved unsuccessful as the thatch levels rose to an unacceptable level and disease started to creep into the heavily thatched areas. Since those early years they have gone to a seasonal coring program using 5/8 inch tines going down as deep as possible without disrupting the surface. The yearly core grooming and scarifying is done regularly in the fight to minimise thatch.

Chris and Mark are running a very tight ship, and make no mistake about the goals driving the team forward. They are very clear about the goal to “be number one”. The course clearly has the potential to be the best in New Zealand and climb high into the top 100 courses in the world. They just need to keep working on getting the surfaces up and the reputation will come. It’s no easy feat climbing the golf courses elite list but Kinloch is defiantly heading in the pointy direction.

Pitchcare thanks Chris and Mark for their time and the insightful look into a truly beautiful golf course. The Kinloch club is billed as Heaven on Earth and it’s no stretch of the imagination to see how they came up with that.




Want to know more about Chris & Mark well check out the below
21 Questions with Chris Downes
21 Questions with Mark Kerr

Read more articles in Golf, by Rob Jenkins or from August 2010.