September, 2015 | Peter Stone Golf

Standing Strong

There is a late 1990’s film ITAL The Vanishing ITAL that is, well, something of a horror movie. That title could well be given to any number of professional golfers who reach such giddy heights as winning a major and then plunge into obscurity.

It is well documented Ian Baker Finch, the 1991 British Open Champion, in one of them. He shoots in the 60s every time he plays socially but, put a tournament scorecard in his hand, and those very hands begin to tremble as the gray matter in his brain whispers quietly: Fear of Failure. Thankfully IBF has found another golfing career as a TV commentator, and his expertise and inside knowledge of players is quite superb.

Scott Gardiner

It is the feel-good story of this past week in Australian golf. Scott Gardiner, a proud Aboriginal, will next year become the first of the original Australians to play for the massive dollars on the USPGA Tour.

We all knew Gardiner had talent in shag bags-full when he first introduced himself to the Australian golfing public at large when, in 2000 as an amateur, he finished tied eighth in the Greg Norman Holden International and then tied seventh in the Australian Masters.

Scotty turned pro, and finished tied fourth in our now defunct Players Championship. In 2001, he played on invite on the European Tour in 12 events and won 156,000 Euros. Some financial genius will surely convert that to our dollars, but it is of no matter in this comparison – in 2000, Adam Scott played 11 events in invite on the European Tour and won the lesser 146,000 Euros.

World Golf Hall of Fame

Just the other day, the World Golf Hall of Fame announced that American Ken Venturi would be inducted into its ranks in March next year in the Lifetime Achievement category and, while widely acclaimed in the US golfing media, it again exposes the anomalies in the selection process for one of golf’s highest honours.

One is not to doubt Venturi’s qualifications as a 14-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the 1964 US Open, and his years as an analyst in golfing telecasts, but it is my opinion, shared by the way by other non-Americans, that there those far better credentialed who are continually ignored by the US dominated panel of “experts”.