{"id":67099,"date":"2025-08-14T07:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T07:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/67099\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T07:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T07:42:08","slug":"dame-lydia-ko-supporting-alternate-community-flood-plan-to-save-takapuna-golf-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/67099\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Lydia Ko supporting alternate community flood plan to save Takapuna Golf Course"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ko, the defending Olympic gold medallist and LPGA hall of famer, said she spent a lot of her junior golfing years at the course.<\/p>\n

\"KiwiKiwi golfer Lydia Ko is joining the call for Takapuna Golf Course to be preserved for future generations. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cTakapuna Golf Course is a wonderful place friends and families can enjoy and learn golf together.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a golfer, I believe we must preserve this precious asset we are fortunate to have today, so that future generations can enjoy it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world No 3-ranked female golfer said she fully supports the course\u2019s current management team, who were proposing a plan that addresses flooding issues and protects the public asset.<\/p>\n

The North Shore suburb of Milford was one of the worst-affected parts of the city during the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods.<\/p>\n

Two young men died<\/a> during the floods in neighbouring Wairau Valley. The Takapuna Golf Club sits between the largely industrial suburb and Milford.<\/p>\n

The Shoal Bay Solution claims it is estimated to cost about $2 million less than the council\u2019s Healthy Waters stage one solution, but would maintain a revenue stream and reduce ongoing operational costs for council and ratepayers.<\/p>\n

\"ArtistArtist impression of the wetland proposed by the council for AF Thomas Park on the North Shore, currently the home of the Takapuna Golf Club. Photo \/ Auckland Council<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Healthy Waters option is effectively a scorched-earth policy for the entire golf course with virtually every tree and existing stream ecology destroyed, to make way for wholesale excavation and retention of the diggings on site,\u201d a website advocating for the Shoal Bay Solution reads.<\/p>\n

It said its solution provides strong flood protection for the community that could be built in months, not years.<\/p>\n

In June, Kiwi golfer Ryan Fox said the loss of Takapuna Golf Club would \u201csignificantly damage\u201d the recreational side of golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facility provides a great service to the game of golf in New Zealand, allowing numerous recreational golfers \u2013 both adults and kids \u2013 to get into the game at a very reasonable cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so important, as it opens the game up to people who in many other countries would be excluded from the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old said he had played there many times with friends and practised at the driving range while trying to make it to the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we lose this asset, it would significantly damage the recreational side of the game. Keep Takapuna Golf Course, please.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin Plummer<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers sport and breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ko, the defending Olympic gold medallist and LPGA hall of famer, said she spent a lot of her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[53382,1769,64,46190,63,5214,9662,53378,21814,35216,755,38940,16487,8835,53380,53379,47,1779,53385,26945,46953,85,22410,53381,53383,319,53384,33088],"class_list":["post-67099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-alternate","tag-alternative","tag-au","tag-aucklands","tag-australia","tag-community","tag-course","tag-dame","tag-fame","tag-flood","tag-golf","tag-golfer","tag-hall","tag-kiwi","tag-ko","tag-lydia","tag-north","tag-plan","tag-resolve","tag-save","tag-shore","tag-sports","tag-support","tag-supporting","tag-takapuna","tag-to","tag-voiced","tag-vulnerability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}