From fairways to flood waters
The past quarter century of Manawatu¯ Golf Club has been documented in great detail in a new book commemorating the club’s 125th anniversary.
Long-time golf writer and former Manawatu¯ Standard sports editor Peter Lampp has penned the weighty book Forever In Bounds: 125 years of the Manawatu¯ Golf Club, which has been four years in the making.
It was designed by Anthony Behrens as a coffee-table book.
The book is personalised and filled with interviews, making for an easy read and giving key people their say.
The book chronicles the club’s people, players, tournaments and big events from the past 25 years.
It covers recent controversies; the building of the new clubhouse, a proposal for a twin towers apartment complex in the car park, and equal playing rights for men and women.
The apartment idea never got off the ground and the current clubrooms were built in 2009.
The book’s title points to the club’s independence and its protection by stop banks – a key milestone for the course.
The 16th hole was previously exposed to Manawatu¯ River floods, but was moved to bring it inside the stopbank in 2012.
Extensive research went in to writing the book, including work to determine whether it is New Zealand’s oldest club on its original site.
To confirm this was the case required plenty of internet research, and phone calls and emails to clubs.
Chapters cover the biggest floods to hit the Hokowhitu course, the club’s interprovincial players, and life members.
Though the book was a record of the past 25 years, Lampp had to go back further than 1995 for many chapters to find material not previously used.