FIGHTING CANCER WITH GOLF BUCKET LIST

By BEN PLUMMER

Howick’s Greg Holmes is on the journey of a lifetime, attempting to play every 18-hole golf course in New Zealand, despite numerous setbacks.

Holmes, also known by family and friends as Holmer, is a surname known by most in the Howick-Pakuranga community.

His wife Carmen Holmes is a part-owner in some of Howick’s most beloved bars and restaurants including the Apothecary and Daisy Chang.

Holmes’ bucket list to play every 18-hole golf course in Aotearoa is no easy feat, made even harder by the timeline that he has found himself on.

Holmes was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2010, ironically, coming home from a golf trip in New Plymouth.

“Back then I had been having symptoms for a while, but I didn’t even know that bowel cancer was a thing,” he says.

After going to the doctors, Holmes was advised to go and see a specialist where a 5cm tumour was found that had gone through to his lymph nodes.

Thirteen years after his initial diagnosis, Holmes has been re-diagnosed multiple times for cancer in his lungs and liver and endured several rounds of chemotherapy and 14 surgeries.

“Thirteen years you sit in that waiting room at Auckland Oncology for your meetings and it’s the worst, most stressful situation, just sitting and waiting to hear what your outcome is going to be,” says Holmes.

In January 2021, his world came crashing down when he was told there is no longer a cure for him and the only available treatments are palliative.

“That day really took us by surprise. It definitely took us a few days to get our heads around it and sort life out a bit,” he says.

Holmes says he made a decision that day, as cliché as it may sound, that he wasn’t going to let the horrible news define him.

He would make every goal a winner until he couldn’t keep going anymore.

Prior to being diagnosed, Holmes had organised a golf trip with friends at least twice a year and became accustomed to not playing at the same courses over and over.

“As I progressed, I realised how many golf courses I was getting through and worked out which I had and hadn’t played, which is where the idea for the bucket list was born,” Holmes says.

Holmer and his friends play a two-man format called Ambrose, which allows all standards of golfers to mix and play together with equal enjoyment irrespective of ability.

“We enjoy it because there’s not as much pressure on what your score is and you can take in the scenery more... but it is still very competitive of course.”

There are 288 courses in the country and with every round taking around four hours, it will take more than 1000 hours to play them all.