SIR BOB AT CRUDEN BAY

Sir Bob Charles, Cruden Bay Golf Club captain Dr Jim Morrison and Robbie Stewart, the Cruden Bay Golf Club head professional (image by Cal Carson Golf Agency).

Sir Bob Charles lining up a putt on Cruden Bay's 18th green ... after (right) playing his approach shot. Below (left to right) Cruden Bay professional Robbie Stewart, Jim Hardie, John Crammond and Sir Bob (images by Cal Carson Golf Agency). You can enlarge the images by clicking on them.

Sir Bob Charles takes 77

shots to navigate

uncharted Cruden

Bay - but 'I love

the course'

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Sir Bob Charles' "Tour of Discovery" of Scotland links courses continued in sweltering heat today at Cruden Bay but, by his own admission, the 73-year-old left-handed winner of the 1963 Open

at Royal Lytham did not play as well as he did at Montrose on Tuesday when the tall New Zealander beat his age by two strokes.

"I'm sorry to say I had a 77, out in 42, back in 35. The inward half, one over par, wasn't so bad but I really would like to come back and play some of the holes that tripped me up on the outward half," he said.

"But what a great natural Scottish links course. This was what golf was all about years ago, hard baked fairways, the ball runs for miles but you have to control the bounce, master the pitch and run shot and so on. I didn't play well on the outward half but I still love links golf and a course like Cruden Bay." Sir Bob said this wasn't a kind of "Frank Sinature fairwell golf tour" ... "Anything but," he said, "More like a Tour of Discovery. There are too many links courses to play on just one trip to Scotland. I'm coming back for more." Sir Bob and his partner, Cruden Bay club pro Robbie Stewart had a square match with two low-handicap Aberdeen amateurs, Jim Hardie and John Crammond. Hardie is the Aberdeen businessman who spends the Scottish winters in New Zealand (where it is summer of course) and plays regularly with Sir Bob on courses near Christchurch. "Sir Bob E-mailed me a few months ago, saying that he wanted to play a few of the Scottish links he had heard so much about but never got round to playing them, could I fix him up with tee times and partners? " said Hardie. "Which I did. He played North Berwick in a thick haar on Tuesday, and here at Cruden Bay today in glorious sunshine. Then he's going north to play Lossiemouth, Nairn, Brora and Tain." It's quite a punishing schedule for a 73-year-old – but Sir Bob is almost certainly the same weight as he was at the peak of his golfing ability. In these days of "rip it and grip it," Sir Bob remains a joy to watch … if any male golfer can be elegant then Sir Bob is an elegant left-hander. "Sir Bob is different class on and off the golf course," said Jim Hardie.