The HBHS Elite Golf team finishes fifth in New Zealand.

2022 has been another great year for Golf at HBHS. The school championships were hosted in early February, and due to COVID-19, only involved the top golfers in the school. Isaac Steel won the junior championship and secured a position in the top four. Jakob Bird was named Golf Captain for 2022 after being top golfer in the school for the last three years. Jakob Bird shot 73 at the school championships but was beaten by one shot by Michael Ellis (Year 13) a new student from Hauraki Plains College.

Unfortunately, Michael was not able to represent the school in the Super 8 Golf Tournament, so our top four were Jakob Bird (1), Ricci Putohe (2), Isaac Steel (3) and Christopher Seel (4). New Plymouth were hot favourites as they were the defending champions with no changes in their team. In round one the scoring rounds were Jakob (74), Ricci (74), and Isaac (73). Round two saw the following scores: Jakob (74), Ricci (75) and Chris (74). Finally, in round three, the scores were Jakob (80), Isaac (73), and Chris (78). The crazy thing about this, after all of this golf, we took the Super 8 shield by one shot. Isaac Steel, our Year 10 golfer, was the star as the most consistent golfer in the team. 

I will never forget Ricci Putohe's performance in the Matchplay Championships. Ricci was one down heading to the 18th tee. His playing partner hit a solid shot and the crowd clapped. Ricci stepped up knowing he was going to have to hit it close to stay in the fight. The ball carried the bunker and we couldn't see it, but we heard the crowd cheer and clap as Ricci hit his second hole-in-one in a week. The special thing for me was Ricci made the final and had a shocking start but fought back from four down to take it all the way to a 2 and 1 loss. He showed outstanding perseverance and control of his temperament to stay in the fight.

The golf team went through all traditional exchanges undefeated and showed lots of character to draw with New Plymouth four all.

The National Championship saw us enter three teams, the most of any other boys' school. Team 1 was Michael Ellis (Year 13), who took out the senior championship by 8 shots after 234 holes of golf, Jakob Bird (Year 13), the Captain of Golf, and Isaac Steel, the junior golf champion. The golfers played two rounds and the best two scores out of the three golfers were taken. We had Isaac Steel's 72 and Michael Ellis's 73 in round one and Isaac Steel's 74 and Jakob Bird's 79, which meant we finished fifth in New Zealand.

The individual highlights were Christopher Seel (Year 13) in team two, who was the only golfer who qualified in the top 20 in the Under 19's, who finished 16th overall. Isaac Steel and Ricci Putohe qualified in the top 20 for the Under 16's, with Ricci finishing 9th and Isaac finished 5th.

We lose four top golfers this year and I wish them well for their future endeavours. I'll be looking for more golfers next year and encourage students to give it a whirl as it is so accessible while you are young. I love this job and am already looking forward to working with the Elite Golf squad in 2023.