2020-02-29 New Zealand Listener

5 LISTENER FEBRUARY 29 2020

1907

Wellington

amateur

ADS Duncan

becomes

the first New

Zealand Open

champion at

Napier.

1950

Australian

Peter Thomson

notches up the

first of his nine

Open wins, still

a record.

1954

Eighteen-

year-old Bob

Charles, then an

amateur, wins

the first of his

four Opens.

2002

Then world

No 1 Tiger

Woods plays

in the Open at

Paraparaumu.

He finishes 6th

equal.

THE 101st NEW ZEALAND OPEN

H

ere’s the thing

about Michael

Glading, the direc-

tor of the New

Zealand Open: he

is both the most likely person to

run Kiwi golf’s most prestigious

event and the least likely, too.

For most of his working life,

he’s been a showbiz guy. He was

at Sony Music New Zealand for 26

years – most of it as its managing

director – working with such Kiwi

music luminaries as Brooke Fraser,

Strawpeople and Dave Dobbyn.

He’s the man who signed Bic

Runga.

Then, after leaving Sony, he

became a concert promotor, touring

the likes of Pavarotti, Stevie Nicks

and Deep Purple to New Zealand.

So, how does that guy become

the one running the New Zealand

Open? The answer: it’s in his blood.

Glading’s father, Bob, won the

tournament twice, in 1946 as an

amateur and in 1947 as a profes-

sional, making him just one of 21

Kiwis to win our national open.

His son Michael, unfortunately a

player of a lesser sort, nonetheless

has walked the Open’s fairways and

greens, too: Glading spent years

caddying on and off for one of

New Zealand golf’s greatest players,

four-time Open winner Sir Bob

Charles. “Dad was a good friend of

his, so when I got to an age I could

go out on my own, I caddied for

him. Later in my life, even at Sony,

I’d a take a week or two of leave

and caddy for him for fun.”

In 1975, between finishing

university and starting his busi-

ness career – and long before Steve

Williams earned big bucks doing

it – Glading spent a year caddy-

ing professionally for Charles

and others in Europe and the US,

including at the Ryder Cup and

the British Open. “I made enough

to travel the world and came back

with what I started with. It was a

great life, a travelling circus.”

T

he Open, then, is special for

Glading. “But if you’d asked

me back when I was in the

middle of my music days, would

I one day be running the New

Zealand Open, I’d have said you

were crazy.”

He credits his time in concert

promotion, as well as three years

as the chief executive of New

Zealand Football, with laying the

foundations for taking on running

the Open from the 2012 tourna-

ment – 66 years after his father first

won it. Still, if the Open is close to

Glading’s heart, it didn’t stop him

being behind the biggest change

to its format in its history. Before

the format change, the tournament

was losing hundreds of thousands

of dollars each year. His major

move was to make the Open a not-

for-profit pro-am event, allowing

pay-to-play amateurs to compete

with the professionals.

“Traditionalists were cagey about

it. From a golfing purest point of

view, I understand the argument

that a national open shouldn’t be

played with pay-for-play amateurs

on the course at the same time.

But in reality, it was the only way

that we could keep the tournament

financially viable.

“That’s a huge change. But eight

tournaments down the track – this

is our ninth – the Open is sustain-

able and viable and, at the end of

day, it doesn’t detract in any way

from a Michael Hendry or a Zach

Murray holding the trophy.”

“I knew

Bob

[Charles]

when I

was a kid.

So when I

got to an

age I could

go out on

my own, I

caddied for

him.”

From caddie

to king of

the Open

The man who signed Bic Runga

never thought he’d end up here.

Back on course:

ex-caddy Michael

Glading with Sir

Bob Charles during

the 100th NZ Open.