Category: News

Decided to play this event as the winners get entry into a couple of tournaments in the USA. Played the Te Puke GC. Tight fairways and hard fast greens. Shot 1 under my first round. Few dumb boogies but a hole out eagle from 115m into the 10th helped my round. Round 2, I wanted to put a round together I could be proud of. Played some good golf and finished 3 under. 4 under total. Took the win – Happy days. Qualified for the Sean Foley world’s in Las Vegas 2023 and hopefully gain entry into the IMG world’s at Torrey Pines.

I was selected to represent NZ so great to play as part of the NZ squad. Played Cypris lakes golf course just out of Sydney. Good tough challenging course. Had a great first 2 rounds shooting back to back 68s. Bit of a hiccup with the third round with a 73 but still had the lead by 1 shot going into the last round.

The flat stick wasn’t working on the front 9 but considering, even par was acceptable. A couple of bad tee shots found the OOB and I was playing catch up. Tried pushing too hard which didn’t work out for me. Really gutted with my day. Probably the worst I’ve ever felt after a round of golf. I won the 16yrs division and represented NZ for the first time. Very proud to wear the silver fern. It hurts but I’ll learn from it and be stronger for it.

I had shot 75 and 71 on the opening two days to be four-over, and knew it would be a tall ask to catch the leader. I got off to a slow start, too, playing his opening three holes in one-over. But then I found my groove, making three birdies on the trot from the fourth, and would make the turn in a couple under. With the leader Liu shooting one-over in his opening nine, I had cut the lead to two.

After making seven pars in a row, followed by a birdie on the 17th, now I had taken sole possession of the lead and stood on the final hole four shots in front.

Packed full of adrenaline, blasted my second shot to the par 5 final hole over the green and out of bounds, leaving the door slightly ajar for Liu. However, I kept my composure, hitting my fourth shot short of the green, where I was able to make up and down to save bogey and win by three.

It felt great to come from behind and win a national title. “I’m really stoked. It was a tough fight out there; I really had to work for it, but it was awesome. I just wanted to hit 18 greens; that’s all I was working on. If I’m hitting lots of greens, it minimises the chance of making bogeys, so that was a big part of the game plan today.”

My heart rate increased after hitting his second shot on the last hole out of bounds, but was happy with a final round of 69. “That was tough. My heart was in my mouth for a second there. Thankfully, I hit my provisional short, so I could chip it up to the hole and hole the putt. I’m smiling.”

We got a good field for the Napier Golf Club main tournament for the year including NZ no 1 amateur Joshua Bai and Jayden Ford among others. Weather was good and the course was in great shape. I shot two opening 69’s to be leading Joshua Bai by 5 shots going into the last round.

Joshua fired 6 birdies in the front nine holes to my 2 birdies and 2 bogeys. I birdied the last hole to tie Joshua after 54 holes. Playoff. We teed off on the 18th and my ball stuck up a tree only 30 meters out from the green so playoff lost and I finished 2nd. Not a bad results and I would have taken it at the start of the weekend but not the way I wanted to finish the tournament.

Rocked up to my Tuesday lesson @ Andrew Henare Golf and these bad boys were waiting for me. WOW!!! I was speechless. I didn’t have a clue I was getting these. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a new set of irons. Yeah Boi.

What’s in the bag…
Titleist 690mb irons. 3-PW
Titleist SM9 wedges. 52, 56 and 60.
Titleist TS3 driver, XS shaft
Titleist TS3 3wood.