No queuing required

OPINION: On New Year's Eve, having smashed our way through the day's early deadline, a colleague and I headed out for the golf course, writes Nathan Burdon in this week's Straight Up.

He sits on a handicap that is about 10 shots better than mine, but for the latest few rounds together I have – to put it bluntly – been ruining him.

This is partly because my game has improved slightly in recent weeks, while his has been slipping backwards like an ocean liner heading down the causeway for its maiden voyage.

For privacy reasons, and to avoid any potential embarrassment or libel actions, I won't name him – except to say he is this newspaper's agri-business reporter, he lives in Otatara and his name is Mark Hotton.

Apparently Hotton had decided that the winner of the New Year's Eve bash would claim the mantle of top golfer, regardless of what had happened during the previous 12 months.

I'm adamant I didn't agree to this, which, yes, means I lost.

The reason I bring this up is that because we were the only ones on the entire golf course.

Yes, it was New Year's, and many people may have had something better to do.

Yes, it had been bucketing down all afternoon and was still pretty grey when we headed out.

But for all that it was actually pretty good out there.

Which got me thinking about the superb facilities we have on our doorstep.

Thanks to some generous community funders, Invercargill, and the south as a whole, continues to develop some of the best places to play and watch sport in New Zealand.

Even better, because of our relative lack of population, you won't have to stand in a queue or, in many cases, even book to enjoy them.

This is a big thing.

Where else in the world would you find such an abundance of opportunities on your doorstep, largely inexpensive and accessible?Which just leaves it up to us to make the most of them.

Sure, the opposite side of the coin can be the climate.

We don't always get the ideal weather to get out there and get among it.

The simple application of a jacket and some get-hard pills can alleviate that problem, however.

Hope you had a merry Christmas and a safe New Year.

» Nathan Burdon has been the Southland Times sports editor since 2003 and has won numerous journalism awards, including provincial sports writer of the year.

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