Four-raker Wells' pride and joy

MURRAY WILSON/Manawatu Standard

THE WELLS BUNKER: Manawatu Golf Club course superintendent Malcolm Wells proudly takes responsibility for the gigantic new bunker on the 14th hole.

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Golf course bunkers tend to be measured by the numbers of rakes which inhabit them and Hokowhitu's newest is a "four-raker".

When 75 of the country's best amateurs assail the course next Tuesday morning, they will encounter the biggest bunker in Manawatu-Wanganui, sitting unobtrusively on the left of the par-5 14th.

It was completed only a few weeks ago but well in time for the Toro national interprovincial teams tournament, the biggest event in the two years Malcolm Wells has been the course superintendent.

The 500 square metre bunker is Wells' biggest stamp on the course. One member who was caught by the sand trap said it was big enough to accommodate a state house.

The 14th, Westward Ho, measures 450 metres off the blue tees.

"The hole definitely needed toughening up," Wells said.

"Some of the guys can hit quite large and, with the wind behind them, people will get up this far."

Young Manawatu player Josh Munn, the No5 in the Manawatu-Wanganui team, almost reached the massive bunker off the tee last week.

But Wells says his aim wasn't to combat the bombers driving off the blue tees 300 metres back. It was to penalise wayward players and have their second shots out of the trees just trundling up towards the green. In construction, the bunker gobbled up three full Higgins truckloads and three trailer-loads of white sand, brought from Matamata and laid to a depth of 150mm.

"We needed to have it big to make it drastic and to have some appeal for the hole, to be something different," Wells said.

He feels more bunkering is the way the course will probably go.

His new bunker has an island in it, one in which he planned to plant ornamental tussock around a rock. The committee vetoed that and the island is rather bare.

Wells has the rough cut to 65mm for the tournament and the green speed will be 10.5 on the stimpmeter come Tuesday. By the end of the interprovincial they will be running at a fast 12 to 12.5.

"Everything is determined by the 10th," Wells explained. "If they're too fast, the ball will roll off that green if it gets windy. We want it to be enjoyable."

There's a new rule in force this year: If a ball rolls from where it has been marked, it must be played from the new position.

Wells is praying for fine weather because he's had to endure one of the wettest springs for years. His staff have had to pump water off the 12th and 17th holes but the greens are hard and firm.

Wells would love to be playing but work comes first now. He had to bypass the recent Freyberg Masters tournament.

He missed the previous interprovincial at Hokowhitu, in 1986, by one year.

Since 1987, he played in 10 tournaments for Manawatu-Wanganui and once was a reserve, when representing Levin, Foxton, Palmerston North, Golf City and Brookfields Park.

On a +0.4 handicap, his playing days are far from over. He hopes to qualify for the United States senior professional tour when he turns 50.

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