GOLF: Mary offers Wise words after maiden hole-in-one

ANENDRA SINGH
Is your child having literacy difficulties?
No problems - just call Mary Wise.
Are they having problems with that golf swing?
Then for goodness sake, keep at least a 10-club length's distance from her.
"I think the difference is that with literacy it's purely intellectual but with golf it is intellectual and physical. It is also to do with your muscles and your co-ordination. There's a lot of physical stuff going on there," says Wise, a resource teacher and member of the Napier Golf Club.
"I help children with literacy difficulties and I always try to find a way and strategy to help them. I believe I need the same help with my golf," says the 35-handicapper who scored a hole-in-one last month at her home course.
Wise says motivation is an essential factor in getting children to achieve but sadly not enough for golf.
"I think you've got to have lots more coaching, which is different from intellect.
"You've got to be co-ordinated and have a split second to know what to do with your body and your head, don't you? "But then again if I was serious with my golf I'd go looking somewhere else with help on my golf and probably my body," she says with a laugh, outside her home in Westshore.
Despite having had the thrill of sinking her first ace on the 105m par 3 No 7 hole at Waiohiki on September 10, the "special needs" golfer desperately wants to bring her handicap down and stay down.
She believes some bright spark should study older people to see how their bodies are changing and help them adjust better to golf.
Before that wet Saturday morning Wise swears she had never used a four-iron on that hole in her life.
Five years ago Wise was with Napier women's club captain Janice Roberts and watched her nail a hole-in-one on the same hole.
However, on her occasion last month Wise refused to accept the BMW-sponsored Callaway ball she had found on the course a day earlier had dropped into the hole until she could walk up to the pin and see it for herself.
The other two golfers in her group were Pat Imrie, who already has an ace up her sleeve, and Cecelia Fowdry. Roberts once advised Wise to line up with two electric poles across the road if she ever wanted to ace the No 7 hole.
"I used her strategy and lined up with the pylons," says Wise, admiring the New Zealand Ladies' Golf hole-in-one badge.
Apart from the $100 shout on the bar, Wise enjoyed the congratulatory feedback, especially the phone call from the Napier club president, Brian Holmes.
Wise was minding a house in Otaki in the early 1990s when she won an $800 Lotto prize. A beginner then, she invested the entire sum on taking lessons at the Paraparaumu Golf Driving Range and playing at Otaki Golf Club.
However, when she stopped her lessons her 29 handicap bounced back to the mid-thirties.
As much as she loves her golf, Wise always puts her family first.
"I have a daughter, Nicki, in Oxford, England, who I visit each holiday. Every time a child is born or needs something it means I must go."