KEY POINTS:
Golfers have a remarkable ability to concoct tournaments for various categories. There is still the segregation of amateur and the professional. Beyond that are a myriad of age-related competitions. Then there are countless events for occupational groups. Frankly, a golf day can be arranged for any group.
But
this past week I've been at a tournament you only qualify for through of an accident of nature. And I don't mean the Gay Games.
The 18th World Lefthanders tournament brought 297 of us who stand on the other side of the ball to Queenstown for a 72 hole event on four courses: Millbrook, Jacks Point, Arrowtown and Kelvin Heights.
It's bizarre that golf alone should have an event for cackhanders. To my knowledge there is nothing similar for tennis players or snooker exponents or any other game where one hand is dominant.
Maybe it's because lefthanders have always suffered from an inferiority complex through the lack of equipment. A lefthanded cricketer or tennis player uses the same gear as everybody else. It's not that way in this game. All the glossy advertisements about the latest in club technology pass us by because we know the lefthanded version won't be available for months.
Imagine what it was like back in the 1960s when I started playing. I still have memories of traipsing around sports shops in Dunedin and Christchurch trying to find lefthand clubs. They were like hens' teeth. Many's the story of lefthanded cricketers - Sir Richard Hadlee's one - who just gave up looking, and played golf right handed.
That's why Sir Bob Charles will always be our patron saint. What he achieved in that time of far less sophisticated equipment gave us hope that it was worth persevering with nature and not fighting it.
Sir Bob went out of his way to be the special guest at the tournament's opening cocktail party. His status among this community was evident in the way players - and they're here from 12 countries - lined up to have their photograph taken with him. For the record, he thinks he's played just one tournament for lefthanders. That was in Florida in the early 1960s. As he won it by over 20 shots, he figured there was more worthwhile competition elsewhere.
To be honest, this is more of a social and tourist event than a serious tournament. There are four categories - open, 55 and over, 70 and over and ladies. The biggest entry is the 55 and overs. There's a couple of scratch handicappers but, on the first day, when the strong cold southerly blew, there were more scores over 100 than under 80.
I find it strange playing only with others of my kind. There are matters of etiquette, such as where to stand while the others are hitting a shot to make sure you're not in their peripheral vision, or being aware of where your shadow is cast.
But Sir Bob's line about there being very few real lefthanded golfers rings true. He maintains most of us are actually backhanders. He's one and so am I. And everybody I've played with this week signs the card with their right hand too.