One man is dead after an early morning burglary led to a shoot out with police on a New Plymouth golf course.

The dead man has been named by police as Adam Te Rata Charles Morehu, 33, of Waitara.

Acting District Commander Inspector Mark Harrison says police were called to the golf course about 4am on Saturday after several alarms went off.

The incident began about 4am this morning when police were called to the New Plymouth Golf Club after the activation of multiple security alarms.

When officers arrived, they saw windows to the club house were smashed and two offenders were leaving the scene on a motorbike.

Harrison said the men crashed their bike on the golf course, and as they tried to flee a police dog caught up with one of the men.

"While I am not prepared to go into any further detail at this stage I can confirm that the offenders have crashed their bike on the golf course as they tried to leave and a police dog has been deployed and detained one of the offenders.

"An officer went to assist the dog with the first offender and during this time the second offender yelled threats and shot at the officers which led to police discharging a firearm."

Police spokeswoman Sara Stavropoulos confirmed the first offender was in police custody, but would not yet say whether he had been charged with anything.

Police could not yet say if the firearm used by the alleged offenders had been recovered at the scene or how many shots had been fired by the offenders and police.

Harrison said three separate investigations had been launched.

One investigation would focus on the incident and the actions of the offenders.

The second investigation would be an independent investigation into the actions of police, which was procedure when any person had been shot by police.

A third investigation had been launched to look into the general police policies and procedures, which Harrison said was also standard procedure in any police shooting

The golf course was cordoned off and a tent had been set up at the entrance to the course.

Six marked police cars, one unmarked police car and two fire engines are at the scene.

Harrison said the scene was likely to remain closed for a day or two, while police investigated.

Police would be taking full statements from witnesses over the coming days.