New Zealand Open Volunteer Bill Hunter finds a Spider?

An intriguing story from Bill Hunter a Mike Austin convert who lives in Wanaka. Bill was selected to be one of the volunteer marshalls at the recent New Zealand Open.

I did my time as a walker scorer at the Open and watched some great golf. In the final round a walked behind Matthew Millar who came 4th equal.

As a reward some of the volunteers got to play a round yesterday and it was brilliant. It’s an awesome course and after following the pros I thought it would be difficult to break 100. But things started to click and I managed 87 off the stick (including 41 off the difficult back nine). My handicap (15 at Wanaka) blew out to 19 at the Hills so that’s a net 68 for me (par is 72).

It’s a course that really makes you think about each shot in terms of your own abilities. If you over stretch yourself you will need a bucket of balls and a calculator to keep score.

We didn’t play off the back tees which meant many of us were driving to the same point on the fairways as the pros and had much the same 2nd shots to consider. Its one of the few courses which will punish an accurate long tee shot. Unless you club down you will end up in a fairway bunker at the apex(?) of a dogleg. There are 90 of them, many more like small beaches than the bunkers I’m used to.

At over 6000 metres long there are also lots of opportunities for fairway woods and long irons. I forgot to pack my 5 wood but as I grew up playing 3 and 5 irons so I love the chance to play them. But on most courses I play its usually high irons and wedges after a successful tee shot. There is nothing like the experience of dropping a 3 iron shot onto a green. Actually my eyesight has deteriorated to the point where I can barely see whether it’s dropped onto the green or not.

The greens are unreal. Most are elevated, bunked to the max, with ridges and undulations which have to be seen to be believed.

My playing partner followed a group of pros one of whom landed on the bottom tier of the 17th green. Before putting he walked up to stand behind the flag and look back at his ball. He then yelled back to his caddy that, even standing, up he couldn’t see his ball over the hump in the green. He didn’t make the putt.

If you look at the photo I even had an unusual opportunity to pull off a delofted iron shot hit off the back foot, from the “Trajectory and Curvature” chapter of Dan Shaugers second book. My tee shot bounced off some trees and ended up about 5 feet behind this giant metal cricket. If I hit one of the legs or shot anything higher than 5 feet I had a good chance of killing myself. It came off (just) but I must ask Michael next year whether it’s a free drop away from the art work.

Overall the setting, the course and the experience of playing it so extreme, that it really made me think about why I play golf? Rationally it might be just a $5 ball at stake, when you’ve taken your best shot and it comes off it feels as though you have cheated death.

“The Hills” provides more “thrills” on that score than any course I’ve ever played. It is a private course which means invitation only. Another fine golf course is Arrowtown which is just a couple of Km down the road.