Two of Otago's famous golfing sons have taken up positions in Golf Otago with a view to lifting the standard of the men's game in the province after the team had a lacklustre performance in the national interprovincial championships last year.
Millbrook-based professional Ben Gallie will manage the Otago senior team as well as the under-23 and under-19 Otago teams in their various competitions.
Sharpies Golf professional Alan Rose has joined his brother, Murray (Clyde), in a two-man selection panel which will select all but the schoolboy and under-16 teams.
The pair will bring a wealth of experience, with Rose getting down to business in the first trial which will be held over 36 holes at Chisholm Park tomorrow.
Gallie was a member of the Otago men's team in 2000 to 2002, competing in 33 inter-provincial matches for a record of 21 wins, five halves and seven losses.
The highlight of his amateur career came in 2001 when he won the New Zealand amateur championship, a title which rarely comes to the South.
Gallie joined the professional ranks in 2002, playing on the Australasian Tour in 2003 and 2006 and the Canadian Tour from 2003 to 2005.
His best professional performance was carding 12-under-par to finish second in the E-loan Valley Classic in Canada.
He returned to Otago and settled in Arrowtown and has now qualified as a NZPGA teaching professional at the Millbrook Resort.
Rose had a successful amateur debut as a member of a young Otago team which won the national title at Balmacewen in 1982.
He moved to the North Island and played in many interprovincial events with success.
He was the captain of the Wellington team which contained Michael Campbell before he returned to Dunedin.
He captained Otago when it finished second, the province's best placing in recent years.
Rose was only to play in one such event for Otago as he turned professional and opened the Sharpies Golf Barn in Dunedin.
