HE MAY be three years older, but 15-year-old Komene Neho still struggles to beat his younger brother Kadin in golf. The pair of brothers were named for the second time in the Northland under-16 golf team last week for the weekend's match against North Harbour. Unfortunately for Komene, Kadin is the team'snumber-three while he is the number-four. "He's plays off a seven handicap, while I'm playing off 11, Komene said. "That means I'm always trying to catch him up." While Komene says it "sucks" to always be beaten by his brother, it's still good to have him around when they team up against other provincial teams. His brother developed into a better golfer because he spent more time on the golf course in the winter. "Normally during the winter I stop to play rugby. "Kadin used to as well, but then he broke his arm about three times, so he gave up the rugby and started playing golf full time," he said. Following his brother's example, Komene has switched to playing golf all year around and hopes to benefit from the move by shortening his handicap. The pair push each other hard while practicing and while they both performed pretty well on the weekend, it was tough going against North Harbour up at Sherwood Park. "When we play teams like North Harbour, they're always on three or five handicaps, so we have to practice heaps more to try and catch up to them or we need to have really good days," he said. On Saturday Kadin, like Northland number-one Brook Nathan, managed to halve their reserve singles match against North Harbour opponents, but that was the only score of the weekend. "They're all good players and although they didn't win much, they weren't too far off [the pace], it's not as if they were thrashed and with a bit more time they'll develop into better players," Northland team manager Roy Pelsky said. There may be less time for Komene than for Kadin, but the older sibling has his sights set on catching up with his upstart brother - it may all the motivation he needs.
