Waverley Golf Club was originally formed in 1903 and played on farmland sited closer to the town.

In 1964 the Club purchased 66 hectares from the Bremer Family on Ihupuku Road for 8,500 pounds after negotiations over a whiskey in the Clarendon Hotel. Paying off the mortgage was through a cattle grazing scheme, 40 cattle were purchased at the Fordell sale and fattened by club members.

The land was covered in lupins, ferns and gorse but it was sand with dunes and valleys created by the coastal winds.

Napier Golf Club professional Ernie Southerden was friends with Waverley committee member Norris Heginbotham and Ernie was asked to evaluate the land and subsequently hired to plan the course. Southerden was one of the country’s top golfers, winning the NZ PGA 3 times and he had learned the game on links courses in England. He also designed Waipawa in Hawke’s Bay and the Centennial course at Taupo Golf Club.

At Waverley, Southerden was taken on the back of a truck around the proposed site and from a step ladder he was able to see over the lupin down the valleys for fairways and greens. He thought a very interesting course could be developed and from this it was all go.

Waverley’s first 9 holes were opened in 1965 and it wasn’t until 1972 that the full 18 holes were completed as the work was undertaken by volunteers.

Ernie Southerden was made a life member of the Club and the par 3 5th hole is named after him.