Golf: All eyes at Remuera could turn to Heaven

By Graham Skellern

If the young, talented Aucklander Brad Heaven could pick his golfing occasion, then Remuera next week would be the ideal time and place.

Heaven - who shot to prominence as the leading amateur, aged 16, in the 1996 NZ Open at Paraparaumu - has not yet made a real impression in the New Zealand Matchplay Championship.

But his hopes will be high when he tees off on Monday in the first qualifying round in front of home support on the course he began playing at the age of 12.

By the time he was 14 he was playing off a six handicap and representing Auckland junior sides.

Now the 18-year-old Heaven is the Auckland No 2, has twice won the South Island Boys' Championship, is a national senior representative and is one of the hot players going into the latest week-long Heineken national championships.

"My game has been pretty good lately," was Heaven's modest description.

"I've really been looking forward to this amateur, playing on a course I know like the back of my hand.

"Playing on your home track has got to help, though you've still got to keep playing well. A lot of players have said to me how difficult some of the holes are - but to me they become routine after you have played them so many times."

Success at Remuera at this stage would be a personal triumph for Heaven, who went back to the drawing board and reconstructed a new swing.

"I went through a bad patch this time last year and knew I had to make some swing changes. There were a lot of technical things wrong - it was scary sometimes not knowing where the ball was going, and having to rely on my short game.

"The advance in my swing over the past few years has been huge. I've worked hard on my game. I'm now more consistent and feel I can hit greens and compete there, rather than saving shots around the green."

A more confident Heaven has begun the year by finishing sixth in the North Island amateur, winning his second South Island Boys title and gaining selection in the national squad to compete in the Queensland Amateur.

He is also hoping to make the four-strong New Zealand junior side to contest the world championship in Japan in mid-June.

Heaven is a first-year university student planning to major in business studies, and is happy to carry on with his golf "like I'm doing to see how good I can become.

"You have to be pretty awesome before you can think about making a living out of the game - and I don't want to think too far ahead about the possibilities."

But what if the opportunity of playing golf and finishing off his studies at an American university came along?

"That would be really nice," said Heaven.

He has played two New Zealand Amateur Championships, the first time failing to make the top 32 for matchplay after the four rounds of strokeplay qualifying, and the second time making the final cut but losing his first match to the eventual winner, Bryce McDonald, 3 and 2 at Paraparaumu last year.

Heaven will again confront tough opposition at Remuera, with the pick of the New Zealand and Australian amateurs chasing the big prize.

His campaign begins today when he partners another outstanding junior, Doug Batty, in the Foursomes Championship, with Christchurch's Karl Kitchingham and Nic Fry the defending champions.

Other strong pairings are Australians Scott Gardiner/Brendon Jones and Aaron Baddeley/Brett Rumford; New Zealand representatives Carl Brooking/Isaac Randall; Eddie Burgess/Gareth Paddison, and Jonathan Cane/Brad Shilton; experienced Aucklanders Chris Johns/David Somervaille and Blair Dibley/Simon Bittle; and the North Harbour combination of Steve Gordon/Adam Hansen.