Pro golfers tame our greens with their power games
The Aussie and Kiwi professionals were blasting the balls huge distances we weren't accustomed to.
Those of us rubber-necking at the NZPGA Championship at the Manawatu Golf Club last week had to watch our backs from new vantage points.
Fortunately the trees on the leafy course mostly provided refuge from the salvoes off the tees. The Aussie and Kiwi professionals were blasting the balls huge distances we weren’t accustomed to.
Experienced Perth-domiciled Kiwi pro Michael Long said while the young players were cannoning the ball out of sight with their drivers, he predicted most of them wouldn’t last into seniors golf in their 50s. It’s hard not to agree, with all the gym work they do contorting and building their bodies. He cited Tiger Woods, Jason Day and Rory Mciroy – with his popped ribs – as players whose bodies are falling to bits.
My Sport Manawatu pro-am partner Jarryd Felton, from Perth, was a lean, young lad, hardly in the burly bracket. But he was comfortably belting irons into the par 5s with his second shots and he hit a mere 8-iron into the 439-metre 15th. Oh, and he won the tournament. Sir Bob Charles and Grant Waite agreed club golfers should be having fun by being able to hit 8 irons into greens. Hokowhitu has an array of coloured tee blocks for that very purpose, even if not all members are keen on them.
But veterans Charles and Waite urged everyone to use forward tees and not to stretch our courses to crazy lengths just to suit the professionals. Charles, by the way, was asked why his skin appeared so youthful at the age of 80 and he said after a melanoma scare years ago, he daubs himself with sunscreen every day. He had gone 12 shots under his age at Jack’s Point, Queenstown, recently, from favourable tees.
Waite, by the way, proved to be an outstandingly fluent speaker and while he will have fewer starts on the US Champions Tour this year because of his 2016 finish, he could supplement it on the speaking circuit or as a coaching analyst.
Sport Manawatu’s Trevor Shailer, not one to let an opportunity go by, was so impressed by Waite at the tourney dinner he pursued him around the course in the Friday round until he persuaded Waite and wife Lea to attend the Manawatu Sports Awards. Hamish Mckay’s interview with Waite proved to be the night highlight, virtually unplanned and off the cuff.
Meanwhile, the galleries for the tournament were the biggest since young Charles won the NZ Open at Hoko 44 years ago. The trees have grown since then. The Aussie professionals praised the course and found it tighter and greener than they are accustomed to, the rough longer thanks to our ‘‘summer’’ and the greens smaller, even if they are the biggest in our district.
Many times players solemnly trekked back to tees to reload after losing balls up trees, something which seldom happens with the Aussie eucalypti. Michael Long was cruising at 3-under only to have trees gobble two balls and he was not amused to miss the cut.
Kiwi frontrunner Shaun Jones had his victory hopes scuttled on Sunday when a Norfolk Pine on the 14th snaffled his ball. The tournament came late to Manawatu only three months out after Auckland city tourism money was diverted to the $5 million cost of staging the Lydia Ko LPGA event there in September.
Mayor Grant Smith isn’t slow to let dandelions grow under his toes when he spies a sporting chance. The city and the PGA of New Zealand were the tournament’s major underwriters and good on them. They were shored up by other sponsors, such as Lawnmaster and Horizon Golf.
These events don’t come cheaply. They cost up to two to three times the prizemoney – $125,000, so do the maths – to run when add-ons like Aussie PGA sanction fees are included. It’s a burden for a club, but Manawatu won’t lose on it and don’t entirely rule out the NZPGA returning next year. Manawatu has a right of refusal after rescuing it this year, as long as all other parties come to the party. The PGA, though, want to rotate it around three provincial courses.
Joint venture a two-hangar race
It appears more city entrepreneurship will be required to get the Singapore Air Force F15 squadron based at Ohakea. Last week I pondered why their F15s didn’t fly at our recent air show. Turns out the prime purpose for the visit had been for the proposed joint venture.
It would be great to have jet fighters back in our skies, but another country is also keen to have them.
Pick him by George
It seems George Herrick Worker’s face doesn’t fit with the Black Caps selectors.
The Manawatu opening batsman has been a prolific scorer all season, but has received mixed messages from on high, even while the openers continually fail.