Young Arrowtown golfer to pit skills against men

Otago's Shani Arona in action in her match against Southland's Katrina Manaena during the third round of the 2009 Toro New Zealand Women's Interprovincial golf tournament at the Grange Golf Club, Auckland, earlier this month. Photo by The New Zealand Herald.

Teenage Arrowtown golfer Shani Arona, who has dominated Southern Lakes and Otago women's competitions this year, is to tackle the men this weekend.

Arona (17), a Wakatipu High School pupil, will contest the Shirley Open in Christchurch, which is part of the Charles Tour, starting on Friday.

"It'll be a good experience playing the men. I've played a few tournaments with guys but that was just school tournaments," she told the Queenstown Times yesterday.

Arona last week won the Otago Champion of Champions at Arrowtown with a course record-equalling 72.

"I'm just stoked about [the win], but I'm focused on the next tournament.

"My goal was to win all these tournaments when I found out about them. From then on, I focused on winning."

The first golfer to win both the Queenstown and Arrowtown ladies club championships, Arona began playing the game when she was 12.

"My dad took me out with my younger brother Tevin to Templeton Golf Club, in Christchurch. There were heaps of girls there who were into it.

"Templeton was my home club, but I didn't have any competitions until Arrowtown in 2007."

Father Tai Arona said the family could tell Shani was going to be a natural at golf, especially with the benefits of her strength and height.

Arona practises her short game, irons and putting for three hours a day at the Jacks Point golf course, where she is coached by John Griffin, and also plays twice a week.

She counts driving as one of her strengths and is happy with her distance and accuracy, but wants to practise her short game in an effort to have more opportunities for birdies.

Arona counts teenage American golfer Michelle Wie as an influence in terms of confidence and her attitude towards the game.

She was looking forward to taking part in the Southern Institute of Technology's new high-performance golf course, in Queenstown between March and November next year.

Students study sports theory, nutrition and sports psychology in the morning and spend the afternoons being coached by professional golf coach and Kelvin Heights PGA vice-president Jamie McIsaac.

SHANI ARONA

Handicap: 1.6
Wins include:
> Otago Champion of Champions 2009
> Central Otago Championship 2009
> Infinity Ladies 36-hole Championship 2009
> Wanaka Ladies Open
> Queenstown Ladies Club Championship 2009
> Arrowtown Ladies Club Championship 2009
> Arrowtown Jubilee Cup 2009

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