Calder not the typical competitor

Lauder Station farmer Becs Calder at home with one of her clubs she will be using in Auckland...
Lauder Station farmer Becs Calder at home with one of her clubs she will be using in Auckland next week. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Women's golf these days — it is all about teenagers, who live and breathe the game and have been playing since they were knee-high to a grasshopper.

Meet Becs Calder — farmer in the backblocks of Central Otago who has no coach and only started playing seriously when she was a mother of two teenagers.

Calder, who is a member of the Omakau club, has been selected for the Otago side which will play at the national provincial championships in Auckland next week.

Calder (48) began playing the game in 2004 when she joined the Omakau club but even then it was still not that often.

"When I first started out I was only playing once, say, every six weeks, as I had other things on. It has only been in the past couple of years when I was club captain that I have started to get my golf going," he said.

"I still only play once a week. Once I got some new clubs about five years ago. I like to play at the club and around other courses which makes it different and interesting."

Calder hits off a 6.3 handicap. She was a latecomer to the sport but that was not holding her back.

"I’ve always played sport when I was young. When I moved here to live there was not a lot else to do, so I took up golf."

Calder lives with husband Rob at Lauder Station, which is past Becks and on the road to St Bathans. The 1500ha property has gone through tenure review and the couple run sheep and beef on the sprawling property under the shadow of the Dunstan Range.

She does not have a coach and just plays as she goes.

"I just practise when I play any game. I did a chipping course as I have got three acres of garden and in lockdown I went round there, around and over trees, through gardens. But I haven’t got time to practise, really."

She also had a clothing line, Curvature, which she sold around Central Otago and further afield.

A mother to Charlotte (22), and Archie (19), who were both studying at Lincoln University, she is the best golfer in the family, though that is more or less by default.

"[Husband] Rob isn’t a golfer. He’s more a dog trialler — he’s had a go at golf but it wasn’t really his cup of tea."

She will play at No5 for the Otago team next week, leading the team out in the event, and making her debut at this level.

Considering two of her team-mates are still at school, one of them, Yoonae Jeong, at intermediate in Queenstown, Calder will have experience on her side — though the teenagers on the course next week at Akarana play so often, they may have actually played more golf than her in their short lives.

"I’m going to be a bit nervous but I played in Ashburton in the South Island and enjoyed that. You get used to it, playing with young people. They play golf all the time. That is what they do."

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