Golf: Tataurangi to give it another go

Phil Tataurangi. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Phil Tataurangi still hankers after a club swinger's lifestyle.

A deep sense of unfinished business has compelled him to return to the United States to resume a golf career cruelly interrupted by a succession of injuries before his form threw a hissy fit and left him.

It has been six months since Tataurangi played a competitive round so he is sure to show signs of rust when he dusts off the clubs again to loosen up ahead of what he envisages to be a season of 10 to 15 tournaments on the PGA Tour and the secondary Nationwide Tour.

He holds conditional status on both circuits, meaning his schedule is decided by others, and that alone demands the 39-year-old hits the ground running whenever opportunities present themselves.

Not that Tataurangi is complaining. His predicament is entirely due to the fact that he has played nowhere near his best for the past four seasons and it seems a lifetime away from the heady days of 2002 when he became the fifth of just seven New Zealanders to taste success on the PGA Tour by winning the Invensys Classic of Las Vegas.

At first it was a case of yet another injury requiring time out of the game and, more importantly, time away from the practice range, but the last two seasons saw plenty of tournament starts for little reward.

In 2009 and 2010 Tataurangi, famously a member of the only New Zealand team to win the Eisenhower Trophy world amateur teams title in 1992, made just 14 cuts in 44 Nationwide starts.

Now, six months short of his 40th birthday, Tataurangi has recommitted himself to his craft in the knowledge that alternative employment options will need to be considered if he can't rediscover the form of his younger years.

Tataurangi heads to his Stateside residence in Dallas tomorrow after spending quality time with family and friends at his Taupo home since November. "I have had a nice break away from the game and it has been quite refreshing. But now that the mercury is dropping below 15 degrees it is time to go away and find some sun," he said.

He has resolved to give the game his customary 100 per cent in the hope the good times return, although, of course, there are no guarantees on a golf course and there remains the prospect of a life post-playing if his numbers do not stack up.

That is a reality which Tataurangi does not shy away from. "I would like to think I have a number of years still playing the game and playing it well at the highest level but at the same time I have not got my head buried in the sand and golf is not the be all and end all to me.

"I haven't given another job serious consideration from a fulltime standpoint but I do have other business interests I enjoy to keep my hand in," said Tataurangi, who has a fascination with course design and landscaping.

Having extricated himself from the golf bubble in the US to spend an extended period with his wife, two children and whanau, Tataurangi is excited at the prospect of getting himself competitive again.

He has never been afraid of hard work and a toiler's honesty and willingness to get his hands dirty will be factors in his favour when he hits tournament mode again, most probably late next month. "I am really looking forward to the challenge of getting competitive again," he said. "I've played poorly for the last handful of years but that hasn't been due to a lack of effort.

"I'm looking forward to giving it my all because I always do that, but taking a slightly different attitude towards things with a fresher approach and a more balanced approach due to some of the boxes I've been able to tick in the past six months or so," said Tataurangi, who described the six-month sabbatical as a spell in which family time was the priority.

- NZPA