New equipment to spruce golf green presented

The Rarotonga golf club last Saturday held the official presentation of golf course equipment sponsored by the golf governing body ‘R and A’ for the Rarotonga and Aitutaki Golf Clubs.

Minister of Sport Mark Brown was on hand to present this equipment on behalf of R and A.

R and A is the governing body for the sport of golf with about 130 affiliated members which the Cook Islands is an affiliate.

The other governing body is the USGA which governs the sport in the USA and Mexico.

In his speech, president of the Rarotonga Golf Club Ned Howard explained that the R and A sponsorship was the benefit of his attendance at the 9th R and A World Golf Conference held in St Andrews, Scotland last year in early May.

The course equipment consists of one gang-mower and two green mowers, one fringe mower, hole cups, pins, hole cutter and spare parts for the equipment costing over 24k pounds sterling (NZ$47,994).

Howard says the equipment is the last of the four programmes R and A was committed to providing for the development of the sport in the Cook islands.

The other 3 projects included approval by Rand A for a Cook Islands World Amateur Golf Ranking event. This started in 2013 with the Rarotonga Amateur Golf Open being the designated event. 2014 event will be on the June 12 to 14.

Another project was having a golf coach visit the Cook Islands 3 times over a period of 18 months. This programme started last year with NZ coach Jay Carter making his first visit during the Inter-island Constitution Cup. Coach Carter will be making his 2nd visit sometime in March or April.

The third project RandA provided in June were 10 sets of junior golf equipment ( for ages 5 to 8 and 9 to 13) where four sets were given to the Aitutaki Golf Club and 6 to the Rarotonga Golf Club. After the dedication prayer conducted by the club chaplain Papa Aratangi, minister Brown presented the equipment to the representatives of the Aitutaki Golf Club, patron Munro Hockin and patron and president Natini Samuel.

Minister Brown also presented to the Aitutaki Golf Club sponsored flags, pins and cups sponsored by Coach Jay Carter.

The Committee of the Rarotonga Golf received the Rarotonga Golf Club equipment on behalf of its members.

In their speeches, speakers representing the Clubs including patron Ewan Smith and club captain Jimmy Teokotai for the Rarotonga Golf Club and Munro Hockin. Natini Samuel on behalf of the Aitutaki Golf Club thanked the minister and especially ‘R and A’ for the course equipment as well as the sponsorships received from R and A.