COMMENT
Can New Zealand men's amateur golf slip any further into disgrace? Can it lose any more respect? This country's equal worst performance at an Eisenhower Trophy in 20 years was an inevitable conclusion to March's coaching debacle.
A few days later came revelations of May's notorious toothbrush incident.
The disgraceful conduct by
the players concerned there, Riki Kauika and Bradley Iles, was matched only by the inept handling of the situation by New Zealand Golf. To ban the players from overseas representation until the end of the year, not tell the public about it, and then select Kauika for the Eisenhower just beggars belief. Some punishment.
But being a soft touch has become a trend in golf's High Performance programme. Players in the so-called Gold Squad of the Titleist Academy have every golfing service provided for them; all they have to do is play golf.
More than a few seasoned observers are dismayed by what they're seeing. Brian Doyle, who was a late appointment as coach for the Eisenhower team told me: "I really think a lot of our players have got to harden up. They seem to get it all, but I really don't know how much progress we've made in the last 10 years."
Not that long ago golf was setting standards in New Zealand sport for administration and elite programmes. It's now become a laughing stock.
Who would have thought after the 1992 Eisenhower Trophy win that countries like Denmark and Switzerland would now beat us?
Positions in the academy must be reviewed more than just once a year and our best players must be encouraged to play often in America. Privileges should be based on performance and reassessed a minimum of every three months.
The irony of the Eisenhower result was that the best player, Josh Geary, is not a member of the Gold Squad.
