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Home / Gisborne Herald / Sport

The golfing gods giveth and they taketh as well

Gisborne Herald
17 Mar, 2023 12:13 AMQuick Read

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ACE OF CLUBS: Richard Foon was flying high after his hole-in-one on the sixth hole at his home Poverty Bay course. The next day he was brought back to earth with a thud on the same hole, shanking his tee shot out of bounds. Picture by Paul Rickard
ACE OF CLUBS: Richard Foon was flying high after his hole-in-one on the sixth hole at his home Poverty Bay course. The next day he was brought back to earth with a thud on the same hole, shanking his tee shot out of bounds. Picture by Paul Rickard

ACE OF CLUBS: Richard Foon was flying high after his hole-in-one on the sixth hole at his home Poverty Bay course. The next day he was brought back to earth with a thud on the same hole, shanking his tee shot out of bounds. Picture by Paul Rickard

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From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Mad-keen golfer Richard Foon experienced the fickle extremes of the great game in successive rounds at his home Awapuni Links course.

Last Saturday afternoon, Foon celebrated the second hole-in-one of his 12 years playing the game — and the district's first ace post-Covid.

The following morning, Foon was shaking his head in shock after shanking his tee shot out of bounds on the same hole.

As he put it in a Facebook post, “the golfing gods giveth . . . the golfing gods taketh”.

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Foon sank a 9-iron tee shot on the 121-metre sixth hole at the Poverty Bay course.

“I didn't see it go in; the sun was in my eyes,” he said.

One of his playing four, Hughie Waugh, did. But with a couple of balls in sight on the green, Foon needed to see his ball in the hole to believe it.

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That night, he was at a 65th birthday dinner for mate and fellow golfer Dave Jenkins, who owns Country Foods.

Jenkins told him about the wayward golf balls he and his drivers would pick up from outside LeaderBrand — across the road from the sixth green — on Monday mornings.

The next morning, Foon stood on the sixth tee and promptly shanked a wedge out of bounds, somewhere towards LeaderBrand.

The golfing gods giveth . . . the golfing gods taketh.

Foon, whose first ace was about five years ago with a 4-iron on the 11th at the Bay, loves golf.

He has worked hard on his game and even has a golf simulator at home, which he says he is in the process of upgrading.

Foon has got his handicap down to 9 (his lowest index is 8.2) and has a personal best round of 76 at Poverty Bay.

“It's a great game,” he says. “It's relaxing and social.

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“I have a little black book I get people to sign when I play with them for the first time. There's about 700 names in it.”

Foon is the brother of former Gisborne mayor and now Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon.

Richard has yet to entice his brother on to the course.

“He's too busy.”

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