Golf New Zealand are saddened to learn of the passing of life member Neil Woodbury

Woodbury was well respected both nationally and internationally, serving many years as our representative on the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation.

Golf New Zealand the golf community send their condolences to Sylvia and family in this sad time.

As a tribute to Neil Woodbury, we include below an extract from the History of Golf in New Zealand, published in 2021, where he was identified as one of our leading administrators.

There is no doubt that Neil Woodbury played an important role during a time of growth and success for the game of golf in New Zealand.

The name Woodbury was synonymous with the game in New Zealand with brother Ian one of the best players in Wellington who went on to play for the national team against Australia in 1961 and 1965. Neil, a pharmacist in Lower Hutt, forged his own place in New Zealand Golf as an administrator which started when he was elected Captain of the Hutt Golf Club in 1972. At national level he became a Councillor on the NZGA in 1979 and devoted 25 years to the organisation, spending the last ten as Chairman and President.

Much progressed during the Woodbury era and he was well supported by Roger Brennand and Executive Director Grant Clements. Each had their own strengths and opinions and there were many healthy debates but at the end of the day each were working for the betterment of the game.

Woodbury took a big interest in the performance of our national teams which included a team management role, but it was the standard of coaching that really interested him. In the first years of his involvement with the NZGA he had pushed forward a solid coaching platform which included the world class coaching skills of Australian Alex Mercer, regular coaching camps and the increased knowledge and expertise of our coaches.

In the late 1980’s a large number of talented juniors surfaced, all who had benefitted from a quality start to the game with the basics nicely in place. All of these players experienced an Alex Mercer experience at some stage and for most their coaches had also spent time with Mercer. The list of names included Michael Campbell, Phil Tataurangi, Michael Long, Steven Alker, Stephen Scahill, Grant Moorhead, Tony Christie, Paul Devenport, Elliot Boult and David Smail. All these players went on to have successful professional careers.

The organisations finances strengthened, the New Zealand Open attracted new sponsors and with the help of IMG became a leading event on the Australasian Tour, playing numbers grew steadily for twenty years and our amateurs won the Eisenhower Trophy and many other amateur titles around the world. All under the regime of Woodbury and the team he led at the NZGA.

His close relationship with Clements was key. Clements was a visionary and worked tirelessly for the organisation. 

“He really was a perfectionist. He got New Zealand Golf rolling. He inherited an administration that was suffering financially, the Air New Zealand Shell tournaments were bigger than the New Zealand Opens and he didn’t like this. We are New Zealand Golf and we have to run the top tournaments.” recalled Woodbury.

Woodbury represented New Zealand on the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation and was well respected by his peers throughout the Asian region.

“What I think I enjoyed about being involved with the NZGA was the association it gave me with other golfing bodies around the world. We went to a lot of events in different countries and met a lot of people in a similar situation to ourselves. That was the part that I enjoyed. It was meeting like-minded administrators, some of them like the United States or Canada had been involved in golf a lot longer than I had and then there were others who had just come through. They were all interesting people and we got on very well particularly in the Asia Pacific region. You learn a lot from each other.”