On The Tee Golf New Zealand Podcast

Our hosts talk with veteran Kiwi professional Steve Alker who, after years toiling on minor tours, turned 50 years old and qualified for the senior Champions Tour and won his first senior tour event straight out of the gate. In closing out 2021, Steve has won more prize money than he had ever expected. What’s the reason for this sudden take-off in his career? We reached him at his home in Arizona to find out.

Former professional tour player and leading golf coach, Simon Thomas, talks about the latest in technology and the ways everything from new metal combinations to solid core golf balls might (or might not) improve your game. As the Director of a successful golf academy at St. Peter’s College in Cambridge, you’ll be surprised to learn just how many junior golfers have enrolled in his programme.

After many years of planning and negotiation between two of New Zealand’s most desired golf clubs (that were located next door to each other in South Auckland) work on an entirely new, merged 18 holes with new facilities, designed by Nicklaus Golf and Patterson Architects, is complete. Our hosts talk with Warwick Hill-Rennie, the CEO of the (now) Royal Auckland Grange Golf Club, to get the lowdown on how it all unfolded.

The legendary coach Bob McDonald, now approaching 80 years old, and considered the best golf coach in New Zealand for more than 50 years (and who is as opinionated as ever) talks to Telfer & Hyde about his life in the game while offering game improvement tips every player struggling with their game ought to hear.

New Zealand celebrity television and radio broadcaster and top ranked amateur golfer, joins Telfer & Hyde to give his take on there the game of the top names in the game are at following on from the US Open and leading up to the Open Championship. Does anyone care about golf at the Olympics? And what’s up with Kiwi pros on tour? Is Lydia Ko making a comeback or not?

Our hosts talk to Thiem Nguyen, Manager of Participation for Golf New Zealand about the new ways in which the lead organisation for the sport in this country is working to be more inclusive and raise the number of people playing the game casually and as members of a club.

Kaye Maxwell was one of New Zealand’s top amateur golfers whose feminist outlook got her in trouble with golf administrators when she refuse to conform to the party line—whatever that was at the time. She quit New Zealand and headed overseas where she played and in time moved back to South Auckland, turned professional at a late age for teaching purposes, bought a farm, and converted it into a 9-hole course for women.

Gulf Harbour Country Club, site of the 1998 World Cup of Golf, and one of the most scenic courses in New Zealand, has been up and down. At one stage, members were forced to buy the club off its discredited owner. Our hosts talk with current Director of Golf, Frazer Bond, to find out where things are at today.

Former All Black captain, Sean Fitzpatrick, was back in New Zealand over the summer, so before he and his family returned to their home in the UK, he spoke with our hosts about his game, where he plays, the clubs he plays with, and, for him, the benefits of playing no matter the score.

Has New Zealand’s top professional lived up to expectations? Our hosts talk to Craig Tiriana, the Director of the Danny Lee Tournaments, who has watched Danny’s career unfold from the time he became a sensation as a teenager at Rotorua Boys High School.

Top Kiwi professional Ryan Fox, back from playing a European Tour event in Saudi Arabia, and looking ahead to the Open Championship in July, talks about what it’s like to be a travelling golf professional in the Age of Covid.

Former All Black coach, now on the Board of the Super Rugby Auckland Blues, talks about what golf means to him and what he gains from playing the game, no matter his score.

The world’s best known golf caddy, Steve Williams, voices his opinion on the PGA Tour’s proposed use of distance finders that, in theory, would take away the traditional role of caddies from stepping off distances and generally doing the work golf caddies are known to do.

Oreti Sands, a links course at the very bottom of the South Island, often called “the southern most golf course in the world” and one highly praised by both domestic and international golf writers, closed for good two years ago. After various attempts to re-open, the club is no more. Our hosts talk to Andy Fraser, a former member and one of the last remaining volunteers, to find out what happened.

What’s unique about the Rangitira Golf Club? Our hosts speak with greenskeeper and club record holder (65) Richie Nimmo about a feature on the 18th hole unlike any in the rest of the country. As well, they find out what’s going on at the club and how they managed an upgrade, demanded by council, that cost them $150,000.

New Zealand golf legend, John Lister, joins our hosts to kick off the 2021 season by looking at the controversy that developed at the Farmers Insurance Open, in California, when Patrick Reed picked up his embedded ball. As well, Telfer and Hyde look at what’s coming up in 2021 and, with Lister, who to keep an eye on among young Kiwi players coming through the ranks.

Our hosts look back at 2020 and consider the impact of Covid-19 on golf in New Zealand and around the world. Certainly professional tours lost their galleries and it was strange watching television coverage without the usual fan reactions. But then recreational golf experienced a mini-boom in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, individual stars had their ups and down, none more so than Tiger Woods.

Our hosts conduct an extended conversation with Geoff Saunders, the author of the first comprehensive biography of New Zealand’s greatest golfer, Sir Bob Charles, and to review the book and find out why it took 15 years to complete.

Greg Turner, once New Zealand’s best player on the European PGA Tour, has become New Zealand’s foremost golf course designer whose projects include the expansion of Millbrook Resort into a stunning 27-hole layout. He talks to Brendan Telfer about his design approach and what it takes to build a beautiful golf course for all handicappers.

Muriwai Beach Golf Club is one of the most rustic, charming golf links in New Zealand. With the Tasman Sea lapping at its shoreline, the club has overcome some serious(and expensive) re-routing and is today one of the most successful clubs in the country with a sold out membership and waiting list. Our hosts speak with long time President Malcolm Cooper and GM Andrew Jackson.