Nagle at 50 has no thoughts of retiring as touring golf pro.

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32494, 2 January 1971, Page 5

Nagle at 50 has no thoughts of retiring as touring golf pro.

fOR many years the great JL Australian professional golfer, Kelvin David George Nagle, has been a regular visitor to New Zealand and ■ on the recentlycompleted national circuit, as always, he produced the sort of form which can only be expected of a true master.

Although he only won one tournament in New Zealand —the $2500 Otago Charity Golf Classic at St Clair—his fellow touring professionals could never afford to take him lightly. The same ruthless efficiency which has characterised his game for so long was still there, sometimes lying dormant below the surface but never for long. His youthful approach to the game makes it hard to accept that he has now been a golf professional for 24 years and that on December 21 he celebrated his fiftieth birthday. At his home at Balgowlah Heights, Sydney, on his birthday, Nagle dismissed any suggestions that he

might be considering retiring. He had come home for two weeks' rest before beginning another year as a touring professional. ’ He has no fixed age at which he will give up the

rigorous annual jaunt through Australia, the Far East, New Zealand, and, occasionally, Britain, Europe and the United States. “I just take it as it comes,” he said about his future.

Asked if he felt that old age was creeping up on him, Nagle replied: “No. Except for a bad back, which hasn’t responded to treatment over the years, I feel fine. Nobody seems to know what it is. I guess I got it through wear and tear. But it only gets stiff after I have been sitting down for some time—never when I am walking about.” The pain seemed to be down around the hip joint. “Maybe I should try swinging left-handed for a while,” he said with a laugh. A. touring professional since 1954, Nagle was asked if he had anything he still wanted to achieve. For a man who has won two Australian opens, seven New Zealand opens, the 1960 British open and who has been close to winning the

United States open this might seem a rather pointless question. And the grand old man of Australian golf took a moment or two before coming out with the inevitable answer: “Nothing really. I guess I am on the downhill now.”

But then, after a little more thought, he admitted that he would like to win another British open. “I don’t think anybody over 50 has ever won it,” he mused.

A genuine gentleman on and off the course, Nagle has never had a spectacular image, although his scoring has more often than not been quite out of the ordinary. He has over the years maintained his reputation as a golfer never easy to beat, never susceptible to pressure and always capable of quietly making a mockery of any course. This latter ability was never more evident than in the Otago Charity Golf

Classic at St Clair a few weeks ago. In his last round, Nagle threw off the years to set a new course record of 63, nine under par. He finished the four rou'nds with a total score of 272—16 under par—a fine effort. A few days before he had shared first place in the “Evening Star” $lOOO pro-am tournament on the same course. During this he equalled the old course record, giving notice of what was to come in the big event following. This year, Nagle rarely looked like extending his record of seven wins in the New Zealand open he finished 15 strokes behind the winner, R. J. Charles — and he finished well down the lists in the Christchurch Garden City Classic. But nobody can be expected to be a champion all the time and Nagle did more than enough in New Zealand this time to ensure him of the warmest of welcomes next summer. Apart from the Dunedin success, he also finished runner-up in the $7OOO Watties tournament at Bridge Pa.

Nagle does not place any great significance on his fiftieth birthday. He claims that he did not make a special effort to be home to celebrate it. His idea was only to spend Christmas with his wife and family. But Air New Zealand, for whom he played an exhibition match at Rotorua with John Lister, did not allow the milestone to pass unnoticed. On the flight from Auckland to Sydney on the morning of his birthday, Air New Zealand turned on champagne and produced a magnificent birthday cake in his honour.