MEET CLUB OFFICIALS - Manager Adrian Porter
Hailing from Liverpool, sport has been Adrian's life, he started playing golf at an early age at the West Lancashire Golf Club a short walk from his childhood home.
He was lucky to grow up in an area that had seven of the top 50 golf courses in England including West Lancashire and the Royal triumvirate of Birkdale, Liverpool and Lytham all within 20km of home.
Having worked in sport all over the world he started his career at the Lawn Tennis Association in London before moving to Australia to work as National Advertising manager in the Sports Department of Kerry Packer's ACP Magazines.
The British Lions Tour of 2005 brought Adrian to New Zealand to run New Zealand Rugby's publishing projects. A brief stint as manager of Karori GC in 2007 was cut short by a move to Singapore and then London before returning to NZ in 2013 taking up a position at the New Zealand Institute of Sport where he lectured in Sport Management.
He maintained his membership at Karori throughout his time overseas and joined the committee on his return serving in 2013/2014 and then as vice president in 2018/2019/2020.
He holds a PGA coaching licence and also works with Wellington Golf on their Ready Set Golf program in schools. These days if not at the club, Adrian can often be found doing laps of the Karori Pool.
Friday Flash grilled Adrian:
Liverpool or Everton? Everton of course, no one in Liverpool actually supports them!!!
Best round ever? 70 (-2) at West Lancashire and 69 (-1) at Karori both off the back tees!
Have you ever had a hole-in-one? No. But I’ve had three albatrosses - one on the 7th at Karori
What’s your favourite hole at Karori? It’s 14, the short but challenging par 5, the slope makes it substantially longer than the 400m on the card
Tell us about your family? Kate and I have been married for 22 years and we have two boys, Sam 19 and Max 16.
NEW TABLE (and chair)
The Shirties have raised the funds and Laurie ‘Ace’ Cook has donated his labour to produce another excellent asset for the club. (Laurie also made and donated the other table).
The new table is apparently excellent for putting beer and cafe goodies on. It also inspires a lot of banter.
Laurie Cook with the new table he has built on the deck of the clubhouse. Thanks Shirties, and Laurie for cooking it up.
Message from the Green Keepers and the Manager.
Please try and take a sand bucket out with you and fill the divots on the way round. If you need a pitch mark repairer we have hundreds in the clubhouse, it will make a difference.
We would also like to offer members the opportunity to purchase a Golden Jubilee polo shirt from Footjoy, embroidered with the Karori Logo and 1970-2020 the cost will be around $80, I am looking for expressions of interest from members, please email me karorigolfclub@gmail.com (pictures next week)
INTERCLUB
First of all, we failed to note women’s interclub was set to return this week for the first time since March. And they returned in style, with a 5-4 win over leaders Boulcott’s Farm at Te Marua. This week they play second-placed Royal Wellington, at Shandon.Look at how close the table is.
There are only two rounds left in men’s interclub, and all three Karori teams are in the top three. Division 2 (3rd) have a tough assignment away to Mahunga, Div 5 (3rd) are home to top team Manor Park and Div 9 (2nd) led by Geoffrey Lee are at home to No 1 side Shandon. Here are the current placings.
WEDNESDAY CLUB
Here are the cumulative (that means all added together) par scores from November, compiled by Chris ‘Numbers’ Pearce.
60, Fergus McLean
58, Patrick Cordue
55, Martin Leung
54, John Markham
53, Graham Presland
52, Chris ‘Numbers’ Pearce
51, Derek Fitzgibbon, Gunter Karau
49, Michael Cox
45, David Norton, MIke Suggate
44, Dick Adam, Victor Diem
43, Peter Kennedy
42, Saint Kennach
35, Doug Calhoun, Paul Hawkes, Luke Underwood
34, Gaskie
33, Satish Chandra
COVID SCANNING
For those of you with smart phones and the Dot.Golf app, please use that to check in at the course. You must still check in or scan the QR Code (it’s that weird jigsaw puzzle thing) as per the Government request of this week.
DOT.GOLF
Post-Covid, those starved of regular sport are looking to take up golf. Some are just rolling up, others are phoning in for slots. It would be a big help for the clubs (and to prevent people being pissed off when the course is packed) to book tee times online (at all times but especially Saturday and Sunday). The last weekend mornings have been very busy, which is awesome to see, but tricky to manage. Please help.
WESTWOOD HO
Quarter Finals are on Sunday good luck to all players
A BIT OF A CLANGER
The bell is back on the 18th fairway right hand side. It was retired briefly when Covid-19 stopped people touching things.
PLACING THROUGH THE GREEN
After all the rain over the last MONTH it’s muddy, it’s soft, so there is placing through the green. That means you can legally place the ball within 15cm, anywhere except in a hazard.
BEWARE OF SLIPPERY STUFF
Be careful around the course. There are lots of slippery bits. Watch your footing, use the netted part of the bridges. If you’ve hit your ball on to a potential area of peril remember its cheaper and less painful to leave it there than hurt yourself.
Frost is another danger. There is potential to slip on bridges particularly. Use the wire bit PLEASE!
CLUBHOUSE HOURS
Monday - 10am-3pm
Tuesday 9am-3pm
Wednesday 9.30am-4.30pm
Thursday 10am-3pm
Friday 9.30am-3.30pm
Saturday 9am-5pm
Sunday 9am-5pm
FIREWOOD (keep warm, help the club)
It’s winter, it’s a bit brisk already. You need to keep warm, so the club has a deal for you. Members can now buy firewood from the club, if they bring their own trailer.
Trailer load prices
Pine $120
WEDNESDAY CLUB
FRIDAY CLUB
WOMEN’S
SUNDAY CLUB DAY
FUNNY
