By Gary Caffell
His results might suggest otherwise but Kerry Mountcastle was not overly impressed by his form during the national Toro inter-provincial golf championships in New Plymouth last week.
With six wins and two halves from his eight matches Mountcastle was a big factor in his Wellington team taking the title for the first time since 2006 but the 21-year-old who plays off a plus three handicap at the Masterton Golf Club readily concedes he was capable of playing better.
“In all honesty I played some average golf,” he said.
“It wasn’t particularly one thing which wasn’t quite working, it was a whole lot of little things.
“However, in an event like this it’s the results which count and I guess I didn’t do too badly there.”
Mountcastle went into the New Plymouth tournament with the express aim of achieving an unbeaten record at number five in the playing order.
His position meant he would be the first finisher for Wellington and he knew that if he could consistently chalk up wins it would be a boost for those further up the order.
“I actually asked to play at five, I thought I could do a useful job there and I suppose it worked out pretty well.”
Mountcastle, who had his Masterton clubmate Dean Gray — the reserve for the Wellington side — as his caddy always thought the men from the capital had a good chance of capturing the national title.
“We had strength right down the order and providing everybody did their bit we had to be one of the teams to beat.
“However, we also knew that one bad match could end everything so I wouldn’t say we were ever confident of pulling it off.”
Like most young golfers with obvious talent Mountcastle does have a hankering to try his luck on the professional scene but right now his main priority is to finish his electrical apprenticeship,
something which will happen next April.
Before that though he intends to head to Australia about mid-January to play in some major amateur events there.
