Golf: Outside help called in to try and repair Tongue rift

11.45am - By MARTIN DAVIDSON

New Zealand Golf Association (NZGA) chief executive Peter Dale has called in outside help in an attempt to patch up his relationship with coach Mal Tongue.

Tongue, the national director of coaching, and his five assistants resigned from their NZGA contracts yesterday.

He said his professional relationship with Dale had deteriorated to the stage where he did not feel he had Dale's confidence.

Dale said NZGA head office staff in Wellington, including himself, were left stunned when Tongue delivered the six letters of resignation.

He said he had received but not accepted them, and hoped to resolve the matter in a matter of days.

He said he had approached an intermediary, a person from outside golf, to mediate with the coaches on his behalf, but did not believe it would help the process to identify the intermediary.

Unrelated to that, Don Tricker, a senior advisor of Sport and Recreation, the Government's sports funding agency, visited Tongue at his Wellington home for several hours yesterday.

Tricker told NZPA he had little to say on the matter, that he was speaking to Tongue only to get his version of events and to see whether there was any way he could help to resolve the issue.

NZGA board chairman John Patterson said there had been no thought of convening an emergency meeting of the board, but that could happen if necessary.

Joining Tongue in tendering their resignations were his five assistants -- Bob McDonald, of Auckland, Simon Thomas, of Dunedin, Murray Macklin, of Wellington, Brian Boys, of Hamilton, and Shane Scott, of Christchurch.

They have working with Tongue since 2002, implementing a streamlined coaching programme to develop amateur players to the stage where a professional career is an option.

The mass resignations, which take effect in two months, mean Tongue and the others will continue to coach their own individual stable of players, but not official NZGA squads or at NZGA-approved coaching clinics.

Tongue, who has worked on a contractual basis for the NZGA since 1994, said he was not about to cut his ties with New Zealand despite ending his working relationship with the NZGA.

Tongue, 46, will remain in Wellington, where he has lived since 1989 when he emigrated from England, to serve his players.

He has had opportunities to work overseas before and turned them down, and Tongue said nothing had changed.

His over-riding ambition remained to coach a player to win a major title, something he came close to achieving in 1995 when Michael Campbell finished in a tie for third at the British Open.

That remains the best performance by a New Zealander in any one of golf's four majors since Simon Owen was second behind American legend Jack Nicklaus in the 1978 British Open.

Tongue's commitment to New Zealand was one of the reasons Campbell dumped him as his coach in 1997.

Europe-based Campbell felt he was receiving band aid treatment from afar when he wanted a coach more readily available to see him on a needs must basis.

Tongue said he felt a deep sense of gratitude to New Zealand for what the country had given him.

"I am going to continue to support New Zealand," he told NZPA.

"I am not going to let this incident stop me from my goal, which is to have a player win a major.

"I've done every single thing I possibly can for this country. I've never shirked my responsibility and I'm not now.

"I would be nothing without coming to New Zealand. My whole career is based in New Zealand.

"I have turned down some very good offers down the years from big-name players to work overseas but I love what I'm doing here."

The departure of Tongue and his five assistants will leave a gaping hole at the NZGA.

Tongue has a huge following in New Zealand, his profile rivalling some of the country's leading playing professionals.

He has forged close professional and personal relationships with many of New Zealand's leading players, being the guiding influence behind the emergence of Campbell and countless others who have graduated from the amateur to professional ranks.

- NZPA