A Week in the Land of the Long White Cloud
Arrival Sydney International Airport 5:30am
All squad members and families in place as Mark Ingrey hands out the team shirts and caps, excitement is in the air while some parents are torn between apprehension and exhilaration.......one week without children!!!
Following check-in our juniors headed to the food court for some morning treats before listening to a small snip of what is ahead.
On board our Emirates A380 bird headed for Auckland all juniors and the two escorts (Mark & Lyn) are buckled in ready to fly.
Much discussion takes place between the juniors.....what can we watch on these TV's? Well you have 500 channels so it's up to you!!!
Two and a half hours later we land in Auckland, temperature is 24c and the juniors are extremely excited. Following a long delay we complete our customs check and where do the juniors head? Straight to Macca's! Mark works on the hire bus, all aboard and off we go. Orewa is our next stop and our location for the coming three nights.
Orewa Holiday Park is approximately 45 minutes north of Auckland and presents like an Australian surf coast village, beach, cafes and fun activities. We check in and the juniors hit the beach!
For dinner we head to the New Zealand franchise that is Burger Fuel, some of the most amazing burgers with some great names.....Lyn how was your "Bustard Burger?” Mark did you enjoy the "Ring of Fire Burger!” Expressively our juniors tried and now love New Zealand’s famous L&P, maybe they can sponsor JNJG!!!
Day One - Sunday 10th
Awake early and Mark hits the beach for a morning run (no juniors to be seen). Quick breakfast in Villa de Lyn and we hit the road for Sherwood Park GC, about 2 hours north of Orewa. Some amazing scenery on the way and upon arrival the squad is excited for their first match against Northland. Mark introduces the juniors to "Golfies" so the competition is on, each junior must take "Golfies" during the week with the most creative winning a prize.
Unfortunately Northland have lost some juniors to tournaments and Gabbi finds her match is a walk over (being great Aussies we let Northland off without claiming points)
The course is a parkland style with two signature holes, which were heavily photographed. Our juniors play hard and so do Northland, great friendships are being made while the competition is still on. Final result see the points halved at 81/81 (maybe we should have claimed that walk-over)
We head home and being late we again visit a famous burger place for dinner, Macca's! Wow, Mark and Lyn put their foot down, that's it, Macca's is blacklisted for the rest of the week!!!
Day Two - Monday 11th
Awake early and Mark hits the beach waiting for the juniors to join him.....10 minutes later it's Mark off on a run again alone......Breakfast again at Villa de Lyn and we hit the road for a quick trip to Gulf Harbour Country Club for our match against Harbour Golf.
The squad is extremely excited about their games today, what an amazing course and the fierce "Golfie" battle is on. Following some great golf and ridiculous amounts of JNJG paparazzi on the course taking scenery shots and "Golfies" our team came up just short losing to Harbour Golf 182/178
Quick jump in the bus and off to the Thermal Pools, this is a fun time with the juniors having speed competitions on the water slides while Lyn found the adults only 40c pool for some "me" time. Where was Mark during this "me" time......taking on the juniors at the speed slide of course!!
Getting late, must be dinner time so we head across the road to a nice little bar & grill, surprise they have a mini golf course in the back garden and the competition is on again. Great dinner for all with not a Macca's burger in sight!!!
Day Three - Tuesday 12th
Morning run on the beach and amazingly Mark is joined by 4 juniors. What a great start to the day before we have breakfast, pack our rooms and hit the road for Hamilton, which is about 2 hours south.
Hamilton were here....checking in and off to the boys course (St Andrews) for their practice round, quick drop off and we head to the girls course (Lochiel) for their practice round. Well well, what do we find here.....an Aussie is the head professional at Lochiel GC. Courses are presented well considering recent heat and lack of fairway irrigation.
Home for dinner and Mark and Lyn cook up a storm....roast chicken and salad rolls!! While we rest our full stomachs the "Golfie" photo's start coming in.......some great shots!
Day Four - Wednesday 13th (Under19 North Island Golf Championship)
Round One and off we go. Following some great shuttle bus driving by Mark our boys and girls are out on course. The weather is warm; around 26c and the breeze is light. On the girls course our team shoot scores ranging from 80-91 while our boys finish with rounds between 78-106. Like always no one is completely happy with their rounds however I took light of a great comment by one of our girls "I'm playing with a girl who is off +3, I don't really care if I play well or not I am going to learn so much from this girl today." I think this was a great way to look at her playing partner and I guess she did learn a bit as that girl went on the shoot -6.
Home for dinner and Mark hits the laundry so the squad shirts are good for Friday. Dinner has been prepared by Lyn and numerous helpful juniors. Wow what a spread, Chicken Schnitzel, Spaghetti bolognese, Ceasar Salad, garlic bread, parmigiana sauce and lots of L&P....
Day Five - Thursday 14th
Early start with our youngest boys on course for their tee times at 7:30am. Perfect conditions have welcomed our players with a light breeze and expected temperature of 25c. Our girls started slow with some looking a little sleepy but quickly they turned this around and put together some good holes to finish the day with respectable scores. Our morning boys finished well and close to their handicap's meaning some smiles were found upon leaving the course. In great JNJG tradition our young boys remained at the course to support our older boys while Mark headed off to collect the girls front their course and again they were keen to head out to St Andrews to support the "Ethan's." The boys event has a cut after two rounds so having the fellow juniors support meant a lot. Unfortunately following a final hole blow out by Ethan Keane only Ethan Chambers will play the final round at St Andrews.
The experience has been great for all and they have learnt a lot this week. One round to go for most of players so fingers crossed they can climb the leader board.
Boys U19 New Zealand Results: (Cut 159)
Ethan Chambers 78,77, ?
Ethan Keane 79,81 - 160
Jacob Dundas 85,89 - 174
Riley Wunderlich 91,88 - 179
Jack Toyne 106,113 - 219
Girls U19 New Zealand Results: (No Cut, 1 round to play)
Leader -10
Sophie Yip 80,80
Piper Prince 83,81
Cassidy Graham 82,83
Gabbi Boehm 81,89
Alyssa Wikana 91,89
Tonight's dinner is again being created by our resident chefs, Lyn, Gabbi with special appearances by Mark.......dessert was again something new, vanilla cornetto with raspberry sorbet through the centre.
Day Six - Friday 15th
Final round for the girls and our single boy qualifier Ethan Chambers. An early start means low scoring is on......we drop Ethan off before heading to the girls course. All our girls teed off the 10th tee this morning, which provided us with a better opportunity to see the action. Great drives to start the day and we're off. Now Mark is back on the bus and returns to St Andrews in time to see Ethan complete his final five holes. How you going today Ethan? "I think the week has caught up with me, I'm struggling today." Ethan immediately kicks back into gear with a nice birdie on the Par 4 5th and finishes his final few holes in good fashion.
Quick good-bye to our New Zealand hosts (Waikato Golf) Head Professional Andrew and regular visitors to Australia Reon Sayer and Simon Thomas (St Peters College, Golf). Back in the bus and we're off back to the girls. Upon arrival we see Sophie Yip on the 3rd tee (her 12th) a Par 3 with slight elevation and a hit off 147m. Great swing and the ball looks good, "get in the hole" can be heard from the hill next to the green and we see the ball lip out.......nice tap in for birdie and Sophie is all smiles. We scoot out to see the remaining girls who have around 7 holes to play. Smiles are seen but not about their golf it's more about having a great time.
Upon completion we find Alyssa has once again played well below her handicap and as such finishes the tournament with nett rounds of 64,62,63 and has captured the Champion Nett Player U19 Championship by a huge 13 shots.
Our girls return mixed rounds but they are all very happy for the experience.
Final Results:
Ethan Chambers 78,77,81 (236) +20
Sophie Yip 80,80,78 (238) +22
Cassidy Graham 82,83,84 (249) +33
Piper Prince 83,81,88 (252) +36
Gabbi Boehm 81,89,91 (261) +261
Alyssa Wikana 91,89,90 (270) +54 Nett 64,62,63 (189) -27
I am very proud to report that each of our juniors represented themselves, clubs and JNJG with high quality attitudes, behaviour and etiquette. Each one of the boys and girls took the time to thank the clubs professionals before leaving and said their goodbye's to the multiple friends they made during the week.
Being the final night of our tour the juniors opt to relax in the hotel until dinner, which will be at the local Hogs Breath. Our juniors tell me tonight is "an all nighter".......we will see who can last the distance!!!
Day Seven - Saturday 16th
Final day is here and the packing has begun. Our team put in a big night of socialising and they seem to be regretting it this morning.......Checkout at 10am and we hit the road for some shopping at the Hamilton Centre. One hour of shopping is on before we jump back in the bus and commence our hour and a half trip back to Auckland International Airport. Drop the squad off and Mark returns the hire bus before heading back to join the squad at the airport. Following check-in some head of for duty free shopping while some others look like they are keen to find a quite spot for some much needed shut-eye!! Our Emirates A380 flight to Sydney departs Auckland at 6:20pm with arrival in Sydney at 8:20pm. Following the customs process I am guessing some will be asleep in the back seat before they leave Sydney International!!!
Mark Ingrey, JNJG Territory Manager, Newcastle, Hunter and Central Coast
