Golf: Juniors tee off in national initiative

The Junior Tiger Tournament held at Whangarei's Mt Denby Golf Course featured some impressive golf, despite wet weather.

Pre-tournament games were abandoned because of showers, but the tournament proceeded. More than 20 novice golfers, some who had never played before, braved the rain to play three, six, or nine holes on the newly mapped-out Kiwi Course.

The tournament was an initiative of New Zealand Golf to encourage younger players to get into the game - tees are set up at 90m, 135m and 180m markers with the par for each hole remaining the same as the normal course.

Bay of Islands Kerikeri, Whangaroa and Whangarei Golf Clubs have all installed the Kiwi Course. The Pines and Waipu Golf Clubs are also close to establishing theirs.

First place-getters in the novice division were Kasey Wynyard (three holes), Kendal Wyatt-Logan (six holes) and Hayden Jones (nine holes). Golf Distributors donated a set of clubs as a lucky draw in the novice division and this was won by 10-year-old Maria Ripley.

Thirty players who are members of golf clubs throughout the North contested the four divisions of the tournament playing the back nine of the course. The 12-14 boys' division saw some close scores from the talented pool of players - six boys were on single figure handicaps.

Northland's Jackson Arkle won the medal in this division but he is unable to play in the final as he will be contesting the Asia-Pacific World Schools Golf Challenge in Melbourne with the Whangarei Boys High School team. Taylor Gill (Bay of Islands Kerikeri) who was placed second, will go instead.

The girls' 12-14 division resulted in a sudden death playoff between two of Northland's talented youngsters - Shanice Croft-Kemp (Whangarei) and Brooke Kingi (Whangaroa) with Kingi coming out the winner. Joining Kingi at the national finals will be another Whangaroa player - Bradley Foster, who took out the boys' under-11 division. The fourth player to go to Manawatu for the final on April 15 is Belinda May, who gave up golf to follow other sporting interests, perhaps this win may see her return to the fold. The overall winner of the national final will be off to Disneyland with a parent or caregiver.

Even though the weather was not kind, Whangarei Golf Club members came out in force to help at the event, under the capable supervision of junior convenor Wiremu Neho and club manager Edward Irving. All players registered to go into a draw for a further trip to Disneyland to be drawn at the national final.