Vale Frank Phillips (OAM)

TAKING down some of the greatest golfers in history puts you among the elite of the game.

That’s one of many conquests for Frank Phillips in his prime.

Phillips passed away last month at the age of 90, but his place in the game in Australia should never be under-stated.

Renowned as being one of the longest hitters of his era, Phillips was sometimes criticised for lacking enough killer instinct to become a superstar.

In truth he had the game to match it with anyone.

He won 23 tournaments worldwide including the Australian Open twice (1957 at Kingston Heath and 1961 at Victoria), the NSW Open (5 times), the Singapore Open and the Hong Kong Open.

He beat players like Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Australia’s best when they reigned supreme.

Phillips played in the US Masters twice, in the US Open and also the Open Championship, with his best major championship finish being 12th at St Andrews in 1964 behind Tony Lema.

While he did quite a few interviews over his later years, Phillips’ mind was as sharp as ever when Inside Golf last spoke to him.

And he could recall many of his greatest shots in a career that saw him ply his trade all over the world.

“I can remember a couple of the best shots I ever hit,” he told Inside Golf’s Andrew Crockett.

“One was the Australian Open in 1961. I was leading pretty easily and Kel Nagle made a run at me and I double-bogeyed the 14th at Victoria Golf Club. 

“I then hit a great iron shot into 16, but it went over the green. I stood on the 17th tee and I was level with Kel. I turned my driver over a little bit and hit it over into a sandy lie down the left. 

“I looked at the lie and thought I had better punch a five-iron down the middle of the fairway. But then I realised if I did that, I would have a wood to get to the green for my third. 

“So, I took my courage in my hand, took my 4-wood and it’s the best shot I ever hit. 

“It went so far it just left me with a little wedge shot over the bunker and I knocked it stone dead. 

“The other one was coming down the final holes of the Hong Kong Open when I birdied five of the last six holes to win. 

“I was a very good long-iron player and I used to carry a one-iron which I would use in a heavy wind. 

“I pulled the one-iron out of my garage the other day to give to someone and I looked down at it and thought ‘how the bloody hell did I ever hit those’. 

“It just made me realise how strong I was in those days: I used to belt that one-iron 240 yards. Against the wind it used to fly for miles. Heck, I couldn’t even get it airborne now.”

The late great Norman von Nida liked Phillips’ game so much that he took him overseas and much of Phillips’ success was in Asia. 

“I liked playing in the Far East because I had a wife and three kids, and I could get home relatively quickly,” Phillips said.

“It took a long time to get home from America. 

“Touring was a challenge, but I always enjoyed it.”

Another Phillips gem concerned his practise routine: “I practised extremely hard; I would set myself a task of hitting 500 to 1000 practice balls a day, then play a round of golf in the afternoon,” he said. 

“Most of the time I managed to do that. 

“It was the love of the game and wanting to do the best that I could.”

Frank Phillips fell in love with golf at the age of eight. He and some friends fashioned three golf holes out of the grassy paddock across the street from the family home in Moss Vale. 

“[There was] one hole at the top of the hill, one down the bottom and one on the side,” he said. “We played those three holes over and over. 

“It was a bit of a hit and giggle at the time, but I gradually improved.”

Phillips joined Moss Vale Golf Club when he was just 14 and trimmed a 22 handicap down to two in the space of 12 months. 

Three years on, the Moss Vale professional Bruce Jackson asked Phillips, then 18, if he wanted to follow him to Concord Golf Club in Sydney and ultimately turn pro.

“My Dad wasn’t too happy about the idea,” recalled Phillips.

“I used to help run the family’s radio and television business and I played the trumpet in a little band with Dad, who played the drums. We did a few gigs around the place.

“But I thought about it and made up my mind. At 19 I went to live with my aunty in Randwick, and I travelled a long way to Concord Golf Club to start practising at half past six every morning. 

“I did that for four years, completed my PGA traineeship at the age of 22 and won my first tournament at Bexley Golf Club, a short course that shouldn’t really have suited my game as a long-hitter.”

Veteran Sydney professional Tom Moore had some fond memories of Frank Phillips, which he was happy to share with Inside Golf.

“I first met Frank in about 1948 at Moss Vale when he was assistant to Bruce Jackson,” said Moore.

“When Bruce was appointed to Concord, Frank followed him. 

“Frank was paranoid about practice. Norm von Nida told him that he would only have to lose a tournament by one stroke to make playing secondary to practice. 

“For Frank it paid off. He began by winning small events and soon rose to the larger tourneys, winning the Australian Open in 1961. 

“The PGA Foursomes Championship was always the last event of the year. 

“I did not like the event and told PGA secretary Jim Eve that I would be available if he needed a marker if an odd number of players were in the field. 

“Imagine my surprise when I answered the phone just before the 1961 Foursomes. 

“It was Frank. He had just flown back from the East and he asked me to accompany him in making a late entry for the foursomes at Cromer. We came in third. 

“The next year it was at Oatlands and we did not do so well, but in 1963 it was at Killara, where I began golf as a caddie. 

“We managed to win, beating star players Ted Ball and Bruce Devlin. 

“Frank’s career was only cut short because of the strain he placed on his back. But he won 23 major events in Australia and in the Far East.”

Phillips passed away last month at a nursing home in Bowral, where he has spent the past few years, not far from where he was born and raised at Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

He is survived by his three children Melissa, Frank junior and Rodney, and a loving cluster of grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

His devoted wife Faye passed away in 1991. 

FRANK PHILLIPS CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Won the 1957 Australian Open at Kingston Heath Golf Club, Melbourne;

Won the 1961 Australian Open at Victoria Golf Club, Melbourne;

Won the NSW Open in 1956 (then Closed Ch’ship), 1960, 1962, 1966, 1970;

T2 (alongside Jack Nicklaus) at the 1965 Australian Open behind Gary Player

12th at the 1964 Open Championship

23 professional wins

17 PGA Tour of Australasia titles

Represented Australia with Kel Nagle at the 1958 Canada Cup in Mexico

What’s in a name?

THEY called him Choppers.

According to the PGA of Australia’s official history, all it took was a quick peek at Frank Phillips to guess why he was nicknamed ‘Choppers’.

The book says his teeth stood out as white and gleaming as a piano keyboard.

In fact, his nickname originated one year when he was travelling to Brisbane with Eric Cremin. He had two steaks for breakfast and Cremin said that from then on he would call him ‘Choppers’.

The moniker stuck.

Choppers went on to win his first Australian Open at Kingston Heath in 1957, he won his second Australian Open four years later (1961) at Victoria in what he later said was the biggest thrill of his golfing career.

He later said his final-round 70 was the finest of his life because it was played under such severe pressure.