Golf starts

The finals of the men’s and ladies’ Classic Pairs golf tournament were played out last Saturday at Rarotonga Golf Club after everything had turned back to almost normal following the tsunami.

In the men’s competition, team Couching Tigers’ of Daniel Webb and Aukino (Tiger) Tairea were the winners, triumphant over team Rainmakers made up of Haimona Browne and Teinaki Howard.

In the ladies competition, Mena Howard and Mii Tangitamaiti defeated Tania Karati and Jackie Urlich.

The rest of the golfers played a sweep competition on stableford.

Tiger even triumphed in this competition, coming in with 41 points to be the leader.

He was followed closely by Aroiva Akama and Frank Berg on 40 points, and Lyn Webb, James Herman, and Tere Taio on 39 points.

Marguerite Dean with 38 points rounded out the winners.

This Saturday, the Steinlager Classic, generously sponsored by The Bond, is the first official tournament of the Rarotonga Golf season. This is a stableford competition and there are two sets of golf clubs to be won.

All members are asked to be at the club in Nikao no later than noon for the blessing and opening declaration.

A light kaikai will then be available before the shot-gun start at 1pm.

After the competition there will be a live band for members’ entertainment.

Please put your name on the board next to your starting tee to give our club manager an idea of the numbers for catering purposes.

Get in quick before all the best tees are taken.

The internal out of bounds will not apply to this Saturday’s tournament however the course rating will be reduced to 64.

The course rating has been reduced to make the playing handicap for our players more realistic when members play in New Zealand and elsewhere.

Most of our players are, at present, on an unrealistically low handicap by international standards.

Lowering the course rating will make it harder for a player to reduce his handicap, so hopefully they will play better!

Best wishes to all golfers for the coming season.