GOLF: Mouldey wishes he took shot at pro tour

ANENDRA SINGH
But Waite! There's more, I kid you not, says Napier's Chris Mouldey
Body1: It was Chris Mouldey's famous last words when American-based New Zealand professional golfer Grant Waite asked him to join him with a view to becoming a paid hacker.
"What? You must be bloody mad, mate! You'll never do well out there," Mouldey replied to the Palmerston North-born golfer, who was his friend from the time they were at Ross Intermediate School.
"In those days it was too hard. Grant had left school by the age of 16 and was asking me to join him in practising 36 holes every day," the 42-year-old Masters 40+ golfer from Napier tells SportToday.
His voice mingled with regret and humour, Mouldey says Waite pursued his dream of swinging clubs on the pristine fairways of international country clubs while he opted to follow the footsteps of his father, George, to perfect the repetitive trowel action of a concrete plasterer.
After seven rounds of Masters trials at Napier Golf Club on Sunday, Mouldey finished in 15th-equal spot in a field of 20 golfers, missing out on the top five places for the annual Masters Golf Tournament to be staged in Feilding next month.
The five-handicapper from Napier club has always been in the single digits but concedes his rounds of 78 and 80 at his par-72 home course couldn't possibly match the likes of the "scratchies" and plus-one types such as Maraenui Golf Club's Paul Mountcastle, when the best of five cards from seven rounds are tallied.
"I try every year but some of the guys are getting better and better. The Masters are a bunch of great guys who are a little bit older but have a good time," he says.
A Wine Works employee today - someone who helps Bay wineries select the right type of labels, screw caps, cartons and such inventory - the thought of plying Waite's trade in the man-made garden of Eden still haunts Mouldey.
Explaining amid laughter that the pronunciation of his surname is akin to the furry growth of minute fungi found in stale bread and something that has been a butt of jokes all his life, Mouldey says the word mouldy can easily be applied to his game, too.
"But to play golf like Grant every day would be great, wouldn't it? Every day the game is different and the course conditions are also different," he says.
When often finding himself in the bunkers of his daily routine he says to wife Trish that he should have gone along with Waite.
"She says she wished I had, too, because today we'd have a much flashier house," Mouldey says.
His mother, the late Bev Mouldey (receptionist), and Waite's mother, Rae (librarian), were employees of Ross Intermediate and good friends.
"That's how I met Grant but then he went to (Palmerston North) Boys High and I went to Freyberg College," he explains.
His two daughters, Gemma, 20, and Renee, 13, always scoffed at the notion he had rubbed shoulders with Waite.
"Only in April last year, when I attended my mother's funeral in Palmy North, I met Rae and dragged her over to introduce her to them. Now they believe me," he says, triumphantly.
Although he hasn't met Waite since they parted ways in high school, Mouldey hopes that some day they'll get the chance to to talk again, to reminisce and rekindle the good old days.
As for now, the affable golfer is resigned to the fact that he may have to be content with watching Waite on TV and saying to anyone who cares: "Hey, I know that man!"
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