Sir Bob Charles - Part 2 (The Open Championship)
Sir Bob Charles, 2008 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, takes us back to the start of his professional career at age 24, a career that included 80 professional wins. He recounts coming to America in 1963 to play on the PGA Tour where he picked up his first win here at the Houston Open that same year, the first by a lefty. Weeks later, Bob triumphed in the Open Championship at Lytham prevailing in a 36-hole playoff with Phil Rodgers and becoming the first Kiwi and southpaw to win a major. He and Bruce have fond memories of teaming to win the CBS Golf Classic in a 36-hole final versus Bobby Nichols and "Champagne" Tony Lema in 1964. Bob concludes this segment by recalling his win in the 1969 Piccadilly World Match Play event, this time in a sudden-death playoff with Gene "The Machine" Littler. Sir Bob Charles continuing his life story with us, "FORE the Good of the Game."
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About
"FORE the Good of the Game” is a golf podcast featuring interviews with World Golf Hall of Fame members, winners of major championships and other people of influence in and around the game of golf. Highlighting the positive aspects of the game, we aim to create and provide an engaging and timeless repository of content that listeners can enjoy now and forever. Co-hosted by PGA Tour star Bruce Devlin, our podcast focuses on telling their life stories, in their voices. Join Bruce and Mike Gonzalez “FORE the Good of the Game.”
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Charles, Sir Bob
Golf Professional
Sir Bob Charles has the dual distinction of being the first left-handed golfer to win a major championship and the first player to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame from New Zealand.
A natural righty, he does everything right handed except, as he says, “….play games requiring two hands.” As such, Charles was the first southpaw to reach the very highest levels of competitive golf. And in doing so, he led the way for such left-handed major tournament winners as Phil Mickelson and Mike Weir.
As an 18-year-old bank teller, Charles burst onto the golf scene in 1954 when he won the New Zealand Open at Heretaunga with a record score for an amateur of 280 against a strong international field composed of many leading professionals. He continued working in banking for six years, but honed his golf skills before turning professional.
“I came close to winning a major championship on several other occasions with three runner-up finishes and two third places in majors so in that regard to win at Lytham was obviously very special.”
During this period he played in several international amateur tournaments including the first World Amateur Team Championship at St Andrews. Despite an 81 in the final round, he tied for fourth place in the individual scoring, as New Zealand finished fourth out of 29 national teams.
Turning professional in 1960, he won the New Zealand PGA Championship before venturing out onto the European and American professional circuits. His first significant win was in the Houston Classic in 1963, the first win on the PGA T… Read More
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