Masterton Golf Club professional Jonti Philipson was "pretty stuffed" after completing more than eight rounds at the undulating Lansdowne course on Tuesday.
Philipson called it a day after
the 154th hole in what was a novel fund raising effort to help him in his attempt to qualifying to play on the Asian
tour next month.
It was a huge effort by the 22-year-old who was born in Norway with a Kiwi mother and German father and received his early schooling at Greytown Primary School before moving to Nelson where he became a greenkeeper at the Greenacres club.
That led to him signing up for the PGTA Training Apprentice. Programnme, the last two years of which he has completed at Lansdowne.
Philipson had played 153 holes in one day on a previous occasion and his original plan was to play nine full rounds, or 162 holes, on Tuesday.
But the tiredness in his legs was such that after setting a personal best the thought of tackling the hills of the remaining eight holes one more time was enough for him to say no more.
"The legs were shot, those hills were starting to look like mountains," he said.
"I simply didn't have the energy to go on."
Remarkably, the exhaustion which befell Philipson as the day wore on seemed to have little, or no, effect on his standard of play.
He was 17 under par for the 154 holes he completed and he carded in the high 60s for the last five completed rounds.
His best score for any one round was 66.
Philipson said his consistent scoring had boosted his confidence leading into his efforts to qualify for the 2009 Asian tour at St Andrew's Rayong, a golf complex some 90 minutes out of Bangkok in Thailand.
From January 6 to 20 he will be among 500 other young golfers seeking the same reward, only 40 of which will eventually make the grade.
Also delighting Philipson was the support he received from the local sporting fraternity for Tuesday's effort with close to $5000 being raised.
"Quite honestly, I'm still overwhelmed at the generosity of Wairarapa people & I can't thank them enough," he said.
