Sir Michael Hill - For The Love Of Golf
On a warm afternoon in Arrowtown in the South Island of New Zealand, I’m seated at the kitchen table of one of Touch of Spice’s most exclusive luxury holiday homes – Lodge at the Hills. Set on the fringe of its own golf course - The Hills, Lodge at The Hills is a property that pays homage to art, music, the ever changing mountain landscape and feels a world away from anywhere while just minutes from central Arrowtown.
While visiting Lodge at The Hills, our Touch of Spice property manager Lyndal Devery and owner Lady Christine - talented artist and jewellery designer (who is also married to business entrepreneur and golf enthusiast Sir Michael Hill) are having a natter as they hunt through the many kitchen drawers, looking for one of Lady Christine’s most prized saucepans.
I’d tagged along to this visit as I’d been wanting to chat to Lady Christine about her extensive art collection in the house. It was while we were chatting that I also mentioned that with the NZ Golf Open coming up in Queenstown, it would be great to chat to Sir Michael Hill about where his love of golf began.
So I asked Lady Christine if she thought SMH would be open to an interview to which she replied (in her most wonderfully matter-of-fact self) “you can ask him yourself, he’s pulling up the driveway now” (coincidentally after a round of golf). She added jovially, “if I were you I wouldn’t ask him how his game went”.
To my complete surprise when I asked Sir Michael about the article, he agreed and inclined to do it there and then. So we settled in with a coffee on his patio and Sir Michael told me his story of golf.
My first question naturally was to ask SMH where his love for golf began to which he replied:
“My mother and father were both golfers. It was my mother who was the better player of the two. My father would often lose his cool. I remember golf clubs were often flown into trees or ponds, and my mother, exasperated, would want to disown him at times”
SMH mused that he and Lady Christine often joked that playing golf together was a test of any relationship. We laughed as I threw in other couple of analogies of my own - including pitching a tent (an activity that frequently resulted in a some domestic banter with my husband).
Sir Michael’s appreciation for the perfection of the golf course started early in life. One of his earliest memories was as young boy, growing up in Whangarei, in the North Island of New Zealand where he fondly recalls constructing a golf course at home using Watties Baked Beans cans to mark each hole.
The game of golf stayed with Sir Michael’s throughout his life, until one day he acquired a 500-acre deer farm in Arrowtown in the South Island of New Zealand, where he built a first home, and then renovated a second home, now known as ‘Lodge at the Hills’.
Just for a bit of fun Sir Michael constructed a single golf hole out on the the back lawn of his house (no cans of baked beans this time).
A conversation with his chiropractor, who (like SMH) was on the board of Rally New Zealand, soon saw his single golf hole put forward as part of a celebrity golf tournament - helping to raise funds for charitable causes.
“We called it 'Hillbrook' then. All the celebrities would pay to play over at the local golf club - Millbrook, and then the winners would come to then 'Hillbrook' for a shoot-out. After the first year I developed a further 2 greens and this tournament went on for about 3 years”
The defining moment for SMH was when Mike Hosking called him up and said he was looking forward to coming down to play his “chip & putt” and SMH thought “that sounds a bit ordinary – a chip and putt, so I asked John Darby (infamous golf course designer) if he could build me a full-sized golf hole”
SMH continues.
“So we did that, among the rubble (at the time the farm was pretty run down). But once we put one hole down, it didn’t make sense, we needed another one to come back up (the green). So there we were, at 5 golf holes, and Darby pulled me to one side and said - why don’t you build a proper 18-hole golf course? Darby said "I could build you one for 4 million dollars if we don’t have any bunkers, and it will cost a mil for the irrigation, but I reckon we can do it”. And so we shook hands and I said - "done”
The next thing he knew Sir Michael Hill was off on an epic journey of golf course design. A project that started in 1997 was complete nearly 7 years later. With modest beginnings, The Hills golf course evolved in scale and proportion, eventually washing up circa 18 million, and in addition to this, was the signature clubhouse (The Hills), built two-thirds underground, that went on to win design and architecture awards on the world stage.
While on the subject of awards, SMH noted that The Hills has been rated in New Zealand of the best condition of any golf course, to which he comments:
“You can have the best of anything, but if you haven’t got the right people you’ve got nothing - the people are the most important”
In talking about how important people are to him, Sir Michael added proudly that The Hills Golf Course was constructed largely using friends and locals. The course-shaper was also the private landscaper for Lodge At The Hills - Roger Fleck . SMH added that <Roger> knew the land better than anyone and was therefore the natural person to lead the shaping of the grounds and all the planting.
With The Hills a grand success, if you thought SMH was done with golf courses, you’d be mistaken. A new 9-hole, Par 3 golf course called "The Farm" is already underway. The only of its kind in Australasia, the Par 3 course is being constructed on the 100 acres behind the 18th hole of The Hills.
The new course has this time been designed by Darius Oliver - a young Australian who Sir Michael notes that (according to Greg Turner) is “the best golf course designer in the world”.
SMH says (of Oliver)
“He makes a course look natural, like you’ve just walked out there and mowed a simple piece of land, but there is so much more to it than that”
SMH also adds that in Darius’ opinion, with everything going into the mix of this course, it could arguably be the most spectacular Par 3 course in the world.
With a vision to create a new course of comparison in calibre to that of the Augusta Masters, SMH hopes that 'The Farm' at The Hills will be ready for a preliminary event hosting VIP’s and past golfing legends in the lead up the 100th anniversary of the NZ Golf Open in 2019.
On a return visit to Lodge At The Hills, Lady Christine took me for a tour on her golf cart (my first time on a golf cart, and can attest that she is a superb driver) to show me how the new course was coming along.
With beautiful 360 degree views of mountain peaks and the crystal-clear natural spring of “the mill race” waterway running through the course, even while bunkers and greens were still in various stages of development and growth, you could really see the natural beauty in this new course. Lady Christine said the vision for The Farm is to be a more relaxed course for young and old, proclaiming “it will be a place for fun, and family."
Returning back to my chat with Sir Michael, we talked of more golf, and family and their gorgeous beloved dogs (Sneaker and Bindy). As we reached the end of my coffee and the interview SMH said:
“Well there’s short story into a long story really. My love for golf? Well, the game itself is something I can’t master - I don’t have a natural swing! My passion for golf is more in achieving something wonderful and always pushing the boundaries to challenge and improve the round of golf for those who play the course”
To all golf lovers – watch this space – The Hills 2019 is going to be a big year….
* The ISPS Handa New Zealand Open is hosted annually in Arrowtown, New Zealand. The finals alternate between Millbrook and The Hills courses. Next year is the 100th anniversary of the NZ Open and the finals will be hosted by The Hills.
** Lodge at the Hills is part of the Residence Collection managed by Touch of Spice.
*** Sir Michael Hill was interviewed by Emma Allen - Marketing Director for luxury stays, experiences and events company Touch of Spice, who exclusively represent LATH as one of the most premium lodge stays in New Zealand.