Sungwoo Han (13), of Queenstown, plays from the bunker
during his round on The Hills course in Arrowtown
yesterday. Photo by Craig Baxter.
Some of Otago's budding stars of the future had the time
of their lives yesterday when they got to play nine holes at
The Hills.
And one or two even upstaged their more illustrious
professional partners, including diminutive Queenstown
teenager Sungwoo Han, who birdied the tough, uphill par-5
ninth while Josh Geary had to settled for a bogey 6.
Han (13), who plays off a 7.7 handicap at the Queenstown Golf
Club's Kelvin Heights course, hit his approach to within
about 2m and then slotted a tricky downhill putt, much to
Geary's delight.
The event, known as the New Zealand Golf junior challenge,
was held for the first time as part of the New Zealand Open,
and resulted in 24 of Otago's most promising young golfers
accompanying eight New Zealand professionals play a team
stableford event.
The youngsters were all under 16 and had handicaps ranging
from 2 to 20.
Professional Grant Waite was full of praise for the concept.
"It's great. I wish they had such a thing when I was a kid.
"It was very enjoyable and my kids were great; well behaved
and good little players, too."
The winning team, with 45 points, was Phil Tataurangi's group
from Chisholm Park, Dunedin - Cody McMullan, Conor Jamieson
and Hamish Calder - which edged out Richard Lee's team of
Thomas Griffin, Sam Doran and Kade Broderick, from St Clair,
and Brad Iles' group of Laura Hoskin, Ryan Western and Noah
Van der Geest, from Arrowtown, with 44 points.
Other professionals to take part were Steve Alker, Doug Batty
and Gareth Paddison.
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