Golf was first played in New Plymouth in 1893, the New Plymouth Golf Club moving to its present home in 1913 and acquiring its current course in 1933 when CH Redhead helped the members redesign their existing holes.

Despite a stirring start, with the golf running down a hill and through mature bushland with the ocean audible in the distance, this track is very disappointing. Mostly the holes are dull and rudimentary, essentially arranged east and west across what feels a rural farmland. Only when the ocean is brought into view at the 13th and 14th does interest really pique. The 14th is an attractive par three that heads toward the water. Apart from this hole, the doglegging and rising 8th and the par three 6th are the only other half-decent holes on what is a very ordinary golf course.