GOLF - North pro balancing driving loader with driving range

Northland golf professional Alex Tait has spent as much time driving a loader as he has a golf ball recently, but that will change this weekend as he tees off in the Bream Bay Classic.
Tait will sit out the European season this year, concentrating instead on making some cash to finance another tilt at the professional circuit in 2008 - hence driving a loader for his friend and long-time sponsor John Robinson at Kamo Aggregate.
Playing the amateur tournament at Waipu this weekend is part of a plan to start putting more golf back into Tait's life.
"It's great to have some tournaments to play and even though they're amateur and I can't win anything, I can see where my game is at compared to some of the better amateurs," Tait said.
Tait said he hasn't played the Waipu course since turning professional more than two years ago.
"I've always been quite fond of Waipu, they've always had excellent greens and with the rain over the last few weeks it's probably playing quite well."
The last three months has seen Tait play very little golf but that is now set to change.
"On the plus side it's been a good rest for me, on the down side I'd like to play more if I could but I need to do the work because it brings in the money.
"If I can get my head above water in the next month or two then it just means I can spend four days a week going back into my old routines and doing what I need to get my game back up to scratch before the end of the year."
Two seasons of spending more than he earned on the European circuit made Tait decide to get his finances into the black.
A couple of sponsorship deals in Whangarei have already edged him closer to his target.
"Things have been slowly coming right for me. I've got a couple of good sponsors, The Great New Zealand Wool Company and Kevin Grey Panelbeaters have both chipped in to sponsor me and that's helped me get going this year," Tait said.
After playing a few more amateur events, he will be lining up in New Zealand's Pro Ams which start in September.
Tait won his first ever Pro-Am in Mangawai in March.
"Back then I was still hoping I might get back to England but it was still a great thrill for me to win my first (professional) tournament on New Zealand soil," he said.
At the end of the year he intends to strike out in a new direction.
"I'm planning to have a go at the Asian qualifying school at the end of the year. The Asian tour gives me another option in that it's closer to home and I don't think it will be quite as expensive as Europe," Tait said.
If that comes to nothing a return to Europe is almost inevitable.
"If I miss the Asian tour then it's not the end of the world, I've got options in Europe ... I've always wanted to give myself four or five years to test the waters and the hardest part of being a pro is actually getting yourself on the tour," he said.
And that starts with a very small step this weekend as a guest professional in the top Northland amateur event, the Waipu Golf Course's Bream Bay Classic.