The Napier club has about 50 junior members, mushrooming from eight this time last year when Henare got involved, although the programme has been there since its inception.
Henare says the pro-am idea was spawned to help the elite level one, handicap-toting juniors from 10 to 18 years old travel to regional and national events.
Money that Andrew Henare Golf raises also will go towards taking Snag (Starting New At Golf) to Hawke's Bay schools.
Henare says golf will expose juniors to life skills and core values that will benefit them both on and off the course.
Snag is fun, colourful and teaches children the basics.
The pro-am will comprise teams of three amateurs grouped with a professional in a best three of four stableford scramble. An amateur prize table of more than $5000 will be up for grabs.
Investing in youngsters, says Charles, is imperative and picks the meteoric rise of Lydia Ko as a youngster who refined her skills in New Zealand before going on to become a world champion.
"My dad played golf until he was 70 and I'm playing golf and still have another 10 years of playing left in me so it is a great game where you can get out in the fresh air and sunshine and you can play by yourself as well," says the man who will be chief guest at Napier club and will oversee Henare conduct a clinic for juniors on the morning of the pro-am.
In his formative years, people arrived at the club in jackets and ties, changed for a round of golf and then got back into them again.
"I'm a traditionalist and always will be so that won't change my views," he says, partial towards an era where people looked smart, their shoes shining and pants creased in a colour combination that looked presentable.
He understands there's a dramatic change in attitude to life and how that's reflected in the contemporary dress code.
"Today there's a different style of life which I think is a huge waste of time because I'm a great believer in all types of outdoor activities," he says of the sedentary Y Generation who tend to find traction on electronic and digital platforms.
Born in Carterton, Charles grew up in Greytown but did once play at a golf course near his birth town which is now a vineyard.
From 11 until 20 he ploughed the fairways and dutifully replaced the divots, mostly at the Masterton Golf Club.
His parents, the late Ivor and Phyllis Charles, were school teachers and also played the game before retiring in Christchurch.
The first man to win a golf major as a leftie, Charles was actually a right-hander in everything he did, including tennis and cricket, except when it came to playing golf.
"I'm right eyed, right footed so I can't do too many things without my right side," he says.
He explains that it was instinctive for him to grab anything with two hands to put his left hand over his right.
"When I pick up a rifle I pick it up with my left hand and I line it up with my right eye," he says, drawing parallels with playing billiards and snooker as well as using an axe with a similar approach."
The allure of an outdoor lifestyle put academic pursuits in its place for a man who received a knighthood in 1999.
"To be honest, I never did focus on school work because I was more interested in being out in the open.
"With a reasonable brain I could analyse things so I just wanted to be outside running around chasing a ball."
Averse to the idea of sitting in classrooms reading "boring textbooks", Charles never sat University Entrance. Instead, he opted to work for the national bank as a teller for several years while honing his golfing skills.
That didn't faze his parents who mercifully adhered to a philosophy of confining studies during school hours, even from primary days, rather than prolonging it as homework.
"In those days the banks closed their doors at 3 o'clock so I was able to get away to practise the great game so I was quite fortunate then, looking at the banks now."
Charles fulfilled his compulsory three-month army service before turning professional, something he says was an easy decision.
"I went to Australia and played in two professional tournaments there and in the end I travelled around the world, playing in majors and the British amateur champs," says the man who became the New Zealand Open champion as an 18-year-old in 1954.
In 1963, Charles became the first leftie to clinch a PGA Tour event in the United States, clinching the Houston Classic.
Later that year he won The Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes, England. He was tied with Phil Rodgers after four rounds but went on to blitz the American by eight shots in the 36-hole playoff to decide the winner.
Charles has won close to 80 tournaments around the world. His victory in the 1969 World Matchplay Championship was considered one of his best.
For someone who has beaten his age with rounds several times, Charles also has the distinction of having etched his name on the Senior British Open silverware 30 years after winning his British Open crown.
"It opened a lot of doors," he says of the 1963 British Open victory.
These days he doesn't have the time to play much golf although he loves hitting 50-70 balls at the Clearwater Resort course golf range, where he lives.
"I've kept myself busy. There's always something to do on the farm," he says of the property in Oxford, north of Canterbury.
"I love the game and I can still play it quite successfully."
The cost of maintaining golf courses and buying equipment means the membership fees keep going up.
"In fact, they don't even level off."
Getting people into the game for an hour and a half over nine holes, he believes, is the way to enjoy the companionship.
He recalls how in 1958 if people didn't go through 18 holes at St Andrew's in Scotland in a specified time they were frowned on "because you were holding up the field".
His contention is if people are playing on shorter golf courses time becomes friendlier.
He and wife Lady Verity, who married in 1962, have two children, David and Beverly, and while touring at his prime they formed "Team Charles".
"She was a great supporter and travelled with me and dedicated her life to our family. She's a family-first person," he says of Verity who was a "paid secretary" in Johannesburg where she and Beverly were born.
"Both our children had travelled around the world before they were a year old."
It amazes him how professionals travel these days with an entourage including personnel such as swing and mental skills coaches.
On a closing note, it escapes him who the great statesman was from England who said "golf was a good walk spoiled" but he wants to clarify the statement that has been attributed to famous writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who went by the pen name of Mark Twain.
"There's nothing like a good walk anyway," says Charles who was the first New Zealander to be inducted into the World Golf of Fame in Florida in 2008.
