In my years as Men’s Club Captain, Takuma has always been of tremendous assistance to the Men’s Committee with setting up competitions, collecting match fees, collating results etc. – always well organized, so dependable and all done with a smile. He never appears to get rattled even if there are several players lining up at the counter wanting to pay match fees,obtain a bucket of balls for the driving range or purchase some tees, balls or clubs. I decided to find out more about this very popular and helpful staff member and to share it with you.

As you will be aware, Takuma is from Japan and his hometown is Saitama which is about an hour north of Tokyo by train. There is not a lot of sightseeing to do there but he found it a good place to live with his family. Both of his parents are now retired – his Father was an Urban Development Co-ordinator working on the redevelopment of railway stations and his Mother taught mathematics at a local High School. Takuma has a sister Akiko with a daughter who lives nearby to his parents and they spend a lot of time looking after their granddaughter.

Takuma learnt English while attending Junior High School and at University and went to an English language School in his hometown for six months before he came to Christchurch. He graduated from University with a Bachelor of Education and has a Japanese PhysicalEducation Teachers’ Licence.

Takuma started playing golf when he was 16 and has been playing the game now for 20 years. He can’t remember how he got started with the game. Prior to taking it up he used to play baseball which is very popular in Japan so thought in many ways it was similar by striking a ball. Once he got started with golf he became ‘hooked’ and was practising for 3 – 4 hours almost every day at a local driving range. He had excellent support from both of his parents – his Father used to take him to and from the driving range as a student and would provide encouragement and advice. His Mother was also very supportive and always gave him good advice when he was unsure as to what he wanted to do in the future.

All through High School and Utsunomiya University Takuma was competing in golf tournaments around Japan. Although he was playing well, he didn’t have any notable achievements such as winning national titles or being selected in a national age group team but he found that it was a great experience playing golf in a very competitive environment.

Not surprisingly, his hero like many golfers of his age, is Tiger Woods. He used to spend hours watching him on television especially when he was playing in the Masters. Takuma was using same model driver as Tiger and put a steel shaft in it. At that time, he was unaware of any other players in Japan who were using steel shafts.

When Takuma was 30, he started thinking about going overseas on a Working Holiday Visa as he wanted to play golf in a different country, He searched the internet and found Yoshi’s (Miya brothers’ Father) golfing business for Japanese people based in Christchurch. If he hadn’t found it, he might have gone to different country or city. Takuma came to Russley for the first time in April 2014. His first stay was just for 3 weeks as ‘Reconnaissance’. Once he had spent some time here it felt like a golfer’s paradise and he then decided to come back again with a working holiday Visa in October.

On his return to Russley, he was practising and playing on the course almost every day - sometimes members asked if him if he was living at the club? At this time, he was competing in a number of tournaments. The highlights for him so far in New Zealand have been winning the 2015 Pegasus Open and finishing 5th in the 2016 South Island Men’s Stroke Play at St Clair in Dunedin. He has also played for our Men’s Interclub teams on several occasions and his best score at Russley has been a round of 66 using the blue tees two years ago.

He is rostered on to work in our Russley Pro Shop from 35 – 40 hours a week but sometimes he works more hours than this. He enjoys helping our members, looking after the juniors and meeting new people as they come into the Shop to arrange a round, booking in a golf lesson or purchasing equipment.  He says that he always learns something new by having a chat with them.

Takuma has been very busy selling $17,000 worth of ex-demo clubs and training aids on Trade Me since the Level 4 lockdown was lifted but he has now almost run out of these items in the shop to sell.

When he is not working in the shop, he often plays golf with friends at the Templeton Golf Club or takes his partner out to a café for a coffee or lunch. His favourite Japanese Restaurant is the Kinji Restaurant on Greers Road. He enjoys living in Christchurch as he feels that the atmosphere is similar to the one in his hometown so he doesn’t have the feeling that he is in a different country. He really enjoys playing on the variety of golf courses that we have in and around Christchurch.

His current Work Visa which Rodney and our Club helped him obtain, is due to expire at the end of July next year. He would like to renew it but he says that the Visa conditions are getting more difficult so he is unsure if he will be successful.

He has given some thought to training to become a Teaching Professional but that depends on obtaining another Work Visa – at present he would rather develop his management and administration skills but this could change in the future.

At this stage his parents have not visited New Zealand but would very much like to sometime in the future when international travel is possible.

Takuma’s Tips (His mind set for golf)

There are two Japanese words in mind when I play golf all the time. That’s Kaizen and Ikigai.

Kaizen means continuous learning and continuous growth.

Ikigai means the reason you get up every day.

Golf is my Ikigai and encourages me to do Kaizen, in other words, keep working on my golf. I hope that this mind set makes my golf and whole life better.

Rodney Yee, his Manager, has kindly provided this information on his team member:

TK is without a doubt the rock of our team. He is the one who keeps everyone in line and we appreciate all the hard work and efforts he has put into the team at Russley.

When I first met TK, it was when he first arrived from Japan as a student of ours attending our Golf Learning Centre where I spent some time working with him on his golf game.

The second time round when he came back on a Working Holiday Visa, an opportunity arose in the golf shop and a difficult decision had to be made as to whether we could take TK on as a staff member given a busy environment and (at the time) a lack of English or confidence to be able to hold the front desk of one of the busiest golf courses in Canterbury.

Looking back - the risk we took has definitely paid off. TK's attention to detail and in general, his passion and love for the game, makes him a huge asset to our team.

I am looking forward to hopefully working many more years alongside Takuma and growing the game we all love!