Golf: Sam's hunting a dream career

By CRAIG TIRIANA

About six years ago he was a 10-year-old boy struggling to get the ball into the air and in the right direction on the practice fairway at Rotorua's Springfield Golf Club.

Barely waist high on another (older) figure on the fairway the young man was impressive. Not for his ball striking or his swing, but for his determination as he belted away at ball after ball until darkness.

The routine continued for many nights and finally the older golfer couldn't resist. He walked over and asked the boy who he was.

"My name's Sam Hunt," he replied "I go to Rotorua Intermediate."

Even at that age Hunt was considered something special. A bright student and keen golfer who Rotorua Golf Club professional Paul Hartstone then described as very promising.

Hunt had only just started playing after being introduced to the game by his parents and older brother.

He took a liking to golf straight away and to practising, a part of the game he still enjoys.

Now at 16 the promise is turning into potential and results. Titles and fame are falling to the young man as quickly as his Kiwi namesake can recite prose.

A win in the Auckland under-16 age group championships when he was just 14 and runner-up to Bradley Heaven in the corresponding under-18 event showed a glimpse of the progress Hunt had made.

He cracked the Rotorua Boys' High School senior golf team in 1999 and played a crucial tie-breaking round of 78 as he started to develop the habit of performing at the right time.

Hunt's seemingly unthreatening round in the national secondary schools championship saw RBHS sneak past New Plymouth Boys' and eventually to their first world title attempt in Ireland a year ago.

True to his rising status, Hunt came to the 2000 world event as the least performed of the Rotorua team but came home the world individual champion.

It's history now that he and his side repeated the double dose last week in Berkshire, England.

Again Hunt spearheaded the Boys' High effort, this time with a final round 67 when the pressure, caused by a closing Australian team, was full on.

Rotorua Boys' golf master Ian Woon predicted Hunt would leave his mark on the event after an average showing - by Hunt's standards - in the opening round.

"Sammy is very special. I'm expecting something big tomorrow," were Woon's prophetic words.

Out popped a dream 18 greens in regulation and 67 shots later Hunt had another individual world title and confirmation, as if it was needed, of his rapid progress.

Cricketer Ian Botham could do it with a wicket or a match-turning century; Michael Jordon could float through the air and dunk; Wayne Gretzkey could find the net; Zinzan Brooke could conjure up rugby magic.

Hunt seems to be able to perform similar heroics on the golf course.

He has the enviable talent of top sportsman to out-perform others and display the winning ways - the X-factor - coaches drool over.

Tall, lean and hungry for birdies, Hunt doesn't hit the ball massive distances like Australian teen strokeplay champion Steven Bowditch, but Hunt is not normally too far from the middle of the fairway.

That gives him the opportunity to pounce on par with a proficient iron game, grooved by hours of swing drills and ball hitting, complemented by a putter that guides the ball regularly into the cup.

Scores like a head-turning 63, nine-under-par, at Te Puke and a 12-under-par 72-hole total when he won the New Zealand strokeplay title at Mount Maunganui are testament to the ability of his hands and the coolness in his head.

The results have seen his handicap plummet from two last year to a plus 2.4 index.

Early next year Hunt will put all his skills to the test as he tees it up with world number one Tiger Woods at Paraparaumu for the much-anticipated New Zealand Open.

He's not saying too much about his goals for the event but a dream come true would be a pairing with Woods.

In the last 12 months through golf he has enjoyed three visits to the United Kingdom, two to Australia while next month he'll travel for the second time to Japan as a member of the New Zealand junior team.

But it's his balance as a student and sportsman that let you in to how much talent this young man has.

A top Australasian mathematician and passer of school certificate subjects while still in the fourth form show there is more than a sporting dimension to Hunt.

Equally at home talking to media mogul Paul Holmes or a student at his former Malfroy Primary School, Hunt is easygoing and with his feet firmly on the ground.

He said during the week that he doesn't see himself as a role model – modestly backing that up by saying he thinks he still has much to learn.

Later this year the Bay of Plenty senior golf team will again be chasing their elusive first Tower Interprovincial success in New Plymouth but Hunt probably won't be part of it.

It's not that Hunt won't make the team - he was a member of the five-man team that won the Southland Invitational earlier this year - it's just that he has some other priorities that will get in the way in November.

"I'll have exams. If I had to choose between schoolwork and golf I'd choose exams," he said.

Not really the words of someone who has a lot to learn.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)