Golf: Owen ready to tee off on lucrative circuit

Simon Owen is ticking off the days to his 50th birthday in December, a milestone that opens doors to riches offered by world sport's ultimate pension plan.

Owen's targeted destination is the United States Senior PGA Tour, where walking sticks aren't in evidence but where regulations do allow for the use of carts.

The Wanganui hobby farmer is booked to contest one of six regional qualifying tournaments in November. He hopes to qualify for the final in Orlando, Florida, from November 28 to December 1 where eight tour places will be at stake.

For Owen, who turned professional in 1971 and played fulltime in Europe, Australia and New Zealand until 1984, the seniors circuit and its many trappings offer a lifeline to a fading career.

The tour has produced countless millionaires in the past two decades and while the money available is an instant and obvious attraction, Owen stressed that there are other motivations involved.

"The seniors circuit has always been an option. I've been planning to play it for the past two or three years. I see it as a natural progression.

"I've played most of my career for minimal prize money so I'd be very grateful to get some decent prize money."

There's no question Owen has the game to prosper among the veterans in the United States.

He was one of this country's best players throughout the 1970s when he, Sir Bob Charles, Terry Kendall and John Lister were the only New Zealand golfers regularly playing overseas.

Among his biggest career titles were the 1972 Fiji Open, the 1974 German Open, the 1976 Double Diamond International, the 1976 New Zealand Open, the 1978 New Zealand PGA Championship and the 1980 South Australian Open.

He catapulted himself to world prominence at the 1978 British Open at St Andrews in Scotland. With three holes to play Owen was ideally placed to become just the second New Zealander - after Charles 15 years earlier - to win the Open.

Standing between Owen and glory was none other than legendary American Jack Nicklaus, that bear of a man widely acknowledged as the best golfer of all time.

Nicklaus ultimately secured one of his 18 major titles after being one shot behind Owen leaving the 16th tee. Owen bogeyed that hole after his approach flew the green, while Nicklaus responded with a birdie to inflict a two-stroke swing and then edged out to a two-shot lead when he parred the next.

In the same year Owen lost the final of the world matchplay event to Japan's Isao Aoki, now plying his craft on the manicured fairways on the US seniors circuit.

A strong case can be mounted to argue that the US seniors tour is the biggest commercial sporting success story in the latter half of last century.

What started in 1980, as two small tournaments sanctioned by the regular US PGA Tour, has mushroomed into a dynamic, year-long industry offering annual prize money of $US50 million ($110.27 million).

It's a superficial world of ageing players, hidden pacemakers, sycophantic commentators and wildly inflated pay packets, all fuelled by ratings-driven television network executives.

Dozens of players have become millionaires since turning 50 and drifting off to the seniors circuit, among them Charles, who has banked more than $US8 million since joining the older ranks in 1986.

Owen has continued to play regularly in Australia and New Zealand - where he last posted a top-10 finish in 1994 - since winding down his career in the mid 1980s, and is confident his game is good enough for the seniors tour.

- NZPA