A bouquet should be given to the Tinwald Golf Club after it successfully staged the South Island age-group championships in Ashburton last week.
The organisation, catering and presentation of the course were first class for the field of almost 100 youngsters competing in the South Island's premier age-group event.
In sharp contrast, the performance of New Zealand Golf was well below par - palming off all of the tasks on to the hosting club.
It is almost 25 years since the Tinwald Club last staged the South Island teams' event.
The club received little assistance from New Zealand Golf and one of the club administrators remarked that there should be a manual, as the event moves from club to club each year.
To add insult to injury, the inept performance continued when, for the second year in a row, the medals failed to arrive for the prizegiving, leaving the winners deflated and the organisers embarrassed.
They had to leave their addresses with Canterbury administrator Rachel Thow, so medals can be posted when they arrive.
For an organisation that tours the country touting the virtues of its high performance programme, the lack of input into last week's event was unacceptable.
The corporate juggernaut has a staff of more than 20 on the payroll but cannot nominate one person to ensure that the South Island's premier junior event gets the support it deserves.
The national body gobbles up levy money from all affiliated members but seems to care only about the New Zealand Open, Charles Tour events and the top echelon of amateur golfers. A lack of funding has left many provincial bodies struggling to meet their commitments and Otago's selected players are making a contribution to the cost of representative fixtures.
New Zealand Golf should take stock and realise that the top amateur golfers come from events like the South Island event at Tinwald last week.
It only had to look at the efforts of 15-year-old Hiroki Miy, from Canterbury. He showed what high performance is all about, scoring 66 and 67 to be 11 under par after two rounds.
An increasing number of youngsters are eyeing golf scholarships in the United States rather than opting for any pathway provided in New Zealand.
With the lack of presence in Ashburton and the carefree attitude to the prizegiving, this number is likely to increase.
