Not a bad round for a ‘ loafer’
When Manawatu golf was celebrating the first national interprovincial title by its men’s team in 49 years, John Andrews knew the feeling, three times over.
He was at the core of the team when Manawatu- Wanganui golf was in its heyday, part of the winning teams in 1953, 1954 and 1964.
At 85, he can still read the phone book unaided and every day turns up to help in son Peter’s furniture store on Rangitikei St.
John started golf in 1949. He also won six Manawatu Opens, five matchplay titles and one strokeplay.
‘‘ The more golf I played the better I got,’’ he said. ‘‘ I didn’t do badly considering I didn’t have much practice and only a couple of lessons from old Scottish pro Jim Forrest.’’
As a toddler, Andrews recalled his mother taking the kids to Foxton Beach.
‘‘ I teed up a golf ball on a mound of sand and hit it along the beach.’’
He had foot, neck and back problems, not helped by falling on his face out of a macrocarpa tree. Twice he fell out of cars while playing with the door and another time jumped off a milk truck going downhill.
He played four years in the Palmerston North Boys’ High School first XV but gave up rugby after school because broken noses impaired his breathing. He played basketball for Manawatu ‘‘ when they were short of players’’.
In cricket he played for Old Boys and represented Manawatu against the Australians at what is now Fitzherbert Park. He particularly remembers their fast bowler Alan Davidson and batsman Bill Brown, who both went on to test cricket.
But what steered him golf’s way was that Manawatu had a strong cricket team, with stars like Ian Colquhoun, Don Beard and Doug Bowden.
‘‘ You would field not get a bat.’’
In those days joining the golf club cost a junior a mere shilling. He was encouraged by his father, not that it always went down well with his brothers.
‘‘ He would
take
all day and often
me
off
work
to play golf on Wednesday It’s a poor business that one loafer,’’ he laughed.
Andrews once reached the New Zealand amateur semifinals at Heretaunga, played the amateur ‘‘ king’’ Stuart Jones, beat Bob Charles in the Manawatu Open and while he had twos on par 4s, never had a afternoons. can’t carry hole in one. His Hokowhitu was 67.
In his day there was no such thing as graphite shafts or titanium drivers.
‘‘ I would love to be playing golf in my days with the apparatus they’ve got today.’’
The undisputed
best
round
at
Manawatu- Wanganui star in the 1950s was Wanganui accountant Brian Silk. Andrews’ other team- mates included another future NZ player Arthur Kitto, Ngaio Amon, Doug LengWard, Ken Glendinning, Ted Astin, John Collins and Colin Bristol. Andrews’ first interprovincial was in 1954 at Manawatu, wearing knicker- bockers because Manawatu was a wet course back then. Playing against Auckland, he was three holes down with five to play and won four of the five to clinch what was then the Freyberg Rosebowl.
‘‘ I was always relaxed and confident in my own ability,’’ he said.
He took an 18 months break ‘‘ to catch up on things at home’’ later served seven years on Manawatu club committee.
‘‘ I often wondered what it would have been like if I had turned pro.’’
But he had the family’s furniture business. He hasn’t played for 10 years and eight years ago had a mild stroke. and the