An interesting time of the year

NZGM Bob Mcdonald
Bob McDonald © NZ Golf Magazine/Elizabeth witton 2019

The US Open has finished and we have a new US Open Champion.  It was never likely to be either Ryan Fox or Daniel Hillier, but if Fox is ‘on song’ anything can happen. 

Lydia Ko is also finding it difficult.  The US and Asian Press are not giving her the positive attention which she might well be used to and her game is certainly affected by a combination of factors.  However, at the end of the day she is a GREAT player and competitor.  All sports men and women go through purple patches in their careers.  She will break through this one.

Go KO!

Here in New Zealand we are now having to contend with the weather and Golf Courses are very susceptible to high wind damage.  For Whangaparaoa Golf Course here in Auckland it’s not just the wind, its air!  Air Guns to be exact, and a powerful one at that, that some players had to evade.  This is not something that we should tolerate.  Weapons have caused enough carnage already in this country so let’s hope the Police capture this culprit and destroy the weapon.

This magazine has been pressing the industry for many years about being more flexible.  It is working.

Last year on October 1, NZ Golf Inc.  launched the concept of LOVE Golf Flexiclub, a new online virtual club designed to provide casual golfers the flexibility to pay for play at a variety of courses and a credible way to obtain an official New Zealand Golf handicap.

 LOVE Golf Flexiclub is specifically for casual golfers who do not want to join a golf club or may use it as a stepping stone towards club membership – Already a substantial number of Flexiclub members have already moved on to club membership

NZ Golf have been resolute in the protection of the current golf club membership pool so there is a stand down period to ensure that no golfer that has been a club member in the last 12 months can join Flexiclub and further, there is a limit of 2,000 golfers that can join Flexiclub which is less than 1% of registered golfers.

The Professional Golfers’ Association of New Zealand had their AGM early in June and we were very pleased to hear that Bob McDonald had been made a life member. Bob, who recently moved back to Auckland, has been a popular golf coach for many years and including being one of this magazines coaching panel. He is a great story teller but this time the story is about him – read Andrew Whiley’s story about the person who gave him his first ever golf lesson inside.

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