k Round With Charles, A Chat With Nagle...And A Teeing Off At 4.45

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30793, 3 July 1965, Page 11

k Round With Charles, A Chat With Nagle...And A Teeing Off At 4.45

(Tram MICHAEL WOLVER/DGE in Edinburgh?

June 26. TVHEN leaving Christ- ’’ church for Britain last month, I thought—foolishly perhaps—that the cold weather would be left behind. London was shrouded in a cloak of fine rain and my father greeted me, as he has done these past four visits, with my raincoat. The first golf tournament was the “Pringle Sweaters” event played over a new course to me, the Royal Burgess Golf Club, of Edinburgh, though I was speedily reminded that the club was second in age only to the Royal Blackheath Golf Club in London. This may be true—practically every golf club I have visited in Scotland has a similar claim—but nonetheless, the course provides one of the truly finest tests of golf I have encountered. It is a parkland layout with large greens, undulating splendidly and beautifully bunkered. The whole course has been laid out with great imagination and its character is not spoiled by the addition of championship ■ tees to bring the test into line with modern-day equipment. It was good to meet some of my old friends again and they were most surprised to hear of my “semiretirement” in New Zealand but most interested when I told them what an excellent

place it is for golf. Several of the most promising players I have talked to are keen to come out and play the Australian and New Zealand circuits at the end of the year. Golf is changing rapidly on the British tournament scene. More tournaments and higher prize money are contributing to a very high standard indeed. Before each event, there is a prequalifying round played and

there are so many entries, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get in the tournament proper. This is the way to raise the standard. This “club pro,” as I am now known among my friends, managed to prequalify all right but confesses to being a bit rusty. I played a practice round with Bob Charles, just arrived from the United States, where he is enjoying a fairly good year. His wife, Verity, was with him and both were keen for news of Christchurch. His game looks the same: anywhere on the fairway off the tees, deadly from within 100 yards of the flag-stick. The big news, of course, is Kel Nagle and Gary Player

tying for the U.S. Open. It shows that in America, where the courses are built for sluggers, these same golfers, when confronted with a course that demands great accuracy, are somewhat at a loss. Indeed, the Australians, South Africans and Bob Charles must have removed a quarter of a million dollars from the U.S. P.G.A. circuit so far this year.

Nagle has recently arrived in Edinburgh for the Pringle and a lot of us were sad he didn’t win the play-off in the U.S. Open. I had a chance to speak to him briefly before he played a practice round and he was of the opinion that Player was almost destined to win at St. Louis. He was also most disturbed when, in the early stages of the play-off, his ball stuck a lady on the head and, as Kel said: “Blood was everywhere and I couldn’t seem to get back in the game.”

So much for the great players—this player has to tackle the first round and, believe it or not, is teeing off at 4.45 p.m. It gets dark around 11 p.m. Goodnight