Welcome Back!

We are really excited to preview the next event on the Summerset Charles Tour schedule with The Autex Muriwai Open taking place next week at Muriwai links. It was great to preview the event with Harry Middleton who is the Superintendent at Muriwai Links and Phil Tataurangi, the Consulting Architect. We chatted to both Harry and Phil about the ongoing changes at the site, the test it will provide the field, and much more.

We are proud to be presented by Power Turf NZ. Who are New Zealand's leading providers in Turf Care Equipment and Golf Carts. 

Check them out here: https://www.powerturf.co.nz/

Welcome back! It was a pleasure to visit 7 mile Beach recently and play the heavily anticipated South Course which opened for 18 hole play in December 2025. To start the episode Mitch and I give our thoughts on this phenomenal course and how it stacked up against our lofty expectations. For the bulk of the episode we talk to Will Kay who is the General Manager at 7 mile and he gave some awesome insight into the property, architecture and much more!

We are proud to be presented by Power Turf NZ. Who are New Zealand's leading providers in Turf Care Equipment and Golf Carts. 

Check them out here: https://www.powerturf.co.nz/

Hello and welcome back! It was a pleasure to sit down with Luke Toomey recently to discuss his return to professional golf at the Entelar Group Invitational in Taupo as part of the Cisco Series. Tooms will be joining the likes of of Josh Geary, Sam Jones and Kerry Mountcastle in the pro-am event across 2 days at Wairakei International and The Kinloch Club. It was great to hear Tooms' expectation for the event, some of his favourite holes across the 2 courses in addition to chatting through some of his recent visits including TPC Sawgrass and Pinehurst. 

On the back-end we will hear from Mark Jurgeleit, who is the founder and organiser of the series. Mark runs through the notables in the field, the structure behind the event in Taupo and more. 

We are proud to be presented by Power Turf NZ. Who are New Zealand's leading providers in Turf Care Equipment and Golf Carts. 

Check them out here: https://www.powerturf.co.nz/

Note that this episode is also available on our Youtube Channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@TheYBNZ

Welcome Back!

It was a pleasure to chat with Kazuma Kobori recently to chat about his career so far, including his NZPGA Championship win in 2019 and his 2023 Australian Amateur Victory. 

Kazuma gave great details on his early golfing life in North Canterbury and talked about life on the DP World Tour.

Note that this interview was recorded a few weeks ago - just Prior to the ISPS Handa event at RAGGC

We are proud to be presented by Power Turf NZ. Who are New Zealand's leading providers in Turf Care Equipment and Golf Carts. 

Check them out here: https://www.powerturf.co.nz/

Note that this episode is also available on our Youtube Channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@TheYBNZ

Hello and Welcome Back!

We are excited to announce we are working in association with Golf NZ to preview the 2026/27 Summerset Charles Tour season. The first event up is the Brian Green Property Group Super 6s at historic Manawatu GC. To preview the event we were joined by Dave Mangan from Golf NZ who is the GM of Championships and Golf Operations. Dave gave some great insight into unique Super 6s format, his thoughts on Manawatu GC as a tournament test, and we discussed the notable players in the field this week. 

Check out more here: https://www.golf.co.nz/summerset-charles-tour

We are proud to be presented by Power Turf NZ. Who are New Zealand's leading providers in Turf Care Equipment and Golf Carts. 

Check them out here: https://www.powerturf.co.nz/

Hello and Welcome Back! 

It was a pleasure to chat with Mike Cocking recently, who is a Director of golf architecture firm - OCM. OCM are behind the redevelopment of The Hills Golf Club near Arrowtown, which promises to be an amazing transformation of the existing layout. Mike spoke in depth on his thoughts of the existing layout, and some of the changes that they will look to make as work gets underway. On the back-end of the pod Mike gave his thoughts on many of his other projects with OCM and his thoughts on the golf courses he has played across NZ. 

We have a big announcement to make! We are thrilled to team up with Power Turf NZ who have signed on as our presenting sponsor.  Power Turf are New Zealand's leading supplier of Golf Carts and Turf Care, and we are very excited to elevate our content alongside them. 

Check them out here: 

https://www.powerturf.co.nz/

Welcome back! It was a pleasure to chat with Mark Hooker recently, who is the Director of Agronomy at Royal Auckland and The Grange GC. Mark gave some fantastic insight into his career, which includes positions all over the globe and how he ended up in his current position at RAGGC. Mark detailed the preparation for this weeks' ISPS Handa Japan Australasian Championship and listed some of his favourite holes across the 27 hole property.  

Welcome Back! It was a pleasure to sit down with Dylan Higgins recently to preview this week's NZPGA Championship at Paraparaumu Beach GC. Dylan is 16 months into the GM role and gave plenty of great insight about how PBGC has come to host the event, and how he believes one of the great courses of New Zealand will provide a championship test to the players this week. I'd encourage anyone in the area to get there this week, and look forward to continuing the strong tournament run of golf around the country, 

Welcome Back! It was awesome to sit down and chat with Dylan Lindstrom recently, who is the GM of Royal Wellington Golf Club. Royal Wellington is the host of this weeks' Asia Pacific Women's Amateur Championship alongside the R&A. The event promises to be a fantastic spectacle and a big boost for golf in the Wellington Region. Dylan chatted about all that goes on behind the scenes to host an event of this stature, the amazing support of the members and volunteers and some score predictions and field previews for the event. 

Check out more about the event:

https://www.randa.org/championships/womens-amateur-asia-pacific-championship

Enjoy 

Welcome Back! It was a pleasure to have Matt Wallbank back on the pod this week to debrief the top100golfcourses.com New Zealand top 50 ranking. Matt and I were both on the panel for this list, so were able to share our thoughts on the final rankings, and how the criteria for this list differs from others. Most importantly I feel it highlights the increasing depth and variety on offer for those playing golf in NZ. 

Check out Matt's website as the Kiwi Caddy here:

https://www.thekiwicaddy.com

Check out the list here 

https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-courses/oceania/new-zealand