KIWI PASSION TURNS TO PASTING

I recently had the pleasure of touring the country of our closest sporting rival, New Zealand. It is a spectacularly scenic country and its best golf courses are certainly world class. (The fruits of that nationwide journey can be seen starting on page 59).

While there are distinct differences, geographically and socially, between our nearest neighbour and Australia, there are two traits we share in common. Firstly, our love of sport, any sport, is matched by the Kiwis. While they reserve their deepest sentiment for their beloved All Blacks, there is also undeniable passion for rugby league, netball and golf.

And like all Australians, the Kiwis love a winner, which leads me to my second observation of what they have in common with us. When their teams or individual sports stars aren’t winning they turn like a rabid sheep dog – almost frothing at the mouth in disgust that their team or selected players have not lived up to expectation. The Tall Poppy Syndrome is alive and well across the ditch.

This became apparent on day one of my trip as the New Zealand Black Caps cricket team were struggling to overcome the minnows of world test cricket, Bangladesh. Talkback callers to the country’s 24-hour Radio Sport station flooded hosts with complaints that their boys were hopeless, they should hang their head in shame and almost all called for the sacking of the soon-to-beretired coach John Bracewell. It didn’t matter that 24 hours later the Kiwis battled to a hard fought three wicket win on the back of a real captain’s knock by Daniel Vettori. The callers, and most commentators, kept sticking the slipper into the team anyway.

Further bludgeoning of the national cricket team was only averted when news filtered back to New Zealand of the performance of the Kiwi Eisenhower Cup team, led by World No.1 amateur Danny Lee. The talkback pack had a new victim to savage.

Heading into the final round of the World Amateur Teams event, the New Zealanders were 10 shots behind leaders Scotland and were expected to make a strong charge given the windy conditions that prevailed.

Lee, the reigning US Amateur champion, then produced a final day meltdown with an 11-over-par 84. The 19-year-old dropped 10 shots in just six holes, starting at the ninth where he carded a quadruple bogey nine. Team mates Jared Pender, 81, and James Gill, 77, combined for the counting scores and New Zealand finished 21 shots behind the winners.

This would not normally have raised the ire of golf fans, except it was alleged Lee had given up and wasn’t even trying over the final holes.

Again, the talkback radio show switchboards went into meltdown. They were given further fodder for bitching and moaning about Lee the following day when it was revealed he had been detained at Auckland airport by customs officials for making an inappropriate comment while passing through airport security. At the time of writing, no charges had been laid.

The feeding frenzy on Lee continued for nearly two days with some golf fans suggesting the Korean-born Lee didn’t have his heart in the Kiwi flag and the New Zealand Golf Association should ban him before he turns pro (expected to be after the US Open next year) and begins playing under a Korean flag.

Even NZGA board member Peter Williams entered the debate saying Lee had “dropped his bundle” and “lost his brain” over the closing holes of the Eisenhower. If anything, it was refreshing for a golf official to come out and be openly critical of a player rather than releasing a statement handcrafted by spin doctors.

But the point here is this young man has risen through the ranks to become the world’s best amateur and the moment he stumbles, he gets a public fl ogging for it. I understand there have been incidents in the past where Lee has not acted graciously in defeat but he is still young and probably the victim of tasting too much success too soon in his young career.

While New Zealand’s best modern player Michael Campbell says he has not yet met Lee, the teenager would do well to sit down and have a chat with the 2005 US Open champion. There are few ambassadors of the game more respected and liked than Campbell and he would be the perfect mentor for Lee.

If there is one thing Campbell can pass on to Lee it is that there is far more to be learned about yourself in losing than there is in winning.

Brendan James
Editor

Golf Australia December 2008