Mini-golf for Mental Health Foundation in Napier

It's not quite the PGA, but it may as well be for happy-hooners John Middleton, Zac Roberts and Kyle Sutcliffe who have breezed through Hawke's Bay on an all-conquering tour of New Zealand's mini-golf courses.

Fundraising for the Mental Health Foundation, their Par Four tour started as a response to what Middleton said was one of the guy's feeling "a bit down" earlier in the year. It blossomed as they realised the impact the Covid-19 lockdown was having on people's wellbeing around the country.

At the Par2 course on the sunny Napier beachfront on Wednesday the medicine was clearly working. As Middleton wraps up the tough last hole with a two, he dances, grabs his phone, and says: "It's hard being this successful. Tiger Woods is calling me … I've got take this."

A slight misrepresentation, but who cares. His card of 49 for the 18-holes, including a hole-in-one, is almost double his age, the tour's Senior, at 25 years.

Sutcliffe, aged 24, gets four holes-in-one and cards 45. Roberts, 23, cards a 56 to trusted arbiter Sophie Gair, Roberts' cousin and who lives in Napier, as does Zac's dad, Reece Roberts.

Par2 comprises two courses on the Marine Parade site, possibly the home of mini-golf in New Zealand with history dating back more than 70 years. The course record is 30 on each of the courses.

It's a whirlwind mini-golf tour for John Middleton (left), Kyle Sutcliffe and Zac Roberts who're touring NZ to play and raise funds for the Mental Health Foundation. Photo / Warren Buckland

The Wednesday morning round was the 17th in the five days since Saturday's start in Auckland, the nominal current hometown for the trio, with bits of Mangawhai, New Plymouth and Motueka thrown in, along with Middleton's background in England.

With Golflands at Maungateretere and the Showgrounds' Sharpies course to follow, the trio was heading to Masterton, and hopefully more rounds in Wellington and a Friday morning ferry crossing. The target is 87 courses throughout the country in three weeks, from Kerikeri in the north to Te Anau in the south.

It was no problem getting time-off. Sutcliffe has "school" holidays and Middleton "does nothing", according to Roberts, who was the only one who had to make a choice.

"I said I need three weeks off, or I quit," he reckons. He seems to still have a job to go back to.

Among the more unique days was on a nudist course, where they played to the local rules and got their gears off.

Among the less memorable are the scores, the lowest seems to have been a 37, or 39, and Sutcliffe reckons it must be "close" as to who's on top overall.

Middleton does remember his best day. He reckons, as the teammates struggle to recall the event, that he has won once.

They've hired a van for the trip, but are not looking for anything to cover the costs. But they do urge a look at their Par Four Facebook page, which carries a link to the Mental Health Foundation website and the chance to donate to the cause.