New look coming: A redesign of Arrowtown’s The Hills private golf course is due to start next week. An Aussie golf course architect redesigning Arrowtown’s The Hills has taken a gentle swing at the championship course’s original layout — however, the original designer’s relatively unfazed. An initiative of The Hills’ new American partners, the reworking of the 18-hole private course, due to start next week, is the work of OCM Golf Design director Mike Cocking. In a recent podcast, he praises the playing experience, ‘‘but we felt the [golf course] architecture didn’t necessarily match the experience or the setting, so our aim is to try and elevate the architecture to something approaching the surrounding landscape’’. As to making The Hills’ bunkers more reflective of the rugged mountainscape, Darby says he did that at a similar time when designing Queenstown’s Jack’s Point course beneath the Remarkables mountain range.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 27, 2026 15:58 UTC