The questions
1. What is your earliest memory of Balmacewen?
2. What is your favourite memory at the club?
3. If you could only play one hole at Balmacewen again, which would it be and why?
Mahal Pearce
Golf Otago chief executive
1. Those trees down the first hole, ha ha. I was probably about 12 when I played there for the first time. I think I went in those trees the majority of the time I teed off there. They seemed that high all those years ago.
2. Winning the club champs back to back. Beating a stalwart of the club in John McKay and then beating Scotty Kennard, a mate of mine, on the 19th. I think that was 1995-96.
3. Good question. Probably The Glen, the 11th. I do like the hole. But when I played my first strokeplay, I had two very, very high numbers on that hole in one day. I would only have been 15 or 16.
Greg Turner
Professional and course designer
1. My best mate at high school was David Skeggs, and we used to play at Belleknowes. He wanted to drag me over to Balmacewen to play - this was about 1977. We went over and had a game, and if my memory serves me right, the green fee was $5. Then we discovered that the membership fee for juniors was only $15, so I went in and asked if I could join and if I could use the green fee as a credit, and the general manager wouldn’t do it. So I begrudgingly had to front up with my $15.
2. Winning the Otago matchplay there. It would have been maybe 1980 or 1981. That was sort of quite a big deal, and an important step for me. Winning a provincial title at 16 or 17 was quite an achievement.
3. No 3. Because I can still drive the green and it’s downhill, ha ha.
Shelly Duncan
Otago golf club general manager
1. Looking from my house on to the sixth fairway. We moved into one of the new houses on Balmacewen Rd when I was 3. Dad reckons it’s where I learnt to swear - and not from him but from the golfers going past. There was no fence, so the golf course was kind of our backyard.
2. Winning the Otago provincial champs for the first time as a 15-year-old. I raced back home to change and I don’t think my feet touched the ground. I was walking on a cloud. It was a phenomenal feeling.
3. I’d probably say the sixth, because it’s outside my parents’ house and it’s got so many fond memories for me.
