Amateur Hour At The Masters
The Age
Friday November 24, 2006
AARON Pike wore garish green pants for his debut at the Australian Masters yesterday, as though the amateur did not want to escape unnoticed. He need not have worried.
Unfettered by the cynicism of professionalism or the fear that can grip a man playing for his living, the 21-year-old Pike eagled his first hole, then birdied the last four in an equal-course-record 64 to take the lead after the first round of the $1.5 million tournament.Pike, a West Australian-born, Darwin-raised Brisbanite, outstripped all the big-name professionals in benign conditions on the first day at Huntingdale. He had six birdies and an eagle and no blemishes on his card, ramming home a seven-metre putt at his last hole, the ninth, like the proverbial Bondi tram. It was that kind of day for him."I hit it harder than I wanted to, but it hit the back of the cup and went in," he said later.Five years ago he was still in Darwin and pursuing his first love of cricket as an opening batsman and leg spinner who represented the Northern Territory to under-19 level. At 15, he was a once-a-week golfer with a 15 handicap, which amounts to an enormous head start to the sort of players congregating in Melbourne this week.But at 16 his handicap was down to six and at 17 he moved to the renowned Hills International Golf College in Brisbane on a scholarship, quickly realising that "I could get good enough to make a living out of this game". Last year he won the Queensland amateur championship and was runner-up in the Victorian title, and this year he was picked in the national squad. Quite plainly, he is going somewhere in a hurry. The cricket is on hold. "To this day I miss my cricket, and I still go down to the nets with my mates and play," he said."It makes it hard. Obviously you see the Ashes and that stuff, but I'm pretty happy with what I'm pursuing now."Pike had to pre-qualify to get a start, squeaking through a four-man play-off. He was quoted as a 1000-1 chance before the tournament, and only one punter, believed to be his mother brandishing a $5 note, invested.At 190 centimetres and 115 kilograms, he is a big unit, but he knows that in time, he will need to find his way to the gymnasium to keep pace with modern, toned professionals."I have a real problem with cardio-vascular workouts," he said. "To get better, I know I have to do it. It's a step and a process I'm going to have to do. I don't think it's a matter of them pushing you. If you want it, you'll do it."On a day when the greens were amenable by sandbelt standards and a mere zephyr drifted off Port Phillip Bay, one-quarter of the field broke par. English tyro Nick Dougherty and Victorian Peter Wilson were closest to Pike at 65, while Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin had 66.Wilson, 28, hails from Cranbourne and plays in Canada in the northern summers. When he is at home he practises on a mown-out fairway at his brother's family hobby farm at Lang Lang, dodging the horses and cattle. He may be unheralded, but is unsurprised by his performance."I said to my caddie that if I start playing well, I keep on playing well," Wilson said. "I'm not worried about going low or under par. The more I get under par, the more comfortable I get and I feel better about my golf."Of the favourites, Stuart Appleby (75) and Kiwi Michael Campbell (74) had a disappointing day. But Aaron Baddeley and Peter Lonard (both 68), Robert Allenby and John Senden and Englishmen Justin Rose (all 69) and Paul Casey (71) are all well-placed.As for Pike, it was all somewhat surreal. "I'll sit down later and it will sink in," he said. "I said to my caddie as we were walking off, 'There's only a quarter of the job done'. There are still another three rounds to go. This is great. Lap it up and get into it again tomorrow."If you can shoot 64 in the first round, realistically you can do it every day. If you can do it once, you can do it again. Whether you do is a different matter."
© 2006 The Age