KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's greatest ever player made a flying visit to Auckland this week as guest of honour for the unveiling of a new name for the series of Greg Turner tournaments.
While Sir Bob Charles has lent his name and donated much money to golf initiatives here, it's
fitting this latest is about playing tournaments.
If there's one thing he loves, it's to compete. To prove it, he and Lady Verity are on their way again next month for another tournament-playing odyssey, 48 years after Bob started his professional career with a win at Queens Park in Invercargill.
He told us in 2004 he was retiring, 50 years after winning that first New Zealand Open. That was just a tease. Charlie can't help himself and why not?
He'd be the fittest and healthiest 72-year-old I know - surely the best proof the deer velvet extract carrying his name actually works - and, as he showed at The Hills in December in that memorable New Zealand Open, he's still competitive.
At the age of even par, he shows no sign of losing his taste for adventure. After a Florida start, his events on the European Seniors Tour include those in Krakow in Poland and Moscow.
Sir Bob did say this week he's been so busy with business and farming, he hasn't had much time to practice. Then he added he tried to get about 45 minutes on the range at Clearwater most days.
That might be much less than someone in the early stages of a touring career might practice but it's still a solid workout for a man in his early 70s.
What he didn't mention, and I have it on good authority he insists on doing it every morning in his small home gym, is his aerobic and strength work.
That's the thing about Sir Bob. I doubt he's a kilo heavier now - and he's officially just 77kg - than in his world top-10 days in the 1960s.
As a consequence, neither his golf swing nor his putting stroke have deviated much.
The schedule says most emphatically this is not a holiday tour. Last year he was second at the Wentworth Senior Masters, beating players up to 20 years younger and then we all know what happened at The Hills.
Sir Bob is the best 72-year-old golfer ever. His record as the oldest ever to make a cut in a tournament on a major tour proves that.
Unlike numerous others of his generation, especially Arnold Palmer (seven years older) and Jack Nicklaus (five years younger), Charles never stopped playing to concentrate on business. Sure, there's the farm and endorsements and course design work, but there's never been a multinational Bob Charles (Inc) in the way other superstars diversified.
First and foremost, he's a player, and always will be. This week, he hinted this season might be his last. But after seeing the physical shape he's in and the way he swung it (and putted it) at the New Zealand Open, I reckon that was just another tease.
