Captains Chronicles February 2026
I hope you’re enjoying the lovely summer weather and getting some good golf in while we’ve got daylight saving. The first few months of the year are action packed with Wallace Development Hastings Open, Club Champs and pennants.
Reminder to enter Club Champs
This year’s stroke play championship is being held over 36 holes on Saturday 21st and Saturday 28th Feb. In global golf, the biggest championships, such as the majors, are decided by strokeplay (as opposed to matchplay). In strokeplay its each man against the course and the rest of the field (as opposed to matchplay where in a match you’re only playing against your opponent). This year we’re trying to elevate our strokeplay event and give it more of a championship feel.
As such there will be a draw and you’ll play with other players in your division. Tee off will be between 11:14am and 12:30pm and the final weekend will be seeded according to position in the competition.
Entries close this Sat 14th Feb, 5pm. You can enter here: https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/12125010826310481404
As for previous years, the strokeplay event will be used as seeding for the matchplay, which is to follow.
Jones Fourball entries close March 7, 5pm, and are also on Golf Genius.
The Legendary Mr. Duff
A huge congrats to Stu Duff who won the New Zealand Men’s Seniors (over 50’s) tournament down in Christchurch last weekend. He did it in dramatic fashion, winning on the second hole of a playoff. This is his third title after winning it in 2018 and 2019 and comes on the back of knee surgery! Like a fine red wine, Stu just keeps getting better with age and is a real inspiration to us all. I must add, Stu puts in the work, and he gets the results. Well done, Stu. And “good on ya” to the other members of the Hastings Golf Club that made the trip down, we were well represented.
Wallace Development Hastings Open
With a concerted effort on social media and the internet, we managed to sell out the Hastings Open this year, which was fantastic. As usual the greenkeepers got the course into top notch condition and players were raving about how good it was. Well done to those of you that took part – it was a massive effort playing 36 holes on Saturday, but at the end of it all you look back with a sense of pride.
Club Fitting
I can’t stress enough the value of being properly fitted for your golf clubs. Last week I attended the Mizuno club fitting day. Mizuno have this fancy device called the “Mizuno Shaft Optimizer” which is recognized as an industry leader in prescribing the correct shaft. You literally swing it three times and it has an industrial gyroscope in it that detects how you load and unload a shaft. From that it recommends 3 shafts, which you can try on different heads to get the correct ball flight numbers. I was surprised to find out that I’ve been using the wrong shafts – for years! When swinging the prescribed shaft, it helped me square up the face at impact so effortlessly. I highly recommend talking to the pro shop team, even if it is to simply test your current set up. They have their own Mizuno shaft optimizer.
Practice Facility Etiquette
The members practice fairway can be like a war zone at times. Let’s try and abide by a few simple rules.
Always hit from the ends of the practice fairway. Use the golf course side first; if it is full then you can use the bottom (road) end so that those wanting to hit driver from the course end can do so. If someone is hitting from the road end and you want to hit driver, make sure your balls are marked.
Once you have hit your balls into the fairway, pick them up as soon as you can and get back to safety. Don’t hit your balls back towards those hitting at the ends from the middle.
Chipping green. The chipping green can get crowded quickly. When there are others using the green at the same time as you, limit the number of balls you hit to 5.
Short Course. This can be an amazing practice facility. Those playing the course get priority, so if you want to chip around a green, let those playing the course play through. Because it’s an actual course and not a practice fairway, limit the number of balls you hit from the tee to 3, otherwise the tees and green get too chewed up. Repair your pitch marks.
Happy golfing all!
Nicholas Schnell
Men’s Club Captain
menscc@hastingsgolfclub.co.nz
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