{"id":393513,"date":"2026-01-07T08:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T08:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393513\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T08:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T08:35:09","slug":"quest-to-play-every-new-zealand-golf-course-makes-it-to-southland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393513\/","title":{"rendered":"Quest to play every New Zealand golf course makes it to Southland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Barrie Coleman, left, receives a donation from the Waikaia Golf Club\u2019s Al McKee after playing the golf course in Waikaia.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barrie \u2018Baz\u2019 Coleman\u2019s ambitious quest to play every golf course in New Zealand in the space of 15 months has made it to Southland.<\/p>\n

Coleman set out in March, 2025 to play all of the 414 or so courses and, in the process, raise awareness and money for mental health.<\/p>\n

That quest is personal for Coleman.<\/p>\n

His wife Megan died suddenly aged 49 three years ago after her battle with mental illness over many years. <\/p>\n

Coleman and two of his mates decided to set up The Links Foundation to raise money to help support mental health organisations.<\/p>\n

They have held three fundraisers on Megan\u2019s anniversary, raising over $130,000. The majority of it has one to I Am Hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago, after we had done the second [fundraiser], after a few beers, I decided I would leave my job and my home and go and play golf and raise awareness and money for [mental health].\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday evening, Coleman had completed 262 courses after starting at the Weedons Golf Club in Christchurch on March 8.<\/p>\n

He made the trip to Stewart Island on Tuesday to tick off the island\u2019s six-hole course.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like your backyard; it needs a mow. The greens are shockers, but the views are amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Coleman was in Riversdale and Waikaia playing their courses, while on Thursday, he will start on Invercargill\u2019s courses.<\/p>\n

Some of the courses he plays by himself with little fanfare, others make an occasion of it.<\/p>\n

The Waikaia Golf Club turned it on for Coleman on Wednesday afternoon, putting on a club day.<\/p>\n

While he has played many of the courses by himself, he has had some friends join him for various parts of the journey through New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of friends that want to join me in Queenstown when I get to Queenstown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want to play with me at a nine-hole out the back of somewhere,\u201d Coleman joked.<\/p>\n

A couple of months ago, Coleman took a pause in his schedule following the death of his mother, and he has since gone about catching up.<\/p>\n

It included playing five courses in one day, with the Gore Golf Club one of them <\/p>\n

He has also had a shoulder injury that he picked up a couple of months ago to contend with along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just starting to come right now, but other than that, I\u2019m still holding up alright,\u201d Coleman said.<\/p>\n

People can support Coleman\u2019s fundraising efforts by donating to the Saving Butts Sinking Putts Givealittle page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barrie Coleman, left, receives a donation from the Waikaia Golf Club\u2019s Al McKee after playing the golf course…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-393513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}