Junior golf blossoming in Tasman district

Press, 29 June 1983, Page 26

Junior golf blossoming in Tasman district

By

BARRY SIMPSON

The work of two Nelson district golf professionals and more liberal attitudes by clubs have put new life in Tasman district junior golf. What was not too long ago a sickly infant whose parents were not overly concerned about their offspring’s welfare, is now a lusty child. It is no secret that some clubs in the Nelson-Marl-borough-West Coast region (the combination which produces the Tasman representative team) put a lot of hazards in the path of young people wanting to play serious golf. No doubt this attitude is not peculiar to Tasman. This all changed with the arrival of Murray Macklin, as the new professional at Greenacres, on Bests Island, near Richmond, and then Brian Watt, from Timaru, at Nelson. Even before both arrived, their known interest in junior golf preceded them, and those clubs which had hitherto accorded juniors a very lowly status on the club scene, quickly made amends. Within three yars of the arrival of the pair (Macklin in September, 1980 and Watt in July, 1981), the Tasman region now plays second fiddle to no other.

Macklin, the New Zealand Professional Golf Association’s director of junior coaching, arrived to find that the Greenacres club was already putting a lot of effort into junior coaching. In Debbie Randell, Peter Fox and Jerome O’Connor, he had a good foundation on which to build junior ranks. Miss Randell, although she has since departed Greenacres, is now known nationally as a New Zealand senior representative and Fox, a few weeks ago, won the Nelson provincial match-play title. Before that, he had represented Nelson district and was a Freyberg Rose Bowl player. A Greenacres 10-man side travels to Auckland tomorrow in a bid to wrest the Kelliher Trophy from an extremely strong Manukau club. Three of the side — Stephen Street, a two-handi-capper, Fox, on one, and Dean Chisnail, on three, are still members of the Nelson District Junior Golf Society. Two others would undoubtedly have made the side had they been available — Mark Berthelsen (two) and O’Connor (three) — and another, Daryl Davenport, narrowly

missed selection. Twice a year during the school vacations, Macklin holds in-house golfing seminars which are thoroughly enjoyed by the participants. For a week, the young golfers eat, sleep, and drink golf while in residence at Greenacres. During the same periods, Watt holds junior coaching seminars at the Nelson course. Watt, the New Zealand P.G.A. captain, a director of junior coaching, and an assistant director at schools run by the famed Sydney coach, Alex Mercer, had 80 youngsters attending the seminar during the last vacation. The interest shown by young golfers has been so great that future seminars may have to be broken into two segments. Watt, too, is receiving support from an enthusiastic club group. His two children, Andrea and Robert, are among the province’s top juniors, along with the Motueka juniors, Paul Bailey and Daryl Newport. Junior golfers in the Marlborough area have a much tougher row to hoe than their counterparts over the hill, yet junior golf in Marlborough — again through the changing attitude of clubs — is booming. Because there are no resident professionals in Marlborough, golfers rely on periodic visits by the Nelson or Wellington professionals and week-end trips to Nelson. The youngsters, through their own district junior society, are enthusiastic.

They arrange and make week-end trips to Canterbury clubs and shortly will make a week-end trip to Nelson. The top Marlborough junior is Elliot Boult, who was selected recently as one of New Zealand’s two-man team for the World Cup contest in England in September. He is 17. Others to the fore are Dexter Jukes, aged 18 (handicap three); Michael McDonald, 20, (handicap five); Wayne Bowie, 16, (handicap five); Mark Bridges, 20, (handicap six). The influence that both professionals have exerted on golf in a regional area not noted for its liberal attitude towards juniors, is exemplified in results. Last October, Tasihan area sides filled three of the five top placings in the Booth Shield contest, the nation’s premier inter-pro-vincial junior tournament. Nelson A was first, Marlborough second and Nelson B fifth. More recently, five of the top six placings in the South Island Boys’ championship were secured by Tasman players — Boult, first; Stuart Thompson (Hokitika), second; Chisnall (Nelson), third; Wayne Bowie (Marlborough), fourth and Robert Watt (Nelson), fifth. For so long, what was known as the “League of Nations” side — now Tasman — was looked upon byother competing provinces as a plum easily picked. Murray Macklin has prophesied that within a few years, Tasman sides, fortified from this junior revolution, will be a plum on which other provinces will choke.