Favourites Left Plotting Ways To Catch Pike

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday November 24, 2006

Martin Blake

AARON Pike wore garish green pants for his debut at the Australian Masters yesterday, as though he did not want to escape unnoticed. He need not have worried, though.

Unfettered by the cynicism of professionalism or the fear of a man playing for his living, the 21-year-old eagled his first hole and 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 Western 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. "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, 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. At 16 his handicap was in to six, and at 17 he moved to the renowned Hills International Golf College in Brisbane on a scholarship, quickly realising "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.

"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 $1001 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, and knows he will need to find his way to the gym 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, a 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.

Of the favourites, Stuart Appleby (75) and Kiwi Michael Campbell (74) had disappointing days. But the likes of Aaron Baddeley and Peter Lonard (both 68), Robert Allenby, John Senden and Englishmen Justin Rose (all 69), and Paul Casey (71) are 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'."

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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