Golf: Brightest talent may be lost

By DAVID LEGGAT

One of New Zealand's brightest golf talents may be finished with the game in this country.

Auckland teenager Enu Chung, who was withdrawn from the national amateur women's team for the Espirito Santo tournament in Puerto Rico, has played her last event in New Zealand, according to her father, John Chung.

He believes her golfing future lies in the United States and said the family are weighing up four scholarship offers from universities which he preferred not to name.

"She is not going to play here anymore," Chung told the Weekend Herald last night.

Chung is angry at the way his daughter, who was last year's women's player of the year, has been treated by Women's Golf New Zealand over the leadup to the Espirito Santo - women's golf's premier amateur event - which he said clashed with an important school exam.

He claims his daughter could have done her school study, completed her exam requirements and still had time to be ready for the tournament, which began yesterday. He says his daughter, who was desperate to make the team, has been "kicked" by the national body.

"If they kick her why do we want her to play for the New Zealand team again. Never," he said.

"She likes golf a lot. The last eight years she has been playing golf. But she is in form six. She has to study."

He implied that she had put golf ahead of school studies in the last couple of years, to the detriment of her education.

He also disputes WGNZ claims that his daughter was withdrawn from the three-strong team because she had not done enough practice before the team left for Puerto Rico.

Chung, who first played for New Zealand at 12, was named in the team with Wellington's Sarah Nicholson and Penny Newbrook of Rotorua, but replaced a few days before departure by California-based Claire Dury.

John Chung says that at a time WGNZ understood his daughter to be in Korea in late September due to a family accident, she was in Auckland studying for exams through correspondence school.

Problems began after the national squad spent a fortnight in Rotorua training together early last month. At that point, Chung's form was not good, according to WGNZ. It showed signs of improving at the camp.

Chung was due to play in the national inter-provincial tournament in Palmerston North from October 5-9.

WGNZ believed that five days competitive play would be the chance to polish the 16-year-old's game up in preparation for Puerto Rico. However John Chung said Auckland team officials had been told his daughter had an exam on the final day but had said if she did not play each day the team could be disqualified.

Auckland officials say the first they knew of Chung pulling out of the inter-provincials was a few days before the start when they were asked by the tournament officials who would be replacing her.

John Chung says when she was told by WGNZ that she had been pulled out of the team his daughter was in tears.

WGNZ executive director Martyn Turner insisted the only reason Chung was withdrawn from the national side was that the selectors "felt that was just insufficient to put her into a team competing in the top amateur tournament in the world".

"It was as simple as that."

The goalposts moved when John Chung advised the association when his daughter would be ready to resume practice for Puerto Rico. That clouded the issue.

However Turner insisted replacing her in the New Zealand team was nothing to do with a perceived lack of form.

"If her game had gone off the coaches would have worked their butt off to get her game back together.

"But with two days to go and no golf in the previous two and a half weeks it would have been totally irresponsible for the selectors to allow her to go."

Among ideas floated around Auckland golf circles in the wake of what appeared to be an enigma wrapped in a mystery was that Chung has picked up a dose of golfing burnout, that she has lost interest, at least temporarily, in the game.

Turner did not want to comment on Chung's golfing relationship with her father, who has overseen her career. The primary issue for the association was Chung's well-being.

Turner had hoped Chung would be back on the course this year, notably the national amateur championship in Wanganui in December. Although her father says she is regularly out on the practice range, that now seems unlikely.