Maori golf champs attract largest field

Tu Tangata, Issue 18, 1 June 1984, Page 32

Maori golf champs attract largest field

By Hineani Melbourne

Despite a handicap limit on entries into the N.Z. Maori Golf Tournament this year, it was still the largest field ever with nearly 800 entrants.

The 1984 Maori Golf Tournament held in Rotorua saw three golf courses, Arikikapakapa, Springfield and Lake View in use throughout the five day competition.

The new Aotearoa maori champion was Paul Cadogan, a 17 year old player from Taumaranui. In the final day Paul played steadily to beat Mt Maunganui golfer Anthony Stockman, three and two.

Paul was two under par at the end of the game.

In the semi-finals in the morning Paul Cadogan played a magnificent game to overcome the challenge of Anzac Winterburn, seven and six, while An-

thony Stockman beat Vic Pirihi from Auckland two and one.

Polly King was again returned as women’s champion by coming out six/five against Maria Kirby. In the semifinals Polly King defeated Mary Taia five and three while Maria Kirby beat Awhina Parkinson five and four. The finals saw an exciting finish to the 1984 Maori Golf tournament in Rotorua. The 1985 Maori Golf Tournament is to be held in Masterton and it will be interesting to see further developments in this growing sport.

“Because Rotorua is so central we had to try and limit numbers, so we set what we thought was a tough limit with a handicap of 16 or under for men,” said Dereck Morrison, General Manager of the Maori Golfers Association. “But we still ended up with nearly 500 entries and there were over 200 women who had a handicap of 30 or better.”

An exciting development at this years tournament was the number of young players.

The youngest was Phillip Tataurangi. Aged 12 he has been playing golf for the last five years and entered the Maori Golf Tournament for the first time this year with the enviable handicap of nine. A student at Te Awamutu Intermediate he found the tournament exciting and learnt a lot from more experienced players. His father was also playing while Phillip’s mother caddied for him.

Another young player that came in for a lot of attention was 16 year old Martin Tumata with a 3 handicap. From Pukekawa, Martin had been playing for six years. He is the Auckland squad number two, won the Auckland Intercollegiate competitions twice, club champion in 1983 and is presently being coached by Alex Mercer.

While these young players augur well for the future of the sport it was also good to see older more experienced players returning.

Trevor Ormsby, a butcher by trade, returned to play for the first time in five or six years.

From Otorohanga, Trevor has won the N.Z. Maori Golfers championship

seven times. During the 1950’s and 60’s he was in the Waikato Freyburg Rose team, has been the Waitomo Club champ and the King Country champ for many years.

Trevor found a few changes since he’d last attended a tournament. “There’s a lot of younger players coming up. It’s really good. The people I used to play are now coming with their sons. But it’s getting big. With the women on one course and the men on another that changes the atmosphere too.”

Polly King of Auckland (from Onewhero originally) returned as reigning womens champion for the last two years. Although she found the tournament fun and interesting as usual, she was a bit disappointed that there were so few young women in the tournament.

‘‘Young women don’t seem to be attracted to the sport,” she said. “They’ve probably got too many distractions and perhaps a few hang ups too.”

Polly King herself has been involved in a wide variety of sports for many years, from stock car racing to coaching, in more recent years the Universities netball team.

“I decided to take up an individual sport as I was tired of team sports. And it came down to a choice between flying or golf. It looks like golf won.”