McGlashan sends the biggest golf team yet to the Interprovincial Golf Champs. But should they have taken snorkels as well as golf clubs?
The Otago Interprovincial golf tournament was held at Taieri Lakes (near Mosgiel) this year in challenging wet conditions. John McGlashan sent a big team of 21 golfers to compete in the event. The ‘A team’ of Baxter Meder, Liam Barron, Mason Gain, and Harvey O’Neil had the challenge of trying to win and qualify for nationals. For some new Year 9 and year 10 golfers, it was a case of gaining valuable experience in tournament play, with the hope to be able to build a strong team moving into the future.
The conditions were wet and miserable, to begin with, but then eased enough to provide for some pleasant atmospheric conditions. While it was quite wet underfoot the course eventually drained well and allowed the players to really enjoy the experience and the excellent course, the players could be aggressive into the flags with the soft conditions which made for many birdies to be made.
The new layout at Taieri Lakes has created 2 extra holes that have water as a hazard and this proved to be a great test for the players to navigate. Course management was an important element of play and it can be said that our lads for the most part played well in this respect.
Unfortunately, a few score blowouts on a couple of holes affected most of our top players. While many played to or just under their handicaps they couldn’t secure the near par or below par rounds that we needed to win and qualify for the national event. We were not far away.
Mason Gain Y12 shot 80, Caleb Ung Y10 81, Jonty Riley Y11 82, Conner Howes Y9 84, and Liam Barron Y11 85, were our top five performers on the day, with so many young golfers achieving well, this bodes well for the future
Golf at JMC is still a secondary sport to many others with respect to the fact that most of our top golfers play for other first teams at the college and are not always available to play golf. With this in mind, we are working hard to find windows of opportunity to play more inter-schools when the major sports team aren’t. The school champs for golf will be played later in Term 1 and at the start of term 2, so practice hard for these competitions, lads.
With such high numbers of golfers in the college and golf becoming such a popular sport for youth in Dunedin, it has been hard to provide school competitions for students to play in, as the facilities are being used most nights. The 'Dunedin Futures Golf Club that most, if not all players in the college are members of does provide many coaching and playing options. Look out for those information emails that at sent out by the 'Futures', or sign up with them if you are not receiving those emails.
Always the game.
Employment opportunities - click if you're interested in working at McGlashan.