Most Difficult Hole

What’s the most difficult hole on your course? Par 3 over water? Par 4 with out of bounds on the right?

No.

It’s the 19th.

The 19th is where it really counts, where you have your best opportunity to impress because you don’t even have to touch a golf club. It’s your chance to recount all those magnificent shots that carved the centre of the fairway and then took a horrific bounce into the rough. All those holes where you hit the ball superbly but bad luck dogged your score. 

If you can’t handle the 19th, you’re doomed. Doomed to smile and nod sympathetically while festering inside because no one cares about your game, your hard-luck stories.

Because … other golfers have heard it all before. Their eyes glaze over, as they switch off and contemplate their own ill-fated bounces.

I have great news for all golfers who struggle at the 19th.

New Zealand.

New Zealand, with its readily accessible, infinite variety of golf courses, is the excuse-makers’ paradise. It will provide you with score vindication which no one will question and you can back up your claims with convincing photographic evidence. Your golfing buddies will be so riveted they’ll forget it’s your turn to buy the drinks.

We have a 9-hole golf course on an active volcano, Mt Ruapehu. There are golf courses around Rotorua and Taupo which incorporate thermal activity (boiling mud pools, fumeroles). Some courses use sheep as fairway mowers and they provide heaps of excellent 19th stories. 

Many other courses have spectacular scenery which will take the listeners' focus off your score and on to your story. Queenstown's Kelvin Heights would be near the top of that list.

Over the following days, I'll cover some of New Zealand's most satisfying courses.

Satisfying not only for golf, but also for the 19th.

I did a similar article for an Aussie golf magazine a few years ago, but this series of blogs will update that.