In 1929 the late Mr. Malcolm Maclean who had been farming an area of land at Paraparaumu decided to subdivide part of his land that fronted on Paraparaumu Beach. He interested Mr. S. George Nathan in the project and the latter then formed a small syndicate, which included Mr. Stronach Paterson, Jack Francis, H.R. Chalmers and Mr. D.O. Whyte, to purchase the land as a speculation.
Some 200 acres of Beach Front was subdivided into seaside sections and the balance of 120 acres formed into an 18 hole golf course as an added attraction to buyers.
After all the sections had been sold Messrs. Paterson, Francis and Whyte decided to form a Club to take over the Golf Course from the syndicate and ensure the retention of the Golf Course which had become so much of a part of the life of the rapidly growing seaside resort. They succeeded in interesting sufficient golfing enthusiasts and the club was duly formed and incorporated.
The first general meeting of the Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club was held in 1949 on Saturday, February 12th at 7.30pm in the Majestic Hotel just across the road from the course. The main business of the meeting was to consider - and if thought fit adopt - a set of draft rules and to nominate the first officers of the new club.
The agenda for that meeting noted that the Debenture Issue had closed on January 31st, total subscriptions amounting to approximately £15,500 - ($31,000).
It was decided to redesign the course entirely and to lay out a modern first class championship course which would be fit to stage the most important golfing events. The club was fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Alex Russell of Melbourne, an ex Open Champion of Australia, who had already designed some of Melbourne's most famous courses, to design the layout. Mr Russell said as soon as he saw the country that it could provide one of the best courses in the world. Having approved the plans, and under the supervision of Mr Whyte, the course was constructed by Head Greenkeeper Jack Hunt and his staff and ready for opening in 1949. Three years later when he returned to inspect the work which had been done, Mr Russell expressed his complete satisfaction with the result.
In the years that proceeded, Paraparaumu Beach was to be famed as one of the finest links in the Southern Hemisphere and went on to host many of the country's leading golf tournaments including 12 New Zealand Opens. It has ranked as high as 71 by esteemed US Golf Magazine's world rankings of golf courses and has unquestionably become as its founders had hoped, a real asset to the game in New Zealand.