Golf: Good times and rough moments

Racing may be the sport of kings, but golf is the sport of presidents, prime ministers and chief executives. So when there is trouble in the game, you can count on a very corporate kind of crisis.

New Zealand Golf had its meltdown 18 months ago when the national coach, Mal Tongue, and his assistants resigned, chief executive Peter Dale followed soon after, some national representatives were involved in a tasteless toothbrush prank and top player Bradley Iles was badly injured in a fall from a golf cart.

Now Tongue's biography, The Mal Tongue Story by Russell Gray, has appeared with a chapter devoted to his resignation and the brouhaha that ensued.

At the time it was not entirely clear what the problem was and, to be honest, the book does not offer a complete picture.

Clearly the lawyers have had a field day and what survives traces a breakdown in relationships when a new chief executive from outside the game began to impose his ideas on a structure and staff built up by the greatly admired Grant Clements.

Ironically Dale cleared the way for the coaching changes that saw regional coaches put in place working with Tongue and he backed the idea of a national academy, which was also supported by the national coach.

But in golf, while there can be only one winner, that doesn't mean that everyone else is a loser. Dale's impatience for success and management style didn't sit well with Tongue or, the book suggests, with the rest of his staff.

Tongue insists that it was not a personality clash between two men and he points to the solidarity of the coaching staff. It certainly wasn't a two-man affair when golf's administrators, lawyers, PR people, the media and a mediator got involved.

The book has been some time in the works and everybody seems to have moved on.

Tongue and his coaches have an academy at Cambridge and a world-first virtual coaching system, Dale has another job, Iles has made a wonderful recovery and the pranksters are back in the selectors' favour.

Most importantly, Michael Campbell has won the US Open and the World Matchplay titles and Tongue's book gains a fresh relevance that makes the standoff with NZ Golf yesterday's news. He guided the Wellingtonian through the early part of his career and his insights into Campbell are fascinating.

Tongue recognised the talent in Campbell and Stephen Scahill in their amateur days and became close to them both as they embarked on professional careers. They drifted apart but both golfers have written fulsome appreciations of their former coach as forewords to the biography.

The book also includes a chapter of golf tips that, given Tongue's record, should be worth the purchase price on their own.

For a coach supremely confident, in public at least, of his ability and with a record to be proud of, Tongue discloses in a chapter headed "Depressions and Obsessions" what a complicated character the coalminer's son from Nottingham really is.

He can enjoy the moment with Campbell at the US Masters and break down in tears of depression when he feels the world is against him. He collects cars and ukuleles, plants trees obsessively and buys a microlight despite being scared of flying.

Wife Gill sums him up: "He is generous to a fault, sensitive, caring and loving, but can be obnoxious, caustic and hurtful. I have never met anyone so brutally honest or as committed to his profession and I have the greatest respect for his achievements to date."

* The Mal Tongue Story, published by Celebrity Books, RRP $39.99.