Golf: Home-grown trio picked for worlds

Omanu golfer Alanna Campbell is one of three Bay of Plenty golfers named in New Zealand junior teams.

Bay of Plenty golfers dominate the New Zealand junior boys and girls teams named to compete in the Toyota World Junior Golf Team Championship in Toyota City, Japan, next month.

Of the seven players, Henry Spring (Whakatane), Harry Hillier (Te Puke) and Alanna Campbell (Omanu), grew up playing the game on Bay of Plenty golf courses.

It would have been four but for glandular fever preventing Tyler Kingi (Opotiki) from taking her place alongside Campbell. Tauranga's Jay Carter will manage the boys team.

Bay of Plenty has only 10 per cent of the golfers in the country but are a provincial powerhouse at national tournaments and are well represented among the elite nation squads.

Bay of Plenty Golf chief executive Chris McAlpine says this is due to a few key factors.

"We have climate and geographical advantages, a good talent identification system and we are blessed with good coaches," he said.

He is proud of the young talent coming through the Bay system, particularly the three latest New Zealand reps.

"Henry was a small kid so to compete with his peers he had to develop an unbelievable short game. Suddenly, he shot up and is over six foot tall and is up there with hitting the ball but has retained his excellent short game. That is what has made him such a good young golfer.

"Harry's prodigious length off the tee is his strength. If he has a weakness it is a little self-confidence he needs to work on. He doesn't realise how good he could be.

"I stated it a year ago that it was not a matter of whether Alanna would became a national rep but just a matter of when. She has such a fantastic game and now she has the putting right. She has just got a lovely attitude and a fabulous temperament."

The World Junior Golf Team Championship is for golfers under-18 years. It began 22 years ago but took until last year before a junior girls championship was held with the boys championship.

The 2015 event will feature a strong field of the best players from 20 countries covering six continents. Norway are the defending boys champions after winning with a 21-under par team total of 831. Host country Japan won the inaugural girls event last year.