Papa Aviu wins 26th Steinlager tourney

Papa Aviu won out over Jackie Urlich on a count back in last week’s Steinlager Tournament opener, with both golfers scoring 44 points during the play.

Close behind came Cedric Toru and Darrell Brown with 43 points each. They were followed by John Kenning (42), Henry R Henry (41), Sonny Karati (41), Katoa Banaba Snr (40), and Memory Akama (40).

Memory also won the prize for ladies’ longest drive, while Haimona Brown grabbed the prize for men’s longest drive.

Prizes for best round were won by Ned Howard and Sonny Karati for the men and Maara Kenning for the ladies.

Winner of the lucky draw of a golf carry bag was handicapper (the man everyone loves to hate) Steve Simpson – the way he played golf it was the only way he was going to win anything so he was very grateful.

Meanwhile, the golf report printed last week sold the Steinlager Tournament a little short when it said Steinlager and The Bond had been sponsoring the opening tournament of the golf season for the last 20 years.

The relationship has been ongoing now since 1987 – that’s 26 years in the running.

So last Saturday was, in fact, the 26th Steinlager Tournament at the Rarotonga Golf Club – a fantastic contribution to the sport of golf on Rarotonga.

After the official season tee-off by our Orometua, Sponsor Richard Barton, and Patron Ewan Smith, the shotgun start began at 1pm in fine golfing weather.

Trish and her team from The Bond were on hand to make sure nobody went too thirsty for long.

Overall the standard of golf was very high, in fact if you did not come in with 38 stableford points you were never in the running for a major prize.

All of the first ten winners had 40 or more points.

This Saturday is another great tournament, sponsored by Air Rarotonga. Another large field is expected as golfers vie to win a return ticket to a southern group island.

The golf season is off to a wonderful start and we hope to provide many more top class competitions to encourage our members to excel themselves and steadily improve during the year.

We also hope to see more young people take up the sport. Good luck to all golfers.