NEW GOLF COURSE

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32561, 22 March 1971, Page 26

NEW GOLF COURSE

Official opening The chairman of the North Canterbury Catchment Board, Mr A. T. Bell (in photograph below), drove off from the No. 1 tee to open the new Coringa Club’s golf course at Harewood on Saturday morning. The 6698-yard course, which for championship events extends to 7039 yards, is on McLeans Island, an area made available by the board for recreational purposes in 1967 after the relocation of the Waimakariri stop-bank.

The course, which bore the look of a green oasis amid a sea of parched stubble, was an inviting sight to the large gathering of members and visitors who followed after Mr Bell in an opening day four-ball, best-ball tournament.

They would have been anxious to improve on Mr Bell’s “baptismal” drive which covered only about 100 yards of the 409-yard first hole. The drive also strayed from the fairway, but to the delight of all watching the ball just managed to scamper over a small mound before disappearing from sight. Earlier, the club’s president (Mr A. C. Norton) had outlined the circumstances surrounding the formation of the club in 1968 and detailed the work which had been undertaken from the time a temporary course came into use in June, 1969. There were still further developments to be carried out, the biggest being the building of a $lOO,OOO clubhouse complex.