Long service comes to an end
IT has been a long innings but Alastair Hinsley is moving on.
Every sport needs volunteers and with experience they become even more valuable at governance level.
Hinsley epitomises that philosophy but after 25 years on the Golf Otago board he feels now is the right time for fresh blood as he stands down.
In timely fashion, Hinsley’s services were acknowledged earlier this month at the Golf Otago annual meeting being made a life member of the province’s governing body.
Hinsley (65) developed a passion for the game in his teens, not as a player but as a caddy for 1971 New Zealand Open runnerup Maurice Bembridge at Balmacewen, where Peter Thompson took the spoils.
From there he joined Chisholm Links in 1987, where he spent many years as a key figure at the club including club captain and match and junior convener when his children took up the game.
He was an active pennant player throughout the Junior A and Senior B grades, which led to his passion for helping organise pennant series across all grades and also helping run tournaments including starting duties from local amateur events to the New Zealand Open at The Hills.
He joined the Metropolitan Golf Association in the 1990s, which eventually led to a position on the Golf Otago board where he served as president for both Metro and Golf Otago associations.
The introduction of a couple of new competitions had been a highlight.
‘‘Back in 2005, we introduced the Challenge Shield within the Metropolitan association of up to eight players with clubs challenging each other with each club allotted months,’’ he said.
‘‘Also the introduction of the Presidents grade pennants (2 players from each grade) on the Golf Otago board.’’
As with all politics in sport, golf had faced its challenges prior to the postCovid19 resurgence a number of clubs were seeing.
Dwindling membership numbers had required an openminded governance and, contrary to ideas about enticing youth into the game, Hinsley thought there was a target market at the other end of the scale.
‘‘I see the target market as the people out there that are retiring, also parents who have children that have left home or looking for a sport to new make new friends or walk and exercise at the same time.’’
Hinsley had no regrets, despite in hindsight suggesting things could always have been done differently, but indicated the game in Otago was in good stead.
The Otago senior men’s team was a model of consistency with four runnerup tags in six years, illustrating the strength of the metropolitan Senior A series as a key contributor to the success.
He now planned to spend even more time on the golf course to hopefully add to his hole in one cabinet which sits at four and play in the Veterans pennants while still remaining an active representative for Chisholm Links on the Metropolitan committee.