Swinging Over the Uprights

“You have to love a country that combines two of the greatest sports,” Universal Sports blogger Buzz McClain proclaims. “Rippon Vineyard and Winery is on Lake Wanaka in Central Otago; they make a gorgeous, crisp Riesling and a lovely pinot noir, and they encourage you to purchase a bottle at the cellar door and then go to the pasture and play Golf Cross. The ball is just like a regular, white, dimpled golf ball except it’s an elongated oval – yes, it looks like a small rugby ball. It’s over! Par for the hole, one under for the round. You hit it with a regular golf club. But you don’t try to get it into a hole; in Golf Cross, you try to hit it between the 10-foot-tall white uprights 200 yards away. The idea of walking around this field hitting an oval golf ball through uprights makes me laugh out loud more than once. It’s funny, and it’s fun. Can I bring this sport home?”