The tributes to Julian Robertson that poured in after the North Carolina native passed away in late August at the age of 90 focused understandably on his successes running the Tiger Management hedge fund, which at its peak boasted some $22 billion in assets. They also touched on his mentoring of dozens of “Tiger cubs,” most of whom went on to run wildly profitable funds of their own, as well as his philanthropy, with Robertson giving away some $2 billion to charitable causes over his lifetime.
But for golfers, there was another reason to celebrate his time on earth. And that was for developing in New Zealand two of the finest seaside courses in the world – Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers – and complementing them with modest yet well-appointed lodges that felt both homey and luxurious. In doing so, Robertson helped make that stunningly beautiful country a must-visit for peripatetic players, while inspiring others to take similar leaps of faith. Such as Ric Kayne, the Los Angeles investor who nearly a decade ago had Tom Doak fashion a splendid links called Tara Iti among massive sand dunes some 60 miles north of Auckland – and who is currently adding two other courses to his collection in the same area, by Doak as well as Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
To aver that the game owes Robertson a big thank-you for those developments would be a gross understatement.
“The building of Kauri Cliffs and then Cape Kidnappers meant everything to the game here,” said Craig Heatley, one of New Zealand’s most successful businessmen and entrepreneurs and a longtime friend of Robertson. “Thanks to Julian, we became a world-class golf destination. He was the one who started it. He blazed the trail.”
Tall and fit, Robertson possessed a weakness for Saville Row suits, a love of skiing and golf and an interest in the fine arts, especially the works of major European painters from the 19th to mid-20thcentury. Author Sebastian Mallaby once described him as “a charmer in a Southern way and a networker in a New York way.” And Heatley lauded the man for his commitment to family, his passion for life and for “getting out of bed every morning with a positive attitude.”
Robertson had no intentions of getting into the golf business when he moved to New Zealand in 1978 with his wife, Josie, who pre-deceased him by 12 years, and two of their three sons, Spencer and Julian III, also known as Jay. Rather, he hoped to write the great American novel as he took a break from his work at the New York brokerage Kidder, Peabody, where he had been serving as a director of the firm as well as the head of its investment subsidiary. Alas, his literary project floundered, and Robertson eventually abandoned it, returning to the States – and the Big Apple. He then started Tiger, the appellation coming from his habit of calling people “Tiger” when he could not remember their names. He was 48 years old and had produced with Josie a third son, Alex.
But though Robertson had left New Zealand, he could not get that place out of his mind. He was enthralled with its natural beauty and unique geography as well as the value of money there and how far a dollar – whether U.S. or New Zealand – could go. So, in 1995, he purchased a working, 4,800-acre sheep farm on the east coast of that country’s North Island.
Showing a similarly keen eye when it came to the interior design of the lodges at both retreats was Robertson’s wife, Josie, and staying at those spots came to be regarded as just as rewarding an experience as playing the courses.
“I remember when Julian bought that property,” Heatley said. “It was not far from where I had some land of my own, and after reading reports about the transaction, I thought he perhaps paid too much. So, I rang him up, told him he might have been able to get the land cheaper and said I was happy to help him in any way I could in the future. Julian said that he appreciated the call but was fine with the deal because he could not have bought an apartment in New York City for what he paid for that property.”
That is where Robertson built Kauri Cliffs, and six years after that purchase, in 2001, the resort opened with a course designed by American David Harman and a routing that boasted sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean from 15 holes. And six of those played along cliffs. Within a year of coming online, Kauri Cliffs had rocketed up the top-100 lists of the major golf publications.
Then in 2004, Robertson opened the Doak-designed course at Cape Kidnappers. And that track, which was situated farther south on the North Island, by the Art Deco town of Napier and in the wine-rich Hawke’s Bay region, received even greater praise. Routed on part of a 6,500-acre sheep farm, with water in constant view and several holes running atop fingers of land that could induce sensations of vertigo if one ventured too close to the edges, it was Cypress Point-scenic and the sort of layout golfers wanted to play again and again. Even if they had to travel 20 hours by plane to get there.
Showing a similarly keen eye when it came to the interior design of the lodges at both retreats was Robertson’s wife, Josie, and staying at those spots came to be regarded as just as rewarding an experience as playing the courses.
In later life – and at a ceremony presided over by then New Zealand Prime Minister John Key – Robertson became an honorary knight companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his many contributions to business and philanthropy.
The courses he constructed there are among his most enduring gifts.