Golf: Tait faced with a hard nut to crack

Former New Zealand cricket player Alex Tait must use his talents to stay in the top 25 of the PGA this year to retain his card. Photo / Paul Taylor

You just know Alex Tait is a good bugger when he strolls into a bar in Colombo, casually lights a fag and asks a complete stranger slumped over a bar stool to his immediate right whether he'd like a beer.

It's 1998 and the house bar of the Taj Samudra Hotel overlooking the waterfront of the Sri Lankan capital is virtually deserted, save for a few lonely souls sprinkled about in the company of fellow travellers.

Tait had arrived at the establishment a matter of hours earlier after receiving an SOS call from New Zealand cricket team management seeking cover for injured seam bowler Dion Nash.

The crafty Northern Districts seamer is excited to be there because there's now the possibility he will get to play against Indian master Sachin Tendulkar during a one-day tri-series.

But fate intervenes and Tait doesn't even get on the field as the onset of the monsoon season plays havoc with the game schedule.

More than 12 years pass before Tait and his old drinking friend meet again, on the balcony of the Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club, immediately after the former cricketer has posted a forgettable four-over-par 76 to finish tied for 43rd in a $10,000 Pro-Am, earning him precisely $0.00.

Yes, the man has reinvented himself from a very fine cricketer at domestic level - and one who played five one-day internationals for his country - into a golf professional.

There's a catch, though, and it's a big one. This golfing lark is proving a tough nut to crack and Tait has been reduced to playing the domestic Pro-Am circuit funded by money he has squirrelled away working as a trimmer on the boning line at the Horotiu freezing works in Hamilton.

Tait has always been a resourceful sort, and outside his sporting pursuits - which in his youth included a period as an A grade squash player sharing court space with world champions Ross Norman and Susan Devoy - he's worked variously as a storeman, builder's labourer, bobby calf slaughterman, squash coach and as a loader and digger driver.

So, it's obvious the 38-year-old has never been afraid of hard work, a trait which will stand him in good stead as he strives to retain his PGA of New Zealand tour players' card.

To do that, he must finish inside the top 25 on the PGA order of merit by the end of this year. He finished 26th last year, which required him to attend qualifying school for the first time at Taupo last month. A repeat visit to the school next year and any placing worse than 10th will see Tait hand back his playing card.

Not that you will see him complaining into his beer, because he well understands that his fate is in his own hands.

He became a golf professional in 2005 after he had hauled himself to England to play the third tier Euro Pro Tour, but he lost money hand over fist and spent just one season on that circuit before joining the Jamega Tour, a pay-for-play tour run by the players themselves.

"I only went over with $7000 and came back almost skint.

"But to spend six months in England and only spend $7000 is a bloody good effort," he said.

Tait certainly hasn't given up on himself as a golfer, one good enough as an amateur to represent Northland at interprovincial level.

"I still want to play it. I know I'm an old bastard but I don't think I'm too old to play golf yet. I still have a passion to play it but I have to get back into those good routines as far as work ethic goes."

He's made many sacrifices and leads a modest existence, all in the name of sport, but do not expect Tait to give away his beer any time soon.

His drinking exploits are legendary and he knows he must tone it down, but he won't stop going to the clubhouse bar just because someone else thinks it will improve his game.

"It's just not me to play 18 holes of golf then hit the range for two hours. I want to play a game of golf as well as I can, put as much into it mentally as I can, unwind over three or four beers, and chill out before worrying about the next day's round."

Speaking of rounds, whose round is it anyway? Cheers, Taity.

- NZPA