From fairway to face masks - Taupō golfer Wilson's booming business

Wilson Simmonds, 15, making face masks at the family dining room table with his mother Philippa (centre) and grandmother Nan (in blue). Photo / Supplied

A top young Taupō golfer has come up with an innovative way to raise money to pursue his sport - by making reusable face masks.

And the whānau of Wilson Simmonds, always his biggest supporters, have swung in behind the fundraising drive too, giving up hours of their own free time to help him fill orders.

Tauhara College student Wilson, 15, is a top junior golfer of Ngāti Tūwharetoa descent who is currently on a two handicap and is one of the top under-16 golfers in New Zealand. His long term goal is to win a golf scholarship to a United States college and compete on the PGA Tour.

The snag to this plan is that golf can be expensive once you add in tournament fees, equipment, travel and accommodation on top.

Wilson already has a part-time job which he juggles with school work and golf practice, but when his mother Philippa, a fashion technology teacher at Taupō-nui-a-Tia College brought home a face mask that her class was making, they hit on the idea of making and selling reusable two-layer face masks.

Wilson advertised them on his Facebook page and word soon spread. He admits he was taken by surprise by the amount of demand for the products.

"I had a goal to make $1000 and she [his mother] thought that was crazy, but we've done far more than that."

Wilson estimates that so far 300 masks have been produced, with 150 of them alone going to Kia Aroha College in Auckland, which ordered them online.

That one big order not only helped boost Wilson's fundraising goal, it also had some unexpected spinoffs. The first was that his aunties and cousins pitched in to help the family - Wilson, mum Philippa, dad Jay Jay and his grandmother Nan - produce the masks over a five-day period. The second was that during a late-night sewing session working on the masks, Nan was with the family at their house when hers, located just behind theirs, caught fire and was largely destroyed. The whānau are thankful for the mask project, saying without it, Nan would have been at her own home and might not be alive today.

Wilson's masks come in two sizes, medium and large, although the family can also produce children's ones on request. There are a variety of patterns, with the black and camo ones proving popular with the blokes, and the colourful and flowery patterns with the ladies.

"We've also found some new elastic that's really soft on your ears and really comfortable and it fits a couple of different size heads."

Wilson posts new pictures of the patterns he has on his Facebook page and he also says when he is wearing his own face mask in town people will ask him where he got it and sometimes even buy them.

"I always have some on me just in case people want them."

Young golfer Wilson Simmonds, 15, wearing a face mask he made himself from an old T-shirt. Photo / Supplied

Wilson and his whānau have been making the face masks for about four weeks and have modified the pattern, making the masks bigger which looks better and makes them more comfortable to wear. The family has an overlocker and a sewing machine and although everybody is capable of making a mask from scratch, they all specialise to speed up production. Wilson says although they are all much faster now than at the beginning, some parts can be fiddly.

"I do the top stitching because that's finishing it and making it really nice, so if it looks bad then that's my fault," Wilson says. "Dad generally sews them together and Mum does the same job and Nan will sew the elastic onto the masks. Me and my dad normally do the cutting out.

"It's all over the dining table so we have to clean it up every time we have lunch or dinner."

Making masks has kept Wilson busy. He practises his golf every day after school and then makes masks in the evening and on the weekends, with orders still rolling in.

"We can probably get 10 done a night sometimes, more or less depending on the orders."

The money being raised is all going towards Wilson's golf costs and he says with tournaments around New Zealand and even one in New Caledonia last year, it will all help.

"A set of golf clubs would cost $4000 or $5000... then there's travel fees, gas, accommodation and tournament fees."

Wilson doesn't have a coach at present but has been getting some coaching from Steve Jessup at Wairakei Golf + Sanctuary. While his long-term goal is to become a golf professional on the PGA tour, he's also enjoyed the opportunity the face masks have given him to set up his own small business.

"I enjoy it, it [business] is one of my favourite classes at school. I want to own my own business as well as doing golf, I want to have a back-up."

You can order a face mask by messaging Wilson at his Facebook page Wilson Simmonds.