Golf: Gordon on different path to top

By Graham Skellern

Talented Redwood Park golfer Stephen Gordon will feel a lot more relaxed when he tees up at the Australian amateur and the Friendship Cup teams championships next month - his expenses this time will be paid for.

Over the past 12 months Gordon, North Harbour's No 1 player, has undertaken a heavy schedule - dipping into his own savings along the way - to prove to the national selectors that he is ready for international competition.

The time finally arrived this month when he received a phone call telling him he was in the six-man New Zealand amateur side to contest the Australian amateur at the Australian and Lakes courses in Sydney from March 13 to 20 and then the Friendship Cup against Australia, Japan and Canada at Terrey Hills the following week.

Though the 25-year-old Gordon has played overseas, he will be making his test debut, alongside experienced national representatives, Reon Sayer (Carterton), Richard Best (Palmerston North), Chris Johns (Auckland), Carl Brooking (Christchurch) and Eddie Burgess (Wellington).

"I felt like I deserved [selection]," he said. "I had been performing consistently well for a long time but I would receive phone calls saying `you've just missed out, keep doing the same.'

"But what I was doing wasn't quite good enough, so I focused more on doing my own thing rather than putting too much attention on team selection," said Gordon, a freelance graphic designer.

He emptied his bank account of $12,000 and first went to Britain and Europe last May to play six tournaments before returning in August and contesting 10 more events at home.

"Playing in Europe, you either sink or come through - but it does toughen you up," said Gordon, a member of the Titleist Academy for the past five years.

He did not sink. Gordon won the Cambridge country championship and finished 10th in the Welsh amateur.

"Playing over there was the big turning point for me. Something changed. I came back knowing more about winning and not being afraid to finish off tournaments," he said.

"Before I had had a lot of seconds and thirds in national events and never won anything by more than a few strokes. The selectors have wanted us to shoot under par and that's what I've been doing lately."

Before Christmas Gordon won the Auckland Stewart Gold Cup by a morale-boosting 10 shots and he lost a sudden-death playoff to Mahal Pearce in the Waikato strokeplay.

In the New Year he was fourth in the Wellington strokeplay, shooting one-under for four rounds on the tough Heretaunga course, and he again paid for his own trip to Newcastle in Australia and finished sixth in a strong international field at the Lake Macquarie amateur.

Gordon finished that tournament 11-under, which made all the difference for his eventual national selection.

He is now fine-tuning his game for the Australian campaign that is geared towards improving on his quarter-final placing at last year's amateur championship and winning the four nations Friendship Cup.

"All the players want to go over and prove that New Zealand [amateur] golf isn't as bad as people have made out," said Gordon, referring to the national side's dismal showing in the world Eisenhower Trophy teams contest and the recent New Zealand Golf Association moratorium on overseas trips.

SELF HELP: Stephen Gordon. PICTURE / FOTOPRESS