Golf: Left-handers aplenty

Sir Bob Charles turns 70 next month and, while his competitive career is winding down, the numbers of left-handed golfers at the top level is growing.

Sir Bob's victory in the 1963 British Open was unchallenged as the sole major won by a leftie until Canadian Mike Weir won the US Masters 40 years later. Since then Phil Mickelson has won the Masters in 2004 and the USPGA last year.

The USPGA tour has a record 10 left-handers this year. The five from last year - Mickelson, Weir, Steve Flesch, Russ Cochran and Nick O'Hern - have been joined by newcomers Bubba Watson, Eric Axley, Greg Chalmers, B. J. Staten and John Engler.

This weekend Sir Bob will return to his roots to play in the Masterton-Eketahuna Pro-am. He was a Masterton member when he won the NZ Open as an amateur in 1954.

Appropriately, the defending champion for the pro-am is left-hander Tim Wilkinson, who is carving out a successful professional career on the Nationwide tour in the United States.

Club professionals report an increase in the number of players opting for the left-handed approach, aided greatly by the much greater availability of equipment for those who buck the conventional trend.

Hockey almost alone of popular sports discriminates against left-handed play, but golf for many years didn't make it easy. Novices generally started with their parents' clubs and those were usually right-handed.

In contrast, a cricket bat or tennis racket can be wielded on either side.

Many golfers who are naturally left-handed have reached the top level playing right-handed. One example is Len Mattiace, who lost out to Weir at the Masters. Others include Greg Norman and Curtis Strange.

But on the other side of the club, Sir Bob does everything except two-handed sports right-handed and Weir and Mickelson have the same preference.

Experts say which side you stand to the ball depends more on your eyes than your hands. Give novices shafts with no defined head and some will feel more comfortable swinging from the left-hand side of the ball.

Luckiest of all are those who can swing successfully from either side. England and Yorkshire cricket captain Brian Close played to a single-figure handicap whichever side he stood on the tee.

The rules of golf do not insist that all your 14 clubs are left or right-handed. Several professional golfers have found playing right-handed and putting left-handed has worked for them. With a flat-faced putter you can have it both ways.

Left-handed putting always looked the way to go when Sir Bob was in his prime and Mickelson built his success on a fabulous short game. But how about launching Tiger-taming drives?

Watson, who graduated from the Nationwide to the USPGA tour this year, is a self-taught leftie who is poised to rewrite the driving record books. He averaged 307.51m off the tee at Waialae Country Club in Hawaii as he hit 16 drives of more than 320m.

His longest, of 364m, came at the 12th hole during a final-round of 65 that staked him to a fourth-place finish in his USPGA tour debut.

One mystery remains - why are there so few successful women lefties? The US women's tour has had none for years and Lisa Aldridge, a member of two New Zealand Queen Sirikit-winning teams, has been unchallenged as our best.

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Aucklander Dasom Lee heads for the Australian strokeplay championships in Sydney tomorrow, fresh from shooting one of the best rounds ever recorded by a woman in this country.

Lee, a 16-year-old Howick College student from the Pakuranga Country Club, had eight birdies and an eagle for a total of 62 during the final round of the Kaimai Classic at the Mt Maunganui Club.

She had started the final round five shots behind the leaders and won the under-19 event by four shots. Her 62 bettered the women's course record by six shots.