GO LOCAL!: Professional golfer turns grocery assistant through Covid-19

Professional golfer Kieran Muir has started working at Fresh Choice Omokoroa to pay his way through Covid-19. Photo / George Novak

A big part of Kieran Muir's job was to travel.

But Covid-19 had other ideas for Ōmokoroa's professional golfer who is now working as a grocery assistant at his local supermarket to earn a living.

Initially, Muir thought the level 4 lockdown was going to feel like a four-week training camp.

"But then they closed the golf courses down and at that point, I was like: 'That's going to make an impact'."

No golf course: no golf. No golf: no income.

Finding a solution to the problem, Muir started to look at other ways of earning money and applied for a job advertisement at his local supermarket Fresh Choice Omokoroa.

"I thought to myself this is a way to help them, the community, and me. It ticked all the boxes."

Muir has been working as a grocery assistant for about three weeks, helping the storeman out the back doing quality control, quantity check of incoming goods and ensuing the goods get distributed into the correct departments.

"I don't spend a lot of time on the shop floor. I am out the back where you get a true indication of how the public is feeling."

He said people have been flooding through the doors and "hitting the panic button" but he has been impressed by how effective the staff work as a team.

"I actually kind of miss it. I spend so much time as an individual and to actually contribute to a team and see the results of a team put together is pretty cool."

Before the country was put into level 4 lockdown, Muir was at the top of his game.

"I felt like I had a bit of momentum and my confidence was high," he said.

"What I tried to do was take a snapshot of where I was in that place and get some thoughts on how I was feeling, how my body was behaving, where my golf swing was at, where I could see the direction of my game going ... So I could make sure that was my reference point. So when it was time to get back that I'm still ticking all those boxes."

When he is not working at the supermarket, Muir has been working on his golf at home with the limited resources he has been improving on what he can until he can get onto the course.

"I miss the competition aspect of it," he said.

"But from a professional athlete's perspective, I have been able to spend time at home, which I have really appreciated.

"I get to spend time with my partner Nicola and we can give 100 per cent of our attention to one another, which is really cool."

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

But when he does get back on the course, Muir's plan is to "hit the ground running".

"I had some pretty good goals and ambitions set out at the start of this year and am not going to let what's happening now stop me."

Fresh Choice Omokoroa owner Steve Ling said it was crucial to be supporting local businesses now more than ever, especially smaller businesses.

"The more we can support local businesses the better to get people working again."

Ling said when level 4 was announced it was a "real challenge" in the first week as people started to rush through the doors to stock up for lockdown.

"It was important to hire more people to help cope with the demand as soon as possible."

He hired about 15 extra staff to help cope with demand, some who had not worked in a supermarket before. That included professional golfer Muir and a physiotherapist.

"Kieran's work ethic is excellent. He is used to being under pressure and he copes with it really well.

"He is bringing his skills learned on the course to this business, which is good for him and our team."