Take a look around the interprovincial championship at the Otago Golf Club this week and it feels more like a 21st party than a golf tournament.
It really is a young man's game. The gym gets more of a workout than the bar.
The Auckland team does not have anyone aged over 21.
Hawkes Bay has a 14-year-old in its ranks, and Bay of Plenty has a team of youngsters.
Otago, with an average age of 30, has the oldest of the teams at the tournament, while Peter Brinsdon (49), who has played at No 5 this week for Wellington, is the oldest among the 75 players lining up.
He has racked up a couple of wins and three losses at the tournament.
''It does make me feel young, playing against these guys. But it is pretty much a young person's sport now,'' he said.
''A lot of these guys practise a hell of a lot and that is all they do, or they have a job built around their golf. When you get a bit older, you find you don't have that time. You've got a job or family to look after.''
Brinsdon, the general manager of Wellington Golf, said experience did help during the week, and it was a tough physical task playing on such a hilly course.
He first went to a interprovincial tournament in 1985, playing for Aorangi, and admitted he felt everyone was older then, although he ''was a lot younger back then''.
''At the elite level, guys are getting a lot younger and getting that international experience. But the standard of masters golf is getting higher all the time.''
Hawkes Bay youngster Max Gill played at No 4 for his side, and is believed to be the youngest at the championship.
The 14-year-old was born in Korea but moved to New Zealand when he was 3 and started playing golf when he was 7.
Auckland selection convener Warren Leitch had a team which varied in age from 18 to 21 and was the youngest the province had picked. It was selected with an eye to the future, he said.
