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Otago Daily Times
20-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Stalwart looks forward to focus on coaching
Shelley Duncan is leaving — but she is going nowhere. Duncan will tomorrow sign off as general manager of the Otago Golf Club after four years in the role. But she will clock in again on Saturday as the guest of honour at the appropriately named "Shelley's Stableford" tournament followed by a farewell function at the clubhouse, and she will be back at Balmacewen on Monday to begin the next stage of her golfing career. Duncan is returning to being a self-employed coach. She will still be based at the Otago club, alongside coaching professionals Mike Henderson and Callum Patrick, and she will continue to run the successful She Loves Golf programme on Tuesday nights and business house golf on Thursdays. "So I'm still doing stuff, but mainly for myself," Duncan said yesterday. "And there will be a lot less paperwork." Duncan has spent nearly 20 years at the Otago club — after starting her apprenticeship at Balmacewen then spending three years at Taieri Lakes — in the roles of coaching professional, director of golf and general manager. Her passion for coaching had simmered in the background while handling managerial duties but was reignited when she started working with a promising junior girl. "I think it's taught me that it would be nice to be able to coach, but actually not have to worry about any of this other stuff. "Just to be able to focus on my coaching and do some more learning ... and the other thing is I'll go and spend some time with other coaches like I did probably 20 years ago, where I just go and sit and observe and watch. Because that's probably the way I learn the best." It was April Fool's Day in 2021 when Duncan became general manager at the Otago club. Covid was no joke, obviously, but it had a silver lining when the club's 150th celebrations were delayed, allowing the new boss to really get her feet under the table. She had a ball at the celebrations, and hosting special guest Clive Brown, the captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, as well as other prominent faces. "Given that I've been here as sort of a member on and off since 1977, I felt like a big part of it, and it was exciting. "We had our old golf pro come back from Australia, and all sorts of people travelled. It was a lot of fun." Duncan will also treasure memories of a dinner that raised $50,000, driven by former prime minister John Key, a big supporter of the club. Covid, funnily enough, led to surging numbers at many New Zealand golf clubs, though Duncan said there were signs of a slowdown. A general manager role was challenging with the amount of paperwork and compliance, but she treasured the support of the governance at Balmacewen. "One of the best pieces of advice I had was from one of our members, a smart man in business. He said you don't know what you don't know when you take on a new role. "And it's so true. There's all these things that pop up all the time. 'I didn't know' was what I said for probably the first couple of months. And I'd been here forever. "GM in a club environment can be difficult because you have a board of governance, as we have at our club, and you have your staff layered underneath that and then your members as well. "It's just that balance between those dynamics. But I think at Otago we've been very fortunate with the board members that we've had and the member support." As well as the general manager, the Otago club has four greenkeepers, a fulltime chef and bar manager, a part-time administrator and casual staff. Duncan grew up in a house on the sixth fairway and had her first whack at Balmacewen in 1977. She played at the University of Oklahoma and was a touring professional in the United States from 1998 to 2000, a spell that included an appearance at the US Open. Playing as well as coaching more golf lies ahead. "In 20 years, I've probably averaged, I'd say, 15 rounds a year, which is ridiculous. So I am looking forward to getting back to playing some golf. "I was going to go and try and qualify for the US Senior Women's Open. But I got Covid-ed out about four years ago. "There's still a wee flicker in the back of my mind that I'd be quite keen to have a run at that. "All my college mates are doing it. "We'll see. Yeah, it could be quite fun." Drew Butcher is replacing Duncan as Otago Golf Club general manager.
Otago Daily Times
20-07-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
9-year-old to take on world's best juniors
Joanna Ke has come a fair way. The Dunedin 9-year-old is playing golf people double her age could only dream about. She jetted off yesterday — with her parents and her coach, Dunedin professional Shelley Duncan — to play at the world's biggest junior invitational tournament, the Champion of Champions, in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, from July 29-31. The Columba College pupil booked her spot in the under-9 division at the tournament, featuring 250 junior golfers from 40 countries, after finishing runner-up at an event in Australia last year. She is believed to be the only New Zealand golfer heading to Ireland. "I feel very excited and nervous," Joanna said. "I'm looking forward to the tournaments. I'll just try my best, one shot at a time." Joanna Ke and coach Shelley Duncan put in the hard yards on the practice fairway at Balmacewen. PHOTO: GERARD O'BRIEN The journey does not stop there, though. They will then head to St Andrews — the Scottish resort known as the "home of golf" — where Joanna, who will turn 10 while in Northern Ireland, will play in the St Andrews Junior Ladies' Open next month. It will be a full-circle moment for her coach. Duncan and Joanna get to play a round at the prestigious old course with former Otago Golf Club members Dylan Stock and Henry Hodgson, who have been caddying overseas. "It's quite cool for me," Duncan said. "I taught both of them how to play golf and now Joanna and I are going to play golf with them on the other side of the world at St Andrews." Joanna was born in China. Her family moved to New Zealand a couple of years ago, and landed in Dunedin in April 2023, when her mother contacted Duncan about coaching her daughter. "I had an expectation I was meeting a 13- or 14-year-old ... I looked down at the practice fairway and here's this little 7-year-old dot," Duncan recalled. Joanna, who plays off a 12.9 handicap, first picked up the clubs at the age of 3 and had been working hard with Duncan over the past two years. "Jaw-dropping, from time to time," Duncan said when describing Joanna's skills. "She hits some shots and I'm like, 'How on earth did you just do that?'. "We've worked really hard on keeping it fun. When she's a chatterbox, and she's talking to me, she plays much better golf." And has Joanna enjoyed working with the renowned Dunedin coach? "Yes — of course!" Joanna exclaimed.
Otago Daily Times
30-05-2025
- Automotive
- Otago Daily Times
Taking the high road
Ever wished you could drive from the north of Dunedin directly to Kaikorai Valley? Peter Dowden explores the highway link that was proposed in the 1970s. Driving into town from the north, everyone believes there is a suburb (Pine Hill) on the left, then a cliff on the right below which Leith Valley nestles. But there is a sizable finger of land reaching right into North Dunedin, with a few decent-sized ''lifestyle'' sections on it. I grew up on one of these. You couldn't get a pizza delivered there because nobody believed the place existed. On my parents' title deed for the land there was a plan, criss-crossed with lines and the words ''designation removed'', indicating some sort of infrastructure had been proposed, then thought better of, which could explain the relative lack of development on this corridor. By chance I recently came across an old Dunedin City Council document, the 1972 City of Dunedin District Scheme. Flipping through the maps I was astonished to see a grey ribbon marking land designated ''street works'' and ''motorway'', connecting Pine Hill with Kaikorai. A large roundabout would have linked it with Balmacewen Rd and it would have joined end-on to Kaikorai Valley Rd, much of which had been widened to four lanes (and since narrowed to two). This road would have ramped down the tall cliff behind the DCC dog pound in Leith Valley, crossed Malvern St at the bend by the (now closed) Leith Valley Touring Park, ploughed up the Ross Creek valley, crossed the Otago Golf Club's Balmacewen course and Kaikorai Rugby Club's Bishopscourt ground, then squeezed between Balmacewen Intermediate School and the Araiteuru Marae through the Shetland St Community Garden, Kaikorai Common, Kaikorai Bowling Club and the Nairn St Reserve football field. The planners would have needed to convince several sporting bodies and many residents of a reasonably well-off part of town to shift out of the way. That's quite a few owners of backyards ready to say ''not in mine''. Perhaps that's why it was never built. • Peter Dowden now lives at the bottom of the Pine Hill cliffs.
