Golf: Stony facade hides Charles' big heart

By MARTIN DAVIDSON in Wellington

Beneath the frosty exterior beats a warm heart.

Those who know Sir Bob Charles well agree he has always looked in total control of himself on a golf course. So much so that they say those on the other side of the gallery ropes have never really warmed to him.

But Charles is guaranteed a responsive gallery next week when he competes in the New Zealand Open in Auckland for the last time, 50 years after he first won the tournament.

The phlegmatic Charles has never gone out of his way to amuse an audience, to bow extravagantly to spectators, to pump his fist, to curse or give any outward sign that he is at all pleased or upset with himself.

His game face has stayed on from the first tee until the last green, and only then has he allowed himself a small smile, of satisfaction or ruefulness, depending on how the day went.

Charles remains unapologetic, simply saying he is a golfer, not an entertainer.

"I'm an introvert. I play the game the best way I know how and that's not necessarily to amuse the paying public. I'm there to entertain them with the quality of my golf."

It was Charles' impenetrable temperament - enabling him to focus solely on the task at hand and banish any outside distractions - that saw him climb so high up golf's ladder.

"What made him such a brilliant golfer was that he was always in total control," said long-time friend Merv Brown, who learned the rudiments of the game alongside Charles in Masterton in the late 1940s.

"I've never, ever heard him swear or throw a golf club, or anything like what some of the young guys do today."

Bob McDonald, now one of this country's leading coaches, has known Charles since he was a small child caddying for club players in the Wellington region in the 1950s.

He said the public had no idea how to take Charles.

"The public may see a stony-faced facade but he's chuckling inside, I'm sure.

"Everyone has had the wrong impression of him over the years.

"His humour is dry, but as sharp as a tack. He can do it without laughing."

- NZPA