FEBRUARY 29 2020 LISTENER 4
success, which was great.”
B
ut like all first years in a new
job, there was culture shock
too. “There are a lot more
off-the-course things to take care of
in professional golf. There’s all the
travel. Some weeks you’re out there
by yourself in a country where
you don’t speak the lan-
guage, and you don’t
speak English for a
week. The food’s
different. It’s a
whole different
beast, off the
course. But on
the course, it’s
the same thing.”
Only with
much greater
pressure to perform.
Ieremia says he has so
far enjoyed playing in front
of the crowds and the cameras and
feels the atmosphere makes him
more competitive. However, he
was particularly nervous on the
Saturday morning of the Australian
Open, having had a terrible sleep
the night before and knowing he
was near the lead and would be
paired that morning with 2010
British Open champion Louis
Oosthuizen.
“I wear a tracker on my wrist to
record my stress throughout the
day, and my heart was just racing
at the first tee on the Saturday. But
after that first hole, I settled in.
And on Sunday, I didn’t really feel
that nervous. I felt I was where I
belonged.”
Which is just as well, as the
24-year-old – of Samoan, Cook
Island, Chinese and European
descent – has wanted to be a profes-
sional golfer almost as long as he
can remember. The story goes that
he starting hitting things around
the house as a toddler, so his
parents bought him a set of plastic
clubs. As the years passed and the
young Ieremia showed no signs of
his interest in golf waning, it was
decided that he, his father and his
grandad would learn the game
together.
“It was a family affair. And for
an Island family, being able to play
golf was really cool back then.”
He joined the junior programmeat Hamilton’s St Andrews Golf
Club, graduating to Waikato pro-
vincial programmes before making
the New Zealand development
squad and our Eisenhower Trophy
team. He’s not the first Ieremia to
represent the country: his extended
family include former All Black
Alama, and ex-Silver Fern April.
“But it’s different for
our culture to play
golf. Growing up, I
was pretty much
the only Island
kid playing
in the junior
tournaments.
I’d love to get
more Island kids
playing golf.”
After a year at
the University of
Waikato, a scholarship
to Iowa State University
in 2016 accelerated his golf and
helped him to reach the next level.
“I played against a lot of really
good competition on world-class
golf courses. You have to figure out
how to prepare and how to com-
pete against players who are often
way better than you.”A
s he enters his second
year in professional golf,
Ieremia’s long-term goals
remain what they’ve been for half
his life: to get on the US PGA Tour
and to win majors. He is targeting
the Korn Ferry Tour as well as the
McKenzie Tour, a development tour
for the PGA Tour Canada; both can
create a path to the US PGA.
“In your rookie year, you don’t
have too many opportunities to
play, to be honest. So every oppor-
tunity I had to play, my goal was
just to put my best foot forward,
learn what I could from the week
and just try to win.”
This year, he won’t have the
element of surprise as the new kid
on the fairway, but he will have the
advantage of more chances to play.
“This year, I’ve been able to build
a real schedule, so I know what’s
coming.”
Like his second chance at the
New Zealand Open. And this year,
his competitors at The Hills and
Millbrook should definitely watch
out.DENZEL IEREMIA
The 24-year-old turned profes-
sional just a year ago, and
what a rookie year it was: a
top-five finish at the Austral-
ian Open, a tie for 10th in the
Australian PGA Champion-
ship and his first win as a pro at
the Mount Open in Mt Maunganui.
Blames inadequate preparation for missing the
cut at his first New Zealand Open last year and
won’t be making that mistake this year.LUKE TOOMEY
Had his first full-time year in
the PGA Tour of China in
2018, playing in 11 events
and making nine cuts. After a
challenging year on that tour
in 2019, the Tauranga-based
professional turned his game
around with back-to-back wins in
New Zealand on the Charles Tour in October.KAZUMA KOBORI
This exciting teenage golfer from
Canterbury wowed the golf
world last year by winning the
NZ PGA Championship by four
shots, ahead of fellow Kiwi
and 2001 New Zealand Open
winner David Smail. Kobori was
an amateur, just 17 years old and
still a student at Rangiora High School.DAN HILLIER
This time last year, he was New
Zealand’s highest-ranked ama-
teur. This year the 21-year-old
will tee off at the New Zealand
Open as a professional. 2019
was very good for Hillier: he
turned pro in September and
played in his first European Tour
event at the KLM Open, then finished in the top
36 at the Australian PGA Championship and
qualified for his first major, the US Open.JOSH GEARY
2019 was a vintage year for the
36-year-old Invercargill-born
professional. He finished tied
for second in the 100th New
Zealand Open – his high-
est finish yet – and finished
second in two events on
Europe’s second-tier Challenge
Tour, helping him finish 27th overall.Top 5 Kiwis to watch