Charles still in charge

Press, 13 December 1985, Page 25

Charles still in charge

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

Just as New Zealand cricket cannot really afford to be without Richard Hadlee, New Zealand professional golf can ill afford to do without Bob Charles. Three months from tomorrow, Charles will turn 50 and become eligible for the increasingly lucrative seniors tour in the United States. That he will do well is beyond question.

He has the fitness and form, the desire and determination, to succeed on the circuit which has become something of a vintage version of who’s who in world golf. A Christchurch man, Derek Laver, can vouch for the popularity and prestige attached to the tour by golfs elder statesman. He was fortunate enough to attend the 1985 United States Seniors Open championship at the Edgewood course on the shores of Lake Tahoe, California, in June.

The tournament was worth $U5225,000, with the top purse of $37,500 and the runner-up prize of $21,300. The field comprised 150 golfers, of which 52 were exempt, and among those were names as famous at Arnold Palmer, Gene Littler, Billy Casper, Julius Boros, Roberto De Vicenzo, Gay Brewer, Miller Barber, Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle. Entries for the championship totalled 1029, all the entrants being 50 years and over with handicaps no worse than eight. Apart

from those exempt, the other entrants had to play a series of elimination rounds on various courses for the remaining 98 spots. Since that championship, Gary Player, the little South African who became only the third man in history to win all four major world professional titles, has reached the half-century age group. He made an immediate mark on the seniors tour and, along with Charles, should continue to do so next year. Charles has been a professional for 25 years, and in that time, has been well ahead of any other professional from this country. John Lister had a successful period in the early 1970 s and Simon Owen, the New Zealand Open champion in 1976, came within a couple of strokes of lasting fame in 1978 when he finished equal second in the 1978 British Open to Jack Nicklaus.

In the main, however, it has been Charles in charge. The two main national tournaments in the last fortnight, the Air New Zealand Shell Open in Auckland and the Broadbank New Zealand Open in Christchurch, proved yet again that the lean left-hander is the man most likely to effect a New Zealand victory. He was in a position to win both tournaments right up to the final round before

settling for equal third in the Auckland event and tieing for fourth at Russley. Those placings earned Charles almost $12,500 and he was eight shots ahead of New Zealand’s second best performer at Titirangi, Peter Hamblett, and four better than Owen and the leading amateur, Owen Kendall, at Christchurch. Admittedly two of the more promising younger New Zealand professionals, Greg Turner and Frank Nobilo, missed the country’s premier tournaments — they were successfully qualifying for next year’s European tour — but, over all, the performances of New Zealand born and bred professionals were not too encouraging. Of the 60 qualifiers for the final two rounds of the Air New Zealand Shell

Open, only 13 were from New Zealand. Not counting the seven amateurs who played all 72 holes in the Open at Russley, there were 12 New Zealand professionals among the 53 who survived the cut after 36 holes.

Hamblett, equal thirteenth in Auckland, failed to make the cut in the New Zealand . Open. After Charles, Owen was the most consistent, with Lister and a former national amateur champion, Stuart Reese, not too far behind.

Owen, who celebrated his thirty-fifth birthday this week, was the third best New Zealander in Auckland and tied for twenty-fifth along with Reese. Lister was four shots back and equal thirty-fifth. Owen, who confines himself to the Australian and New Zealand circuits and plays about 10 tournaments each year instead of 30 or

more as in past years, was equal seventeenth at Russley; Lister was one shot behind and equal twentieth, while Reese was another stroke back.

A former New Zealand World Cup representative, Barry Vivian, and Paul Powell were the only other New Zealand professionals to make the cut for both tournaments.

Turner’s win in the New Zealand P.G.A. championship at Mount Maunganui last January, only weeks after turning professional, and his outstanding third placing this week from the 400 and more golfers who were looking for qualifying tickets on next year’s European circuit, suggest he might achieve a high status in the near future.

However, at present, Bob Charles remains the flagbearer for New Zealand professional golf.