Off the tee: Swinging back into action

After a break of eight months, the premier Australasian tour resumes in a couple of weeks with the Australian Masters at Huntingdale in Melbourne.

Many of the top players have spent the intervening months competing in Europe, Japan and the United States, but for some of the locals the nine tournaments in Australia and New Zealand before the end of February are their best chance of a big payday.

Dunedin professional Mahal Pearce is seventh and top Kiwi on the order of merit with earnings of A$192,159 ($218,500), thanks largely to his win in the Holden New Zealand Open at Middlemore in January.

He was without a major tour to play on during the New Zealand winter and could not get a European card for next year in the recent qualifying tournaments.

Australian Andre Stolz tops the order of merit with A$395,270 from Paul Casey (A$348,678) and Stephen Leaney (A$245,570).

Besides Pearce, the only non-Australian in the top 10 is American Ryan Palmer, who won the rich Clearwater Classic at Christchurch in February.

Palmer subsequently qualified to play on the main USPGA tour next year by finishing sixth on the money list for the Nationwide tour, which also includes Clearwater in its schedule.

Several of the leading Kiwis on the Australasian list have had success elsewhere.

David Smail, who is 13th with A$135,809, has had two second-place finishes on the Japanese tour.

Greg Turner (22nd with A$83,400) has completed his farewell season in Europe, Michael Long (25th, A$63,813) won a tournament on the Nationwide tour, Richard Lee (28th, A$57,751) has had a good year in Japan and Stephen Scahill (32nd, A$50,557) has comfortably retained his European card.

Towards the bottom of the list, with only sporadic chances, are Auckland professional Marcus Wheelhouse who won A$1060 and Wellingtonian Mark Brown with A$1880.

After the Australian Masters (December 4-7), the remaining tournaments for the summer are the Australian PGA (December 11-14), the Australian Open (December 18-21), the Holden New Zealand Open (January 15-18, The Grange, Auckland), the Johnny Walker Classic (January 29-February 1), the Heineken Classic (February 5-8), the ANZ Championship (February 12-15), the Jacob's Creek Open (February 19-22) and the New Zealand PGA (February 26-29, Clearwater, Christchurch).

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Sir Bob Charles will have some senior company when he plays in the New Zealand Open at The Grange in January.

The tournament will mark the 50th anniversary of his first New Zealand Open victory and invitations were sent to a number of his contemporaries on the US senior tour.

Dave Stockton, who played in a skins game here at the opening of the Formosa course, and Jay Sigel, are understood to have agreed to play.

Sigel, who is 60, won US$721,989 ($1.13 million) this season in 30 tournaments. Stockton, who is 62, won US$339,468 in 20 and the 67-year-old Charles collected US$111,284 in 16.

Among New Zealand's younger professionals, former winners Turner, Michael Campbell and Smail will play and Phil Tataurangi, who has yet to win his home open, hopes to be fit enough to begin his return to tournament play at The Grange.

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For those who have waited in vain for the moment when the crocodile gets his revenge in television's nausea-inducing Crocodile Hunter series, maybe there is some consolation in a couple of sea-monster versus sportsman sagas.

Brazilian Antonia Pizzonia began the last Formula One motor-racing season by inviting some of the scribes to join him swimming with piranhas in the Amazon jungle. He came out smiling, but lost his drive with Jaguar before the end of the season.

Veteran USPGA Tour pro Ken Green dived into a canal near his West Palm Beach home to rescue his dog from the jaws of a 2m alligator. The dog survived and Green received only a few scratches.

But he had a forgettable season on the PGA Tour with earnings of just US$70,633 from seven appearances and 220th on the money list.