PGA PARS
pga.org.nz
Duncan Simpson
New Zealand PGA Chief Executive
Ted Douglas – a great Scottish New Zealander I
ATTENTION GOLF CLUBS!
introduces a revenue generating concept for your Golf Club:
• Golfer Tournament plus is a Golf Event for your Golf Club The fee, format, date, style can be determined by your Golf Club • Your Golf club retains the Green Fees/Entry Fees = 100% • Your clubs receives 12 months of advertising, trail and notice board promotion
all for only $195 per month plus GST for 12 months Golfer NZ magazine in conjunction with your Golf Club will promote the event in print and online; latest issue online http://www.golferpacific.co.nz/topstories.html Golfer NZ will provide a prize pool in-excess of $1000 including:
• 2 brand putters • 2 cart bag brands • 2 umbrellas • 4 caps • 6 dozen branded Golf Balls
Plus • 6 Green Fee vouchers for Lakes Pauanui • Or 6 Green Fee Vouchers Formosa Auckland • Or 6 Green Fee Vouchers Bay of Islands Kerikeri Plus • Stay and Play voucher for 2 at Stone Store Lodge Kerikeri play Bay of Islands or • Or Stay and Play voucher for 2 at a Motel /Motor Inn Hamilton play St Andrews Hamilton.
For full details contact Leigh Smith on 00617 55046334 or smith.sun@bigpond.com 12 GOLFER PACIFIC October 2014
’ve written before about the strong influence of migrating Scottish professionals on the game in this country. One who deserves more recognition is Edward Simpson Douglas, who must have been one of the most travelled of his generation, and who led a remarkable life both in and out of golf. Born in the north-eastern Scottish town of Nairn in 1885, Ted Douglas initially worked as a caddy, but must have found this hard going as records show him employed by the Great Western Railway in London in 1906. He still kept his hand in at golf, finishing 15th in the 2nd Scottish PGA Championship in 1908. That year his travelling in earnest started when he sailed to San Francisco where he stayed for five years working at the Presidio and Menlo Park Golf clubs. Douglas then headed for New Zealand and arrived in Wellington in July 1913 and immediately issued a challenge to any other professional to play for £25 over 36 holes, the equivalent of over $4000 in today’s money. Whether anyone took him up is unclear, but a few months later he was in Dunedin on October 15, as one of the 14 founding members of the Professional Golfers’ Association of New Zealand signing in as “ E S Douglas – Nelson”. He won the 1913 New Zealand Open at Balmacewan, and successfully defended it the next year at Middlemore in Auckland. He seems to have moved clubs quite frequently in those early years, being variously attached to Karori (Wellington), Nelson (twice), Wanganui and Miramar (Wellington). World War 1 then intervened, and Douglas served in France for three years as a rifleman in the NZEF. He no doubt saw plenty of action during that time, although details are sparse. The Miramar Golf Club kept his job open while he was away, and in 1919 he won his third NZ Open at Napier, adding a fourth in 1921 at Christchurch, where he was also successful in the 2nd NZ PGA Championship. After a short stint at Masterton, the travel bug then took over again and Douglas returned to the United Kingdom where he was the pro-
fessional at Robin Hood Golf Club in Solihull for six years. By 1928, he was back in New Zealand and eventually moved to Dunedin where he was the resident professional at the Otago Golf Club from 1931 until he retired in 1942. He came close to a fifth NZ Open title, losing in a playoff to Ernie Moss at Titirangi in Auckland in 1933, but managed to add a second PGA Championship in 1937 at St Andrews in Hamilton. His latter years saw him living in Masterton again before moving to Eastbourne, Wellington, where he died in 1956. Described as “a softly spoken Scottish gentleman, and a pretty good golfer too”, Douglas was noted for “a terrific long game, but a poor putter”. Goodness knows how many titles he would have won if he’d been stronger in that department and hadn’t had World War 1 to contend with. But what is clear is he made a huge contribution to many golf clubs in this country and to the PGA itself. This has also been recognised in his home town of Nairn, where he is lauded as one of the two best players ever to have been produced by the Nairn Dunbar Club. They even have a special green fee rate of £19.21 (normally £55.00) for all affiliated New Zealand golf club members, commemorating Douglas’s 1921 NZ Open/ PGA Championship double. If you are planning a trip to Scotland, why not take advantage of that and also play the other great championship courses in the Scottish north-east such as Royal Aberdeen, Cruden Bay, Nairn, Castle Stuart and Royal Dornoch. Who knows, some of the Douglas magic may rub off, but either way you will be in for one of the greatest golfing road trips of the world, as well as paying homage to an outstanding Scottish-New Zealand golf professional.