Golf: NZ Maori champ has pro dreams

LOOKING SHARP: Christian Walker is the newly-crowned New Zealand Maori Golf champion in the under-19 division. PHOTO/Duncan Brown

THE place was right (Golflands), I was on time (4.30pm) and all I had to do was spot Christian Walker.

The Karamu High School pupil should have been easy to zero in on because he was on duty to muster the balls from the driving range of the public golf course although a drizzle had set in and no spent fluorescent spheres were in sight to be retrieved.

A polite teenager with a curly mop of hair had earlier smiled at me and we had exchanged pleasantries but it couldn't possibly have been him because I was looking for the newly-crowned 2016 New Zealand Maori Under-19 golf champion.

As I stood there for a few seconds, again scanning the driving range, the strapping lad walked up to me and said: "Hi, I'm Christian Walker."

"Really? Please don't be offended but I was expecting to see a Maori boy. You must have some Maori?" I said apologetically.

Maintaining that infectious smile, Walker replied: "No, I'm not."

As it turns out, the 15-year-old said it didn't matter now because players didn't have to be Maori to compete in the tournament anymore.

"They used to say you have to be Maori to play in it but they have changed although I'm not sure when. They now let pakeha people and other nationalities into the tournament."

The four handicapper from Karamu Golf Club, which operates from Golflands, entered the nationals at the Taupo Golf Club last week on the nagging of fellow club member Des Rihia last year.

In his maiden entry, Walker clinched the title in a field of 11 on the par-72 course.

The year 11 pupil carded rounds of 79, 69, 75 and 74 (297) to beat Hastings Golf Club pair Dylan Bagley (300) and Cosmo Graham (304).

Bagley, 14, also is from Karamu High while Graham, 13, is a year 9 pupil from Lindisfarne College.

"The second day was windy so I don't how I played so well and not on day one when we had just a slight breeze," says the teenager, who collected more than a dozen birdies over the four days after teeing off on Monday last week.

The 1.9m golfer likes to think his long game is his forte but realises it means little without a decent chipping and putting base.

"My putting is good but it can be better. My long game probably helps me better so it's easier to get on the par 5s for two."

A couple of bad holes made his card blow out, for example, in the last round when he was even with four holes to go but hit an errant shot out of bounds.

His three wood is his favourite club so he's not shy to drop back to it every time his driver develops a mind of its own.

Des Rihia

Walker first bumped into Rihia, a former premier club cricketer and rugby player, about two years ago at the Golflands course when he had started working there after school.

"He told me one day to just come around and have a game so I did and got hooked into golf," says the righthander, who to his pleasant surprise discovered Rihia only lived a couple of houses away from him, along Grove Rd, Hastings.

Only 13 then, Rihia offered to give the then youngster a ride from home to the course and back and also played chauffeur to some tournaments.

"I remember when I first started I used to just try to smash the ball but Des told me to swing the clubs a little easier and connect with the ball with the middle of the club and it'll still go just as far."

Walker took that piece of advice to heart and his game flourished from there as straying off the fairways gradually became a thing of the past.

"He also taught me the basics, like how to grip the club and those sorts of things until it reached a point where he told me I needed to go to a professional."

The youngster did, booking sessions with former Sharpies Driving Range professional Andrew McNair, who he suspects now plies his trade in China.

On McNair's departure Walker continued to hone his skills with Napier Golf Club professional Andrew Henare, who he still consults.

Rihia, and other Karamu members Manuel Wilson and his talented 9-year-old son, Tuhourangi, who finished fourth in the U19s, were among the club contingent who competed in respective age-group grades.

For Tuhourangi his 315 (76, 76, 81, 82) was gobsmacking relative to his age.

"We all hired a house there and stayed there for about a week," said Walker, who had a practice round two Sundays ago before the start of the annual six-day tourney.

He finished on Thursday but watched the senior men compete on Friday. The boy who inherited the second-hand golf club set of his grandfather, the late Brian Gravestock, as his 10th birthday gift is undergoing a renaissance of sorts.

"I used the clubs he gave me but I didn't used to play that much," he says, satisfied to simply send a bucket of balls into orbit at driving ranges.

The recent victory has stoked the golfing fire so much that he yearns to turn professional.

No doubt, he isn't getting carried away and is mindful there's a lot of hard work and commitment required at an amateur level to realise his dreams.

"Now I've got that one tournament it drives me to want more," he says, receiving reinforcement from Rihia to use it as a stepping stone.

Walker has made the Bay academy for two years now but has his sights set on making a national academy with a title. His parents, Dianne and Mark Walker, are just happy he isn't getting into mischief in the streets.

"They are pretty proud of me for what I've done and they like it that I enjoy golf and Des is nice man who takes me to golf tournaments," he says of his father, who is a boner at Silver Ferns Farms, and mother who runs her lawnmowing business.

The amateur has found fame at Karamu High as well, suspecting assistant principal Wayne Wooster received a tip off from someone and shared it with others in the staff room.

"All the staff members are congratulating me on the win and it sort of spread through the school," says Walker, who received a trophy that he had to leave behind but brought back a plaque.

He proudly points out he has a sponsor, his father's cousin, Daryl Walsh, of Christchurch, to supplement his humble pocket money from working twice a week at the driving range.

"He used to sponsor a girl in motorbike racing but she pulled out to have a few years off so Daryl rang me and asked if I wanted the sponsorship."