GOLF: Parents eye payback from champ

ANENDRA SINGH
Parents whose children play top-level sport always have to take stock, especially at this time of the year.
With school starting in three weeks, digging deep into their pockets for astronomical tournament fees can put a huge strain on the budget. The perennial Christmas outlay, holiday expenditure and a tidy investment in school books and uniforms all add up to eat into the household income.
So when Tom Cardno phoned his mother, Kathy, in North Shore from the Hastings Golf Club at the end of the Lion Foundation New Zealand Under-23 Men's Championship late on Saturday afternoon, the conversation had a certain sense of banality about it.
Cardno: ``Hi, Mum.'
Kathy: ``So how did you go today?'
Cardno: ``Pretty good.'
Kathy: ``Oh yeah?'
Cardno: ``I won it, Mum.'
Later, the 16-year-old Takapuna Grammar School pupil told SportToday his ``stunned' mother, a budding furniture businesswoman, had gone ``crazy'.
Ditto the reaction from his father, Grant.
``That's because they see it (the money spent on him) as an investment and if I become a professional they'll get something out of it too,' the Waitemata Golf Club left-hander said, smiling at the suggestion that he might have to employ a lawyer soon to sign up a business contract with his parents following his elevation as the best under-23 male player in the country. He carded a tournament total of five-under 283, coming from behind to steal the thunder from Aucklander Seve Ha.
Ha, from the Akarana Golf Club, had to be content with a three-under 285 in a tie for second place with Bradley Kendall, of Mt Maunganui Golf Club.
A sizzling third round of 68 with five birdies and a solitary bogey in the morning bought the champion a sniffing chance in the fourth and final round, considering Ha was the money player, stepping on to the mound with three sub-par rounds in the arvo but his five-stroke lead in the morning whittled down to a two-stroke one for the final round.
So what does the 72-hole strokeplay victory mean to the sixth-former who won in his first outing in a field boasting New Zealand Titleist Academy members and senior men's Interprovincial representatives?
``A lot. That I can certainly beat some of the best players in the country and also make it as a pro.'
The +1.4 handicapper, who had his first flirtation with golf at intermediate school while ``mucking around' with a friend on a golf course, paid tribute to his coach, Craig Dixon, of the Waitemata club.
``I thought I could play this and did more and more and Craig saw me and thought I had some serious potential and asked me if I wanted to take it one step further.'
While it's a common trend for many parents to cart and follow their children around major tournaments, Cardno and a group of his fellow amateurs from North Harbour travel like a band of gypsies. He, Cameron Jones (North Harbour GC), Kevin Budden (Waitemata GC) and Simon Brownlee (North Shore GC) share the fuel cost in Budden's car and split the motel bills on tourneys. Some of them made a trip to the Sunshine Coast in 2007 for the PGA Junior Festival at Twin Waters, which Cardno won. It was his previous best win.
Jones, who missed the cut here on Saturday, offered to caddie for Cardno, keeping him focused with some positive reinforcement.
Cardno hastened to emphasise that he was self-motivated and wasn't planning anything outrageously special to celebrate. Just as Cardno was a bolt out of the blue, so was the hour-long torrential downpour from 3.30pm on Saturday that caught some of the amateurs flat-footed without wet-weather gear.
The 140-plus amateurs had complained about the scorching Hawke's Bay sun for the first two days but on Saturday they experienced all four seasons in one hour as overcast conditions pre-empted pregnant dark clouds to break their water. Almost instantaneously winds picked up and the barometer plummeted as players and the gallery pulled out jackets.
``The rain was unexpected but helpful for me. I got birdies going through seven, eight and nine which is when it poured down,' said Cardno after the torrent left pools of water on parts of the fairways and gave the fast greens some traction.
Bay top seed Nick Gillespie bit his bottom lip to tee-off on Friday despite a dodgy lower back with a one-over 73 to put some respectability into a 77 on the first day.
On Saturday morning he had a scorching three-under 69 but emulated Thursday's 77 in the afternoon to finish on 296, 13 strokes behind Cardno with several others, including Bay team captain for Taupo Pieter Zwart, of Waipukurau Golf Club.
However, Daniel Pearce was the best Bay amateur with 294 while fellow host club player Supravee Phatam was a stroke behind him.
Hastings PGA professional coach Brian Doyle's protege, Ryan Fox, the son of ex-All Black superboot Grant, was in the hunt with three sub-par 71s but the wheels came off when he lost a ball up a tree to card 77 for a total two-under 290.
Defending champion Ben Campbell scored 288, managing par for the course.