Off the tee: Recovering Boon back in the swing

Anita Boon shot 75 round Gulf Harbour recently. Not bad for a former national representative, but amazing for someone with a broken back.

Last September, Boon injured her spine while working on an English golf course. The Gulf Harbour round was her first since the accident.

The Muriwai golfer had to use a cart for the 18 holes but she is optimistic about further improvement when the two titanium rods supporting her spine are removed in five months' time.

Boon was in New Zealand teams for the Queen Sirikit tournament in Hong Kong in 2002 and Malaysia in 2001 and also played in the Tasman Cup against Australia. She was runner-up in the national matchplay championship in 2001.

Her accident happened at the Walton Heath course in Surrey, where she was working while chasing a professional career. A mini dump-truck went out of control and landed on top of her in a bunker.

Initially there were fears that Boon might not walk again, but after two weeks she was moving with the aid of a walking frame.

"My legs are still partially numb and the doctors say they may never regain all their feeling," she said.

"Things can still be pretty sore. I haven't set myself any goals and I'm taking each day as it comes. But I was really surprised how well I played at Gulf Harbour.

"I can't put the same heat into my drives and I've maybe lost 20m or so. But I was keeping up and the more compact swing may be a good thing to come from the accident."

Boon, who did part of a professional apprenticeship while she was in England, is coaching at the Top Golf range in Kumeu and enjoying the work.

FOLLOWING Brad Heaven's outstanding career at the University of Toledo, another Kiwi will join the golf programme this year.

Natalie Storck, aged 20, who has been a North Harbour representative, will transfer from Massey for the start of the next American academic year.

SLOW play is the bane of golfers at all levels, but you rarely hear of top professionals receiving more than a warning. It's taken the women to show the way.

At last weekend's Sybase Classic in New York, the LPGA imposed penalties that hit the pockets of two of the leading contenders.

Stacy Prammanasudh finished equal fifth after being penalised two shots for slow play on the par-three 16th. The extra shots cost her US$20,000 ($32,000) in prizemoney.

Slow play on the 17th cost rookie Young-A Yang a similar penalty as she slipped back into a tie for seventh.

PAR is never enough when the aspiring pros on the US Nationwide tour come to town. The latest tournament, the Henrico County Open, was won by Daniel Chopra at 30 under par. Kiwi Michael Long was 14 under - and finished 30th.

Meanwhile, the winner of the Allianz Classic on the senior tour was 51-year-old D. A. Weibring, who is well-known to Aucklanders as winner of the Air New Zealand-Shell Open in 1985.

ONE of Ireland's top golf courses is in danger of losing its licence to sell alcoholic beverages for a week after a judge ruled it discriminates against women, the first sanction of its kind to be imposed on a private club in the country.

District Court Judge Mary Collins said the alcohol ban would go into effect only if Ireland's second-highest court, the High Court, upheld her judgment after hearing an appeal from Portmarnock Golf Club.

Collins ruled in favour of the Equality Authority, which argued that the suburban Dublin club was breaching a 2000 anti-discrimination law by refusing to admit women as members.