in the paper box the next morning I grabbed it out of the box and sat on the bed just staring at it. The heading said it all, ‘Young Man With Drive’. To me one sentence in the back page article stood out. ‘George Naismith is predicting that within a few years the youngster will be Victoria’s top professional and George should know.’”
* * *
In 1962 David turned 16 years of age. It was a significant milestone for him in more ways than one. He was at that stage, the youngest ever in Victoria to be admitted to the PGA as a full professional. To celebrate this achievement the boss shouted him a trip to play in the Australian Open Championship in Adelaide, South Australia. He was looking forward to his first aeroplane flight, but after much discussion agreed to his mother’s pleas to go by train. At the same time David made her realise that “plane trips, and plenty of them, were in the future” and there would be “no time to mess about,” as he put it.
The plan was for Patricia not to go to Spencer Street Railway Station to see him depart. But, as it was his first trip away, at “the last minute I decided to go to the station and see David off. When I reached the platform the train was about to leave. I managed to find David in his compartment just as the train started to slowly move off. It was then that the ‘Mum’ in me really took over. I yelled out ‘did you pack some spare underpants?’ to his great embarrassment.”
Soon after David won the 1977 Australian Open at the Australian Golf Club in Sydney, a young member from Riversdale telephoned Patricia to say how pleased he was with David’s win because he remembered when David had played in that 1962 Open. He told her he was on the practice fairway at Riversdale when David came back from his first Open experience. Evidently he was dragging his overnight bag and golf bag up the long driveway from the front entrance to the clubhouse and pro-shop looking quite disconsolate. Patricia found out later that when he got to the pro-shop he said to George Naismith “Sorry Boss, I didn’t do too well for you, but I promise I’ll win it for you one day.” Fifteen years later he kept his promise.
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