Off the tee: Home on the grange

Here's hoping Sir Bob Charles can reproduce the form he showed in the last New Zealand Open at The Grange when the tournament returns to the Papatoetoe course in January.

After a long flirtation with Gulf Harbour, New Zealand Golf confirmed this week that the Holden-sponsored event would be played at The Grange from January 15-18 and that the 50th anniversary of Sir Bob's first Open win would be celebrated.

When the event was last at The Grange in 2001, David Smail was the winner, but Charles captured the hearts of the galleries with a flashback to his glory days.

After 36 holes he was fifth at four under following two 68s. He slipped to 73 in the third round, but had a final round of par-70 to share 15th place with young Kiwi amateur Eddie Lee and Aussie David Gossett.

The comparatively flat 5974m course will probably suit Charles better than Gulf Harbour.

Since he last played at The Grange, a number of trees have been felled for safety reasons, opening up some of the narrow fairways.

The course record of 62 was set by Aussie Rodger Davis on his way to victory in the Open of 1986.

Nick Price had a 63 in 1972 at the Air New Zealand-Shell tournament and local amateur Logan Holzer equalled that in a pre-qualifying tournament for the 2002 Open at Paraparaumu.

Charles won the second of his four New Zealand Opens at the course in 1970.

Russell Hill, the general manager of the club, says members love having the Open at the course, but there is no suggestion it should be the long-term home for the event.

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North Harbour teams dominated the provincial teams' event run in conjunction with the North Island girls' age-group championships at Waihi this week.

Winners, with two scores to count, were Sae Hee Jeung 73, Courtney West 74 and Alexandra Hellesoe 88.

Another Harbour team, Chantelle Webb 71, Mi Kyung Kim 77 and Jane Lee 79 were second.

Third place went to a Waikato-King Country combination of Rachel Seidel 70, Annelies Anderson 79 and Stephanie Slavich 86.

The individual winners after 54 holes were Sarah Nicholson from Hutt in the under-19s, Bo Bae Kim from Omanu in the under-17s, Jessica Park from Pakuranga in the under-15s and Haeji Kang from Whangarei in the under-13s.

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Young Whangarei golfer Dale Clarke warmed up for this weekend's Northland v North Harbour clash with a convincing win in the Bream Bay Classic at Waipu.

Clarke, one of the stars of Northland's team at the Tower tournament last year, had a six-under total of 210 to win by four shots from Dean Sipson of Mt Maunganui.

Third equal were Auckland's Clarke Osborne and Michael Foster from Sherwood Park on 216. Logan Holzer (The Grange) was fifth and Chris Johns (Omaha) sixth.

The sides will play at Helensville on Saturday and Gulf Harbour on Sunday.

North Harbour. - Under 19: Simon Cresswell (Pupuke), Kevin Budden (Waitemata), Sun Kim (Pupuke), Mitchell Jeon (Pupuke). Under 23: Paul Ashton (Warkworth), Stuart Baird (Whangaparaoa), Jacques Nortje (Pupuke), Doug Wylde (North Shore). Senior: Josh Carmichael (Pupuke), Joon Sang Chung (Redwood Park), Chris Johns (Omaha), Ryan Leslie (Peninsula), Michael Hendry (Pupuke), Bevan Dennison (Huapai), Richard Moors (Waitemata), Ben Jujnovich (Redwood Park), Steven Han (North Shore), Josh Burt (Redwood Park).

Northland. - Under 19: Brad Bonnington, Matthew Barbour, Arias Giri, Gary John Hill. Under 23: Sam Luke, Scott Wightman, Sam Cross, Mark Allen. Senior: Dale Clarke, Alex Tait, Michael Perrin, Michael Foster, Richard Poole, Jeremy Hay, Reuben Inglis, Adam Neal, Cam Wood, Rhys Gurney.

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Auckland and Wellington are likely to meet at a new venue in their annual clash next month.

The teams have traditionally played at the Taupo Golf Club, but that course will be unavailable on the chosen dates of August 30-31 because of 75th anniversary celebrations. Wairakei is the likely venue on the same weekend.

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When bodgies and widgies roamed Queen St in the 50s and 60s, the derogatory term bandied around was "milkbar cowboys."

The expression is being revived after some recent upsets in the Wellington representative team.

Four members have been suspended by their association after the team lost a fixture in Hawkes Bay this year.

Two were apparently severely hung over on the tee after a night on the town and earned seven-month suspensions. The other two were involved in a milkshake fight in the clubhouse and were put out for three months.