Tournament Week 2024: Golf
Posted on September 26, 2024
Seven talented golfers from Macleans College recently travelled to New Plymouth to participate in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship and the New Zealand Age Group Championship.
The New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship took place across two days at Manukorihi Golf Club. After a day's rest, the New Zealand Age Group Championship was held across three days at the New Plymouth Golf Club.
The golfers arrived in New Plymouth two days prior to the start of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship. This allowed them to complete a practice round at the New Plymouth Golf Course. The following day, despite the gloomy weather, they undertook a practice round at Manukorihi Golf Club. The golfers took notes on each hole, observed the hazards and got a feel for the slope of each green.
New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship
Macleans College was represented by Samuel Ding (Upham House), Cherry Lee (Batten) and Lucia Lee (Hillary).
On the first day Samuel played well and returned the best score for the team. Cherry and Lucia completed respectable rounds to put the Macleans College team in contention for a medal.
The second day consisted of early tee-off times, with team talks being held on the way to the golf course. The golfers had high expectations for the day, yet being third on the leaderboard created unexpected pressure. The team produced a mixed bag of results, however, their final scores saw them finish fourth equal in New Zealand. The team can be very proud of this result.
New Zealand Age Group Championship
Macleans College was represented by Angy Soldati (Mansfield), Archie Thompson (Batten), Rory Gillion (Hillary), Lucas Peng (Upham), Samuel Ding, Cherry Lee and Lucia Lee.
The golfers had a free day prior to the start of the New Zealand Age Group Championships. They used this day wisely to undertake another practice round at New Plymouth Golf Course. This was a new and different experience for Angy Soldati, an international student from Italy, with the weather conditions proving to be extremely challenging. By the time the golfers reached the sixth hole, heavy rain arrived accompanied by wind up to 55 kilometres per hour. Once the thunderstorms rolled in, the practice was called off.
The first day of play saw afternoon tee times for the Macleans College golfers. Archie and Samuel played well and were placed third in the under 19 and under 16 divisions respectively. Although Cherry, Lucia, Angy, Lucas and Rory faced some challenges during their round, they had another day of play to improve their score.
The Macleans College golfers had morning tee times on the second day of play. Angy had a game plan; she brought a notebook to write in (in Italian) whenever she felt frustrated. It worked - she played a very good round. Cherry and Archie also played an impressive round.
On the final day of competition, Cherry, Archie and Samuel had made the cut. The day brought many different challenges, but they persevered and played well to gain a fantastic score on a very tough course. Cherry was placed second in the open grade and third in the secondary school under 19 grade. Archie finished eleventh in the under 19 grade and Samuel was 14th in the under 16 grade.
