Willis Switches Speed Codes
Lower Hutt-born middle-distance Olympic medallist Nick Willis, 30, is venturing into the hybrid sport of speed golf and will participate in the Speedgolf World Championships on 26 October and 27 October at…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Casual Brilliance Shines Brightest of All in Canada
“Amateur Lydia Ko is a humble sports prodigy, a student and 16 years old, all of which means that rarely have the absolute best pros in women’s golf had their collective butts…
Lydia Ko Wins Canadian Women’s Open
16-year-old Lydia Ko has made history at the CN Canadian Women’s Open, defending her Canadian Open title with a dominating win in Alberta and becoming the first amateur in history to win two LPGA…
Alongside Her Idol
Top-ranked amateur golf player in the world, New Zealander Lydia Ko, 15, partnered with American professional Michelle Wie at Mission Hills Country Club in California, where the first major of the women’s…
Lydia Ko ‘Just Incredible’
Steve Williams says he’s almost lost for words when it comes to fellow Kiwi Lydia Ko’s achievements, according to The Age. Williams has caddied for Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, Raymond Floyd and now Adam…
Talent Gets On With It
“The golf prodigy Lydia Ko was asked how she would cope with being the youngest competitor this week at the Women’s British Open, which was like asking Sean Lennon how he deals with being…
Teen Golfer Makes History
Fifteen-year-old amateur sensation Aucklander Lydia Ko has made golfing history becoming the youngest LPGA champion closing with a 5-under 67 for a three-stroke victory over at Inbee Park to win the Canadian Women’s Open….
Honours at Blackwolf Run
Fifteen-year-old world top-ranked amateur golfer, Aucklander Lydia Ko, has taken low amateur honours in the U.S. Women’s Open, at Blackwolf Run, Wisconsin. Although Ko is still an amateur, she has not only played with…
Pebble Beach On Steroids
“There are a lot of places your golf ball can go on this course, and many of them are not good,” cautioned Ryan Brandeburg, the director of golf at a thrill ride of a…
Thrilling Win for Paddison
Wellington golfer Gareth Paddison, 31, held on in a nail-biting finish to win the Victorian PGA Championship at Creswick’s Forest Park by one shot ahead of Australian Leighton Lyle. Forest Resort pro-golfer Ben Roberts…
Teenage Dream Come True
Fourteen-year-old North Harbour amateur Lydia Ko has become the youngest winner of a professional golf tour event, taking the women’s New South Wales Open by four strokes. South Korean-born Ko, the world’s top amateur,…
Emphatic Win For Talented Teen
Auckland golf prodigy Lydia Ko has reinforced her ranking as the world’s best female amateur with an emphatic win in the Australian amateur championship at Woodlands in Melbourne. Ko, a gifted 14-year-old, beat Australian…
Swinging Up the Ranks
New Zealand’s Danny Lee, 21, the 2008 US Amateur champion, has won the WNB Golf Classic for his first second tier United States Nationwide Tour title, beating former Georgia star Harris English with a…
Sensitive Golfing
In the space of three weeks this winter, Cape Kidnappers Golf Course was honoured as the most environmentally sensitive golf course in New Zealand, and by GOLF Magazine as the 33rd ranked golf course…
Time For a Change
Tiger Woods says goodbye to long-time caddie Steve Williams after twelve years, 13 majors and 72 tournament wins. Woods and Williams, have been together since 1999. “I want to express my deepest…
Golfer’s dream courses
The sister golf courses of Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers are included in a list of Toronto Star travel writer Ian Cruickshank’s “top five places that still need to be played.” “Kauri Cliffs teeters…
Honoured this year
Golfer Bob Charles, 74, has been made a member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ), restricted to 2 living New Zealanders, in the New Year Honours. Carterton-born Charles was the first left-hander to…
More Than Tiger’s Caddy
Golf caddy Steve Williams always wanted to carry someone else’s golf clubs, and he ended up carrying them for Tiger Woods. Williams could always see that the golfers he caddied for did well. “I…
Sparkling run continues
Former first-class cricketer Aucklander Michael Hendry, 3, has won the million-dollar Indonesia Open at Damai Indah golf club in Jakarta. In-form Hendry, who won the Fiji Open two weeks ago, finished with a four-round…
With All the Trappings
Kauri Cliffs is where Golf.com blogger Connell Barrett wants to get married and divorced. “I love, love, love this place. Love it,” Barrett writes. ‘Terrible tragedy of the South Seas,’ a Brit once…
Pro and ready for PGA
14 April 2009 – Eighteen-year-old New Zealand US Amateur Champion Danny Lee has turned pro, signing a deal believed to be worth $US10 million with IMG. Lee will make his professional debut at the…
In good company
US Amateur champion Rotorua-raised Danny Lee, 18, joins two other teenagers on the field at the US Masters in Augusta, Georgia prompting golfing great Tiger Woods to comment on the “new bloods” and the…
Golf enhanced
The “scenic but challenging” Cape Kidnappers course is played by Golf Digest’s Max Adler who describes in an online diary that “unlike a lot of courses that encompass improbable geography, Kidnappers is laid out…
Down but not out
Sir Bob Charles and US amateur champion Danny Lee, 18, were amongst the line-up at the New Zealand Open, with Charles, “believed to be the oldest golfer to make the cut on any of…
Birdies for a win
Rotorua golfing sensation Danny Lee, 18, the world’s No 1 amateur, has won the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth finishing 17-under-par with a one-stroke victory, the youngest player to win a professional European Tour…
Steve Enlivens the Game
Wellington-born caddy Steve Williams has “outraged” everyone “in this politically correct world”, but not the writers at the New York Daily News who say rather than offending anyone, Williams has “spiced up a rivalry…
Women’s Open Confirmed
Wellington golfer Sarah Nicholson and Aucklander Liz McKinnon will be two of 20 New Zealand and Australian players in a total field of 144 to appear at the inaugural New Zealand Women’s Open staged…
Southpaw Inducted
Carterton-born golfer Sir Bob Charles, 72, has been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the veterans category – the Hall of Fame’s first New Zealander, and its first left-hander. Charles won…
Amateur Golfer Impresses
New Zealand geologist David Pocknall, 55, who is now based in the United States, is also an avid golfer winning a Texan club championship six times and now looking to claim the 2008 Men’s…
Golf’s Rising Star
Rotorua schoolboy Danny Lee, 18, has the golfing world at his feet after becoming the youngest player ever to win the US Amateur championship, held at the Pinehurst club in North Carolina last week….
Campbell’s Beginnings
Hawera-born, Brighton-based golfer Michael Campbell is eating bacon sandwiches at the Royal Ashdown Forest clubhouse in Sussex where he explains his golfing initiation in Taranaki. “I started playing on a local course where you…
Luxury Golf Getaways
The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs in the Bay of Islands was voted one of New Zealand’s best resorts in 2007 and one of the top 20 resorts in the world by readers of Andrew…
Keoghan the Sportsman
New Zealand television presenter Phil Keoghan donned a kilt, picked up a 7 iron and hit a golf ball across Scotland. As host of The Amazing Race, Keoghan has travelled the world and done…
Brown the New Nobilo
Wellington golfer Mark Brown has had a successful week in India, winning first the Asian Tour’s SAIL Open then clinching the US$2.5 million Johnnie Walker Classic, making him one of only six New…
Age No Barrier
Sir Bob Charles made history at this year’s NZ Open by becoming the oldest man to make the cut on a major non-seniors tour. The 71-year-old New Zealander finished four under par and tied…
Woods & Williams Still a Team
Steve Williams, Tiger Woods’ NZ-born caddie, has denied reports he is intending to end the pair’s lucrative eight-year partnership. “I have no idea where this has come from,” Williams told NZ’s Sunday Star-Times. “Perhaps Tiger may…
2005 Campbell’s Year
Golfer Michael Campbell has been named NZ’s Sportsperson of the Year for 2005 after winning both the US Open and the World Matchplay Championship in Britain. It is the second time Campbell has won the country’s…
Major Campbell
2005 is undoubtedly Michael Campbell’s year. Not content with winning the US Open last month, Campo has snatched a “knife-edge” victory in the HSBC World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth. Past winners of the esteemed tournament, which boasts…
Kia Kaha Cambo
Michael Campbell held off a late charge by Tiger Woods to win the 105th US Open at Pinehurst, his first major championship. He become the first Kiwi to win a major title since Bob Charles…
Right Royal Honour
Rt Hon Justice Thomas Munro Gault is to be the first NZ’er in history to head the Royal & Ancient – the prestigious governing body on the rules of golf recognised everywhere except the U.S. Gault,…
Queen of the Green
17-year-old Kiwi, Enu Chung, is the latest and greatest addition to Berkley University’s women’s golf team. Chung has previously represented NZ in the sport and was voted the country’s female golfer of the year for 2004. Daily…
Supercaddie
New York Times profiles Tiger Woods’ right-hand man, Kiwi Steve Williams. “If Tiger Woods wanted a meek caddie, he would not have hired Steve Williams … Powerfully built, meticulously prepared and fiercely loyal, Williams has successfully partnered…
Sir Bob Farewelled in Almost Perfect Symmetry
NZ golfing great, Sir Bob Charles, made his last ever appearance at the NZ Open – an event he won for the first of 4 times as an 18-year-old amateur in 1954. Said Charles, prior to…
Down Under Up-and-coming
CNN profiles the rash of Australasian talent currently infiltrating PGA ranks. Included in its top ten are two NZ golfers, “since to North Americans they’re Down Under, too” – Michael Campbell (world ranking 45) and Phil Tataurangi…
Iron Will
Golfer Phil Tataurangi has returned from injury in time to defend his Las Vegas Invitational title in October. Tataurangi was forced to drop out of the professional circuit in May in order to have corrective surgery on…
Tataurangi Topples World No.2
Kiwi golfer Phil Tataurangi brought an abrupt end to Ernie Els winning streak, knocking the South African star out of the Accenture Match Play Championship with a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. The Championship pairs…
Caddie by Day…
Steve Williams – the NZ-born caddie to Tiger Woods – is gaining sponsorship recognition in his own right. The race car driver has just signed a lucrative deal with Valvoline, whose logo he will wear while…
The Next Big Swing
Dunedin golfer Mahal Pearce has registered on the international radar after a close win at January’s NZ Open. Pearce – already dubbed “the man with the million-dollar swing” – finished just two strokes ahead of Brett Rumford….
“Fairway to Heaven”
“Spectacularly gorgeous NZ a bargain for golfers” (Detroit Free Press). Golf-mad travel writer scours the length of the country for the best greens available – from the golden beaches of Kauri Cliffs to mountain views at Lake…
Vegas Pays Up
Golfer Philip Tataurangi had the first US PGA Tour win of his career at the Las Vegas Classic, beating Australia’s Stuart Appleby by one shot. The 32-year-old pulled out his best round ever – 10 under…
Luck of the Irish?
Michael Campbell rose to 16th in the world rankings and received a timely boost before the upcoming British Open by winning the European Open and half a million Euro winner’s cheque. But the Maori-NZer with the…
Job with Perks
“A champion no one knew. A finish no one can forget.” In New Zealand’s greatest golfing moment since Bob Charles won the British Open in 1963 Craig Perks shot a stunning final round to clinch the Players’…
The Peoples’ Choice
“New Zealand’s most revered sportsman”, Michael Campbell, finishes a gallant second at the NZ Golf Open, five strokes ahead of world No 1 Tiger Woods. Back in the clubhouse, Campbell announces he will allocate to children’s charities…
Tiger Tamer
13-year-old New Zealander, Jae An, becomes the youngest ever male to play a professional golf tournament, and then the youngest golfer ever to make the cut, when he lines up alongside Tiger Woods at the New…
Fit to Fight Tiger
Top Kiwi golfer and World No.15 Michael Campbell answers the Independent’s Q&A about his routine – how he gets into the mental and physical swing of things …
