Golfing Success

Kairangi Koni played in the Lydia Ko Junior Open Championship at Gulf Harbour earlier this month over 36 holes. Although he didn’t finish how he wanted to in the Under 13 boys section, he was third equal gross losing on a count back in the prize lists. He had rounds of 72 and 79, a total 151, finishing in third equal after being in 2nd place and behind by 1 shot on Saturday. I had a chat with him after his final round asking him what had happened. He said that he wanted to win the tournament by playing more aggressively and going for the pins, to make birdies. This aggressive style was a dramatic change to what he did the previous day where he played safely to the middle of the greens in regulation. The winner finished at 145. However frustrating for him, he did what he could and he will learn course management over time. The greens were running at a 10 on the stimp meter, the pin locations were tricky, and the wind and heat during the days made it tough. The days were long with both rounds lasting 5 ½ hours minimum, frustratingly slow for all concerned. However, these were the same conditions for the whole field. For a tournament of this caliber, I was expecting groups to at least be shown slow play penalties given the number of marshals and officials that were out in the field.