Somers (far right) now keeps himself busy as the General Manager at the popular Melbourne Golf Academy.
VAUGHAN Somers reckons golf is the toughest game in the world from the time you pick up a club.
“For a start, it’s the most ill-designed bat in sport,” he says with the trademark dry Queensland sense of humour.
“And the club head points up which means your natural instinct is to try to ‘lift’ the ball in the air when you actually have to hit down on it.
“Added to this, the thought of taking a divot is so foreign to everyone but particularly to female golfers. People just can’t stand the thought of digging up the ground.”
Then there’s the not insignificant matter of putting.
“Amateur golfers always say they’re pretty good putters. When I say ‘well count your putts next time’ and they realise they’re pretty poor. The biggest thing is to aim where you want the ball to go. Most amateurs don’t do that. In fact, this is often the case with every shot they play, not just putting.”
But rest assured all you amateur golfers out there, the man who was a regular and popular figure on the Australian Tour in the golden era of the game, says it can be just as tough at the elite level, especially when “the wheels fall off.”
“Then it is probably the most unfair and inequitable game. There’s a 12- hour gap between the first and last tee times. You can hit off in beautiful weather in the morning and six hours later the rest of the field are playing in foul, wet, windy weather.
“A bad bounce, or hitting a rock, can cost you and suddenly your tournament can unravel very quickly. And when it happens, especially to young players, it happens spectacularly and very publicly over a period of sometimes four hours. It is death by a thousand cuts.”
He points out the difference in a game like tennis, where if you miss your first serve, you get another one immediately. And adds, that all players face each other in equal conditions on a flat, dry surface. And if you are having a bad day, at least it’s over very quickly.
Vaughan Somers was a more than handy tournament professional back in the day.
The gregarious and extremely likeable Somers is sharing his thoughts at the Melbourne Golf Academy at the neighbouring Capital Golf Club where he is now the GM and head professional. The Capital was designed for Melbourne businessman and racehorse owner Lloyd Williams by the late Peter Thomson and his partners, the late Mike Wolveridge and Ross Perrett.
Williams was a friend of Somers’ father, Fred, who did some punting for the leviathan gambler in his hey-day and looked after the young businessman in Queensland during the Magic Millions Carnival. Williams returned the favour for Vaughan and his two sons, Sam and Harrison, in Melbourne during a difficult time in the golfer’s marriage.
“I was very lucky in the time I played golf. The game was firing all over the country. One time they had to shut the gates at Huntingdale during the Masters founded by David Inglis and Frank Williams and there were 40,000 people there.
“Tony Charlton revolutionised the way the tournaments were presented in Australia by taking the Victorian Open to the next level,” he says.
It was indeed a golden era. Thomson, Graham Marsh and Kel Nagle were still playing, even though they were a bit older. And then along came the larger-than-life personalities like Ian Stanley, Jack Newton, Bob Shearer, Stewart Ginn and Rodger Davis.
The galleries jammed into every tournament and they loved it. So did Vaughan Somers.
“It was fantastic and I was lucky enough to be part of it. I won the North Coast Open in Coffs Harbour. It doesn’t sound like much. But everyone was playing. There were maybe five of six major winners in it.
“There was nothing like it and I loved it. You embraced the crowd, spoke to everyone and took them along for the ride,” he says. “It was fantastic and the crowd loved it. I was very lucky.”
Somers laughs when he remembers winning a unit on the Gold Coast for a hole in one at a tournament. It was said to be worth $180,000 at the time.
“It turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. It wasn’t even built and by the time I sold it I was up for provisional tax as well as income tax. I didn’t get much out of it.”
He says he always prided himself on playing in the Open Championship and making the cut on most occasions.
“I played a lot in Europe and was never really drawn to America,” he says. “But it was a lot more rustic in those days. You would carry your own bags and practice balls and once you got outside the UK you found most of the courses were in out of the way places. Then you had the language barrier and different food.”
He laughs when he remembers helping the great Lee Trevino lift his clubs off the bus in Switzerland.
“He said, ‘Son never lift anything heavier than a wine glass. Pay someone to do it’.”
A traditionalist, Somers doesn’t like LIV golf in any shape or form.
“It’s ok if you want to go and throw beer cans and carry on. But what is it? For starters it’s only 54 holes and nobody will remember who won them.”
The game is going through a personality void at the moment and it’s not surprising.
Vaughan’s brother Perry Somers is resident in Germany and a leading Hickory Golf proponent.
“We had Palmer, Nicklaus then Tom Watson, Norman, Seve (Ballesteros) and (Nick) Faldo and of course Tiger (Woods) for 15 years. (Bryson) DeChambeau looked he could have been ‘the man’ for a while but ‘no’.”
Vaughan says his younger brother, Perry, who holds hickory golf championship titles in Europe and Australia, is a traditionalist when it comes to golf and reckons he was “born 50 years too late.”
“He was a much better player than me but no good under tournament pressure. He’s lucked out though. He lives in Germany and is married to the mayor of Cologne (Henriette Reker). He’s the top professional at Country Club Velderhof.
“Only the rich play golf in Germany. He takes members to Spain when it’s snowing in Germany. They love him. He dresses like a ‘toff’.”
The bigger story, though, concern’s Perry’s wife, Henriette, stabbed 10 times during her electoral campaign some years ago because her attacker did not like her stance on immigration. Her attacker was sentenced to 14 years jail. Thankfully Henriette survived the attack and remains Mayor of Cologne.
Vaughan Somers – Playing career
Born in Queensland, Somers had success as a tournament professional, winning the 1975 North Coast event in Coffs Harbour and the 1985 Ford SA Open. He also had other top three finishes including runner-up in both the 1983 KLM Dutch Open and the 1986 Victorian Open, and third place in the 1987 Australian Masters
Somers played in multiple Open Championships, making the cut four times with his best finish a tie for 21st place in the 1986 event.
Somers is the father of two sons and works as the General Manager of the Melbourne Golf Academy (MGA), located on the Melbourne sandbelt.
