Golf: New wave fails to show

Michael Campbell. Photo / Getty Images

Tiger Woods was supposed to have led a crusade by black players into golf's white-dominated stronghold. It didn't happen.

Maori players were supposed to follow Michael Campbell's lead into golf - but that hasn't really happened either.

Still, New Zealand is doing better integrating Maori into golf even though matters might have stagnated recently. Woods has been the sole African-American representative for 13 years. Now Joseph Bramlett will join Woods. Bramlett, just 9 years old when Woods won at Augusta in 1997, survived the gruelling 252-hole process of 'Q' school to become the first black golfer to qualify for the PGA Tour since Adrian Stills in 1985.

Bramlett grew up outside San Jose in a biracial family - his father is black, his mother white - and endured the odd stare at junior events when his parents attended. He plastered posters of Woods on his bedroom wall after the 1997 Masters, and he competed in the Junior World Championship in San Diego with a team sponsored by the Tiger Woods Foundation.

The parallels with Woods are close - both have African-American fathers and non-black mothers. Both had clubs in their cribs when they were 2. Both tore up the junior ranks, with Bramlett's talent so evident he was offered a college scholarship when he was 10. Bramlett became the youngest player to qualify for the US Amateur, at just 14.

For all the talk of breakthroughs, Bramlett's arrival demonstrates that has not really occurred in the US.

In New Zealand, the breakthrough achieved by Michael Campbell and Phil Tataurangi, as members of the victorious Eisenhower Trophy team in 1992, followed by Campbell's spectacular rise, was expected to be the catalyst for a new wave of Maori golfers.

"There was a noticeable increase in Maori participation after 1993," says Vic Pirihi, "and this continued until around 1998."

Pirihi is considered the doyen of Maori golf. He was the co-founder of the Ngaki Tamariki Trust, providing financial assistance and support to elite Maori golfers for over 20 years. "After 1998 it started to level off. We have always faced great competition from other sports. It is also a question of affordability - we have tried to help with gear, airfares and billets at national and international tournaments."

Pirihi vividly recalls the first time he saw Campbell as a 12-year-old at a tournament in Rotorua. "He was just another kid - a bit of a raw banger - but boy could he hit a ball. He had all the natural talent in the world."

Pirihi began to assist the youngster from Titahi Bay. There is a story of a teenage Campbell turning up to a tournament in Taupo, with long hair and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Pirihi apparently told him to stub out the fag and get a haircut. Campbell did as he was told and ended up winning the event, with a much more respectable coiffure. "It has become a lot harder now," says Pirihi. " The youngsters these days are struggling."

The affable Pirihi even accepts some of the blame for the lack of Generation Y success: "Maybe we spoiled them. We gave [the next wave] too much. Everything was laid on for them and I don't think that helped. Now they have to achieve to get funding." The incentive scheme means that they get financial assistance to travel and compete at tournaments - as long as they perform.

"I think we are on the right track. Another one will come up. I see kids at the age of 12, 13 and I think [he] could be the one. But by the time they are 18 they have gone; they find out about the girls, the booze and the things that tip you upside down and they miss the boat. They have to get over that 14-18 year old period."

Pirihi's long time colleague, Judge Mick Brown, says it is about income, not race.

"There are economic barriers rather than racial barriers," says Brown. "In that way Chamberlain Park [where the programme is based] has been a godsend as it is a public course. Otherwise how are these youngsters going to afford to be members of a flash club?"

Maori players such as Brad Heaven, Doug Holloway, Josh Carmichael and Brad Iles are all graduates of Pirihi's scheme who have successfully joined the professional ranks, though none of them have yet made a significant splash in the huge global pool.

Pirihi carries another document entitled 'Participants in our programme who have moved on; Where are they now?'.

It contains dozens of juniors who have since followed other paths. From lawyers to builders, restaurateurs to computer analyst, one is even serving in the US army in Germany.

"It's a hard grind," Pirihi says. "You need solid backing. There are financial barriers but mostly it requires absolute and total 100 per cent commitment."

Golf commentator Peter Williams urges caution with parallels with the US. He says there have always been successful Maori golfers.

"Maori have never had the participation issues with golf in this country that blacks had in the States," says Williams. "It has always been a far more inclusive game." He cites Karepo Tareha, a Hawkes Bay amateur seen as one of the best players of his time in the 1920s, a time when Maori were not particularly prominent in other areas of New Zealand society. There was also Walter Godfrey who turned professional in the 1960s after winning a series of NZ Amateur titles.

"Having your top players do well internationally is crucial to inspire others to take up the game and that is sadly what is lacking in golf at the moment. The opportunities for kids to play golf remain numerous, especially in the country areas.

"Maori kids are neither disadvantaged nor advantaged in any way compared to Pakeha kids."

New Zealand Golf CEO Dean Murphy says there are programmes in place to support all promising New Zealanders in the sport, regardless of their ethnic background, and feels the opportunities for young Maori golfers are "probably exactly the same" as they were in the early 1990s. Murphy adds that NZ Golf has always supported Pirihi's work, and that they are plenty of scholarship and opportunities for development for Maori players.

"We don't have specific programmes for young Maori but I'm sure lots of people picked up golf clubs after seeing Cambo's achievements. The opportunities today are more than ever and kids are coming into the sport at a younger age."

New Zealand remains arguably the most affordable place in the world to play the game and has more golf courses (per capita) than any other country in the world, apart from Scotland.

Pirihi remains optimistic about the future, with another batch of talented teenagers on the horizon.

He nominates the Northland duo of Sean Masters and Kadin Neho as two to watch. Fourteen-year-old Neho became the youngest to represent the province last year while Masters was an accomplished junior who is progressing nicely in the senior ranks.