MODEST YOUNG CHAMPION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27501, 8 November 1954, Page 3

MODEST YOUNG CHAMPION

Charles’s Rapid Rise To Fame

EXCELLENT COURSE DEMEANOUR (From Our Own Reporter) m WELLINGTON, November 7. The player who did most to make Saturday’s golf at Heretaunga memorable was the 18-year-old, R. J. Charles, who won the open title against a field which included the present British open champion, Peter Thomson; but it is almost certain that he made the smallest contributiorf to the day’s conversation.

Charles has an excellent course demeanour, but he is not given to idle chatter. Even when the title was his and he was being carried shoulder high to the clubhouse, he did no more than take off his cap and smile, although he comes from a golfing family. His lather, also a left-hander, is on a handicap of 2, and his mother keeps them company by playing left-handed on a handicap of seven. He has been playing competitive golf only three years. At 16 years of age he took part in the Freyberg Rosebowl inter-provincial competition in Christr church, and won four of his six matches.

Bob Charles, a son of a Masterton school teacher, is a bank clerk. When work is done, he gives much of his time to golf. He has been swinging an assortment of cjit down clubs from the time he was three; and at home he has a large mirror, in which he has studied the style of Ben Hogan, the master, at whose feet he sits.

Tall and nangy, he can be likened in physique and style to a left-handed D. L. Woon. He stands up straight when he addresses the ball, and has a lovely, even swing. With his driver he seems to punch the ball, but his irons, with which he also obtains remarkable length and accuracy, are easily played. Yesterday he wore a green jersey and a white golfing cap, which he discarded briefly at the start of the afternoon round. At the first hole he slipped up and dropped a stroke. He replaced his cap immediately. His parents were at Heretaunga, but while nis mother watched every shot, his father saw only one. and that by accident. If Bob Charles snowed no sign of strain his father felt it for him; and so the wheel turns. A few years ago the boy followed the parents, who are still Wairarapa foursomes champions. Now the boy is being followed, aqd will be for some time yet. Young Charles represented Wairarapa College at golf for three years. He has won a junior tennis championship at Greytown, and after playing for his first. eleven at school, he went on to represent Wairarapa as an opening batsman. When the present tournament ends Charles intends to return to cricket for the rest of the summer. This quiet, reserved lad made many friends, yesterday because of his course manners as well as his playing skill: At the clubhouse he was asked whether he was thinking of turning professional. His reply was the one nis questioner deserved. “I think I’ll see how I get on in the amateur,” he said. '