The Motueka Golf Club has been rewarded for its forward thinking and hard work by being named New Zealand’s 2018 Golf Club of the Year.

A 23 percent rise in membership was one of many reasons the 400-member club, now in its 98th year, was recognised nationally.

Club president Peter Johnson said the club, described by golfing legend Sir Bob Charles as “a hidden gem”, had applied for the award in November and found out they had been successful in February.

He was then flown to Queenstown to receive the trophy on behalf of the club at the NZ Golf Open at Millbrook. The award citation said the Motueka GC had demonstrated “leadership, excellence and innovation”.    

“It was a huge thrill,” Johnson said, “wonderful for the club”.

“There were seven different criteria [for the award] and I thought we looked pretty good across them all … participation, equity, club programmes, coaching, NZ Golf tools, financial and governance strength … also the fact we have increased our membership by 23 percent in the last three years … that was quite an impressive achievement for a golf club.”

He puts the membership surge down to a number of club initiatives. “We run a programme called “She Loves Golf”, which is a NZ Golf initiative but we actually started it before NZ Golf did and have been running that for three years. It is aimed at getting women into golf … we ran [the programme] every Monday evening through the summer at no cost to the ladies. They came along for an hour or so and we used volunteers from the club to teach them how to play the game and the etiquette required.

“We have picked up somewhere between 25 and 30 members from that.” 

He also credits a welcoming approach to newcomers with boosting numbers. The Motueka club has a tagline, “The Friendliest Golf Club in the Top of the South”, and Johnson says they strive to live up to that, going out of their way to make people feel welcome, both new members and green fee players.

The club have also made innovative plans for the younger brigade, paying a professional from the Nelson club to teach golf once a month at the Motueka schools, free of charge. “Then [the juniors] could come along to a coaching session at the club, also at no cost. That was great for the youngsters … it created quite a bit of interest.”   

Johnson, who has been president for the past five years, said the award was a tribute to the club’s “fantastic” greenkeepers, who keep the picturesque tree-lined 18-hole course, near the Tasman Bay seaside, in tip-top condition, a “really dedicated” committee and a strong group of volunteers.

Recently, Johnson was able to share his club’s success story at a Sport Tasman-facilitated Sports Leaders Forum staged in Nelson on Tuesday, April 17.

Andy Morris, community sports advisor (Nelson), organised the forum and asked Johnson to offer some insight into the golf club’s award-winning operation.

Morris praised his input and labelled the forum as a success, with nine leaders across various sports in attendance.

“The idea of the form was to connect the various codes and get them networking, engaging and sharing … identifying common challenges we all face and looking at how we can collectively resolve those issues.”

He said there had been some good feedback, with the group being keen to get back together in early June to continue the collaboration.  

Photo Caption: Peter Johnson, president of the Motueka Golf Club, receives the 2018 Holden NZ Golf Club of the Year award from Marnie Samphier, general manager marketing for Holden, at this year's NZ Golf Open.