Hawkes Bay Golf Club
Ten minutes’ drive south-west of Hastings will bring you to one of the surprises of Hawkes Bay.
The youngest of the four major golf courses in the Bay, the Hawkes Bay Golf Club, formerly the Flaxmere Golf Club, still has room to accommodate new members.
The course, originally built on 56.5 hectares of pumice land at the end of Valentine Road, 10km from Hastings town centre, was designed initially by Commander John Harris. Commander John Harris was an international Course designer who designed many courses including the famous Wairakei Course near Taupo and Royal Canberra in Australia. The Course was opened in 1969
In 1968 and 1969 an enthusiastic group of people spent many hours picking up pumice and carrying water to newly planted trees to help develop a Golf Course on the pumice-based land that was then known as the Flaxmere Golf Course. In 2017 and 2018 enthusiastic members re-laid greens and assisted the redevelopment with tree planting raking new fairway and tee areas and providing many hours of voluntary labour.
Today the course looks magnificent, with wide, tree-lined, N.Z. browntop and fescue fairways and large Pencross greens. Hawkes Bay Golf Club was among the first in the country to use this cultivar for all 18 holes.