BOB CHARLES (VETERANS CATEGORY) The late Johnny Bulla, who was a fine tour player in the 1930s and 1940s and an even better man, never forgot the discouragement he got as a child when it came to his being a left-hander. When he told the stories, I sensed he could still feel the sting of a ruler on his left hand. Bulla always believed he would have been a better golfer if he had been allowed to develop as the natural lefty he believed he was, but old customs got in the way.
Being a southpaw athlete did come naturally for New Zealander Bob Charles, and no one tried to make him change -- although he never thought of himself as a lefty.
"Why I'm called left-handed, I don't know," Charles says. "I'm right-eyed, right-handed, right-footed. Anything I do with two hands, I automatically put the left below the right. As I say in a lot of my clinics, I wear a right-handed glove, stand on the right side of the ball and hit the ball on the right side of the clubface."
Charles' way worked out pretty well, from his breakthrough victory at the 1954 New Zealand Open as an 18-year-old amateur to today, when he routinely breaks his age of 72. (His longevity was punctuated in 2007 when he became the oldest player to make a cut on the European Tour.)
In the 1963 British Open, Charles became the first left-handed golfer to win a major championship when he defeated Phil Rodgers in a playoff. It was the highlight of a remarkably durable career, throughout which Charles wielded his trusty Bulls Eye putter with a jeweler's precision en route to 24 international titles, six PGA Tour victories and 23 triumphs on the Champions Tour. He was knighted in 1999 by his native New Zealand, becoming Sir Bob Charles, a fitting honor for a member of golf royalty.
--Bill Fields
MORE ON BOB CHARLES:
• Local Knowledge: Charles Will Be Hall of Fame's First Lefty
