IN-FORM: Twelve-year-old Tara Raj continues on her winning way after bagging the Manawatu-Wanganui women's strokeplay title at Castlecliff on Sunday.PHOTO/ FILE A-100615WCSM0TARA2
IN-FORM: Twelve-year-old Tara Raj continues on her winning way after bagging the Manawatu-Wanganui women's strokeplay title at Castlecliff on Sunday.PHOTO/ FILE A-100615WCSM0TARA2
FOUR Wanganui Golf Club juniors are currently representing Manawatu Wanganui Golf teams on both islands.
Twelve-year-old Tara Raj and Dana Garrett are competing in the National Under-21 tournament in Rotorua. This is a four-round matchplay involving the leading golfing districts in New Zealand. Each team has six members. The firstfour play off the stick and the last two play a development format and take their handicap score into consideration.
Kyra Garrett and Fergus Smith are part of the Manawatu-Wanganui Eagles Under 17 team competing in Dunedin against their other district counterparts. Each Eagles team comprises three golfers and Sam Smith from Manawatu completes the team.
Meanwhile, the heavily in-form Raj and former Manawatu-Wanganui rep Hayden Ring have won the respective Manawatu-Wanganui strokeplay competitions on Sunday.
Ring has taken out his second Order of Merit event this year, in winning the Men's Strokeplay title at Castlecliff. Ring is a secondary Castlecliff member, as he plays for their Pennant team which was promoted to A Grade for next year. Ring now lives in Wellington and plays for the Miramar club. Castlecliff was playing long and difficult due to its conditions and some penalising rough. Ring, however tamed the course with a 1-under par total, with rounds of 71 and 72. Ring gets his name on the Challenge Cup. Raj won the Women's Strokeplay title with scores of 80 and 76 to follow her win in the Wanganui Open last month. She is quickly proving that she has a big future in the game.
Wanganui director of golf and facilities at Belmont, Norm Rapson, said the club was rebuilding its junior programmes and it was pleasing to see junior members prominent in the Manawatu-Wanganui structure. "Belmont is a great golfing environment to learn the game and the club encourages junior members by providing free membership and weekly coaching sessions," Rapson said.
