A golf game that has a big heart
T9. en farms will again be used for the annual 12-hole Gorge Road and Districts Golf Tournament on July
The course is spread over farms in Gorge Road, Mokotua and surrounding areas and there is about a kilometre between each property.
Nineteen teams of five people took part last year, and coorganiser Greg Hart expects a similar number this year.
The tournament is a fundraising event primarily for the Gorge Road School, but the Gorge Road Swimming Pool and Country Club also receive funds.
Last year, three students from the area were given funds to help with costs of school trips to Borneo and Japan and a football tournament outside the province.
The entry fee to the tournament is $300 a team.
Hart, a Gorge Road dairy farmer, came up with the idea of holding the tournament while on the Gorge Road School’s board of trustees. He was on it for nine years, including three as chairman.
Hart was thinking of ways to generate money for the school.
With the belief of making the most out of ideas, he wanted to hold a community event to raise a large amount of money.
‘‘My motto is go big or go home.’’
Hart and three other dairy farmers in the area - Heidi Williams, Barry Warnock and Grant O’Conner - and Gorge Road Country Club manager Matt Hawkes, organised the first tournament in 2012.
‘‘We got 12 teams the first year and its grown since,’’ Hart said.
Several weeks before the annual tournament, the organisers put out flyers advertising the event and visit businesses for sponsorship.
Businesses give money or products for the many raffles on the day.
‘‘It’s bloody hard going to businesses when they could be struggling.’’
On the day, teams start at different holes and then travel by vehicles to other holes until completing all 12.
‘‘Some holes, could be chipping