ORANGE golfing legend Robert Payne echoed Bathurst professional Matt Barrett’s sentiments this week that it was time for the next generation to step up.
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But not before he adds another Bathurst Open crown to his heaving trophy cabinet.
Payne has won the title six times in his illustrious history and starts as one of, if not the favourite, for the 2014 event which gets underway this morning.
He says he is as hungry as ever for victory, but admits that it would be nice to see the younger entrants putting up their hand, backing up Barrett’s desire to see the likes of Scott Matheson or Dylan Thompson break through.
“I’ve been playing the Bathurst Open every year for the last 25 years I think and I still get a huge thrill from winning it,” Payne, whose most recent victory came in 2012, said.
“For any golfer, your home Open is prestigious but it is always a big feather in your cap to win away. Bathurst sits with Duntryleague and Parkes as my three favourite tournaments every year.
“Certainly, if I can’t win it, though, I really want to see one of the young players take it out. James Conran from Duntryleague won the Junior Open last week and said the course was great. He is capable if he keeps his head.
“Andrew Best from Mudgee can do it, there are some good young Bathurst players as well. Sooner or later the young guys have to start winning. But I’ll still be trying my best to get the trophy myself.”
It is almost an unwritten rule by now that in any given year, Payne comes into the Bathurst Open having already won a handful of other major tournaments from across the Central West.
This year is no exception.
He won the annual Eastern Tournament at Dubbo and claimed the Regional Championships at Tenterfield, which earned him a third career start at next month’s NSW Open.
Once more he won the City of Orange event which encompasses all three of the city’s courses, and by his count it was the 15th time he’d won it.
So it is fair to say he has every right to go into today’s first round at Bathurst full of confidence.
But if his experience has taught him one thing, it is that you still need to take a simple approach no matter where you’re playing.
“Bathurst is a great course, it is similar to Duntryleague in that you really have to be playing to leave yourself uphill putts all around the course,” he said.
“You end up putting downhill, you’re automatically trying to get a two-putt to save par. You have to think your way around it and plan every shot.
“Like any course, more than anything you have to have a simple plan and play fairways and greens and give yourself the easiest shot possible.
“As far as the opposition goes, I won’t be worrying about anyone else. The three other guys in my group maybe, if I don’t beat them then I obviously can’t win, but that aside all I can do is look after my own score.”