Station Bush is a river land course played out over a blend of sheep-grazed undulations bordered by deep creeks and mature stands of almost primeval native forest. The result is a thinking golfer’s course in which facing positions have been designed to challenge judgement and skill.
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Bob and Barbara Smith, who have farmed Station Bush’s 211 hectares for forty-five years, are avid golfers. Over that time they have often looked out at their lush green pastures studded with mature trees and imagined a golf course laid out on it. That dream could never be fulfilled because the river, which is the source of the land’s fertility when its nutrient-rich waters flood over their fields at different times of the year, makes the maintenance of greens far too unpredictable. The advent of GolfCross®, which does away with greens and has specially designed goals that can be telescoped well above the swirling floods, meant the course at Station Bush could become a reality.
Long popular with picnickers who come to enjoy its river views and shady groves, the property is just ten minutes from Martinborough, a small North Island town that is the hub of the region’s wine growing industry.