Is there something in the Otago air?

by Neville Idour

Is there something in the Otago air? It was raining holes-in-one last month.

The Otago Golf Club experienced three in three days recently.

Playing at the Otago Matchplay Champships, Matt Tautiri, the winner of division

one, scored his ace on the 12th holes, a fairly testing 156-metre par three.

Leith Campion followed up with a hole in one on the 15th, a difficult uphill 184-metre

par three.

Then to cap it off, the next day, Judy Marsh also aced the 15th from the 113-metre

ladies’ tee.

Shelley Duncan, the director of golf at the Otago Club, said: “This may well be a

first. Don’t know if it has happened before.”

Just a couple of weeks before, Dunedin eight-year-old Maia Koni holed out at Island

Park from 85 metres on the same hole her older sister Anahera had made one

when aged just six.

The Wakatipu Junior Golf Club has also led the way with youngsters having scored

at least 12 in the last six years, with then 11-year-old Josh Harris the most recent. His

coming at the first at Arrowtown in August.