“Too good for me,” said Brown, who won the title as a 17-year-old in 2010.
Papakowhai School student and Manor Park and Judgeford club member Ngarimu made an impact from the moment he stepped on to the golf course, alongside his 12-year-old brother Mutu, who was also in the championship 16.
Many in the region would be familiar with another Mutu Ngarimu. The former Maori All Black, who played for Poverty Bay (and coached the Heartland squad), East Coast and Hawke’s Bay, among other rugby honours, is the boys’ uncle.
They travelled to Te Puia with father Pire, a Ngata Memorial College old boy, who said their appearance was a combination of his uncle and Te Puia Springs club stalwart Peter Ngarimu inviting them and big raps Miramar players who had attended in the past had given it.
Impeccably dressed with the etiquette and professionalism to match, Apirana beat Patutahi member and Poverty Bay Heartland captain Shayde Skudder 3 and 2 in the first round, then ousted Opotiki’s Micky Huriwaka 4 and 3 in the quarterfinals.
It put him into a semifinal against Te Puke’s Craig Van Der Nagel, fresh from winning seven of eight matches for Bay of Plenty at the Freyberg Masters national interprovincial at Poverty Bay’s Awapuni Links course.
Van Der Nagel, also playing in the Open for the first time, was beaten 3 and 1 and afterwards said he was nowhere near the player Apirana was at the same age.
No.1 seed Brown, the head greenkeeper at Awapuni Links but whose primary club is Waikohu, breezed past another talented 13-year-old, Elijah Huriwaka (Mickey’s son), in the first round and Electrinet Park member and two-time EC Open champion Tony Akroyd in the quarters.
Poverty Bay’s Glenn Morley came out swinging in their semifinal with a gimme birdie on the first. That didn’t faze Brown, who reeled in that early deficit and went on to win 6 and 5.
As young golfers so often do, Ngarimu putted fearlessly throughout the weekend and made a couple of big birdie putts — including a 30-footer — on the back nine of the final after he and Brown went through the turn locked all-square.
The pivotal holes, though, were probably the 15th and 16th, which Ngarimu won with pars to edge in front.
They halved the 17th and when Brown went wide with his tee shot on the 18th and was unable to make the green in regulation, he left the door ajar.
‘It’s pretty big’: East Coast Open champion
Ngarimu also missed the green with his approach but after Brown put his chip to 6-feet of the hole, the youngster played a beautiful chip to within 3-feet.
Brown showed the mettle forged by years of representative golf and title-winning matchplay experience in slotting his putt.
Ngarimu made arguably the biggest putt of his burgeoning career look like a walk in the park, and the East Coast Open had a new and first-time champion.
The achievement and this latest step in his career was not lost on Ngarimu.
“It’s pretty big,” he said.
It was also possibly the start of a new era for the Open. Mutu won the plate final and with both boys in the Wellington Golf Talent Development Programme, it is safe to assume they are only going to get better.
Next year it would be no surprise — if the seeded draw is favourable — to see them in the final at the combined age of 27. And with Huriwaka junior also on the rise, young teens could be even more prominent in 2024.
Te Puia Hot Springs once again turned on a wonderful tournament experience enjoyed by golfers from 20 different clubs.
It has been a tough few years for the club in the wake of Covid-19 and the cyclones — the evidence of which is devastatingly clear in the journey up State Highway 35.
But as kaumatua Nehe Dewes referred to in his Saturday night dinner blessing, there is a special “wairua”, or spirit, when it comes to the East Coast Open. An unwavering, unbreakable spirit that can be related to the Coast itself perhaps even more so now than ever.
• Full results in Te Puia Hot Springs section of today's Golf Roundup.
