ROYAL WELLINGTON

Dating back to 1895, Royal Wellington Golf Club relocated to its current site, a few miles to the north of the capital alongside the beautiful Hutt River, in 1908.

- Rob Smith

It has hosted the New Zealand Open seven times and in 2004 became the first club in the country to be awarded Royal patronage.

Despite being highly rated, it was generally felt that the course didn’t quite live up to its potential. As a result,there was a long-term upgrade project overseen by Turner Macpherson Golf Design, which officially debuted in 2014. There are now 27 holes - the 18-hole Heretaunga championship course and the Terrace nine.

The lush main course offers a terrific mix of the old and the new over an ever-changing landscape. Many holes run through mature trees and all manner of exotic flora. The bunkering throughout is visually striking and each of the four par 3s is excellent and different from the others.

One of the most distinctive features is the course’s undulating greens. This is especially the case at the par-3 8th, where there’s a ‘valley of sin’ between front and back. From every perspective, this is a fabulous place to play golf.

Well folks, by the time you read this, you'll know who came out on top at The Masters, and I'm sure it will have been riveting as always. But for this column, I want to talk about a young man from Australia who made me very happy by winning the Houston Open a couple of weeks before the showdown at Augusta.

Min Woo Lee was attracting a lot of attention - a result of his obvious talent, his social media presence and appearing on Netflix's Full Swing - but he hadn't got over the line on the PGA Tour and I was starting to wonder if he'd live up to the hype. I'm thrilled to say I was wrong about my countryman.