Kerry Packer was an avid golfer.
BY MICHAEL COURT with ANDREW CROCKETT
HIS love for the game of golf was extraordinary.
And as the 20th anniversary of his passing approaches, tales of the late Kerry Packer’s involvement in the game have become almost folklore.
Certainly, some may have been embellished over the years, but there’s certainly an element of truth to them as well.
Here are just a few I’ve heard in my travels that may or may not have occurred exactly as they have been relayed to me:
No 1: Kerry Packer arrived for a mid-week game at the Australian Golf Club, where he was a member.
He was politely informed that the course had been booked out by a private group (I think it was dentists) for the day and he could not play until after they had finished playing.
Packer asked how much they had paid to have the course to themselves that day.
Let’s say it was $15,000, for arguments’ sake.
Packer then wrote a cheque for $20,000 and handed it over with the comment: “Make sure they aren’t here next year.”
Jack Nicklaus landed the big fish on a Kerry Packer arranged Barrier Reef fishing trip. For Packer and Australian golf the Golden Bear was possibly an even bigger catch, with Nickalus competing in Australian Open’s played at The Australian Golf Club.
No 2: Packer was warming up for his game on the practice green at The Australian Golf Club and struggled to get it close enough to two-putt a practice hole that was placed around the corner near the pro shop.
He promptly offered two trainee pros at the club a couple of hundred dollars each if they could two-putt from the other side of the putting green.
Both of them proceeded to two-putt and Packer obliged by telling one of his ‘minders’ to fork out the cash to them immediately, much to the delight of the two young men.
No. 3: Packer arrived for a game of golf with three friends at the privately-owned and highly-rated Arundel Hills Country Club on the Gold Coast.
There he was informed that it was a private course and public players were not allowed to play.
“How much for membership?” he asked.
After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, the secretary-manager arrived and told him the price of joining and Packer wrote out a cheque and joined on the spot.
We’re not sure if it was only for himself or for all four of them . . . but they got their 18 holes of golf at the now-defunct golf course that was originally rated one of the best on the Gold Coast and has since given way to developers.
No. 4: Kerry Parker also set about turning the Australian Open into the world’s fifth major, spending massive amounts of money to get The Australian Golf Club’s course rebuilt by the great Nicklaus under Packer’s own patronage.
For three years he staged the Australian Open with great results until the Australian Golf Union wanted to take the Open to Melbourne.
Packer staged a record $240,000 Open there in 1978, won by his house guest, Nicklaus, and then withdrew as a sponsor and switched his well-documented interest to cricket.
One of our golfing greats, the late Jack Newton added his thoughts on Packer’s involvement in the game in Andrew Crockett’s 2013 book Bump And Run:
“I played a practice round with Jack Nicklaus and I talked to him about appearance money and all the rest of it,” Newton told Crockett.
“At that time the Australian Open was probably the equivalent of the third or fourth biggest tournament in America.
“Kerry Packer was putting up the dough.
“Jack [Nicklaus] said he thought the Australian Open should be able to stand up on its own two feet as one of the biggest tournaments in the world; one that the best players in the world wanted to win.
“Jack actually went back after that practice round and gave his appearance money back saying he wanted it added to the prizemoney.
“Tournament director Tony Charlton said, “You can’t do that!”
And Jack said: “I’m doing it and I want it to go into the prizemoney pool.” And so it was.
“It was the only other time in my life when the Australian dollar was beyond parity.
“Packer had the right idea – he paid them all the same money, I think it was $8000 or $10,000 if they brought their wives and the players paid their own expenses.
Kerry Packer brought Jack Nicklaus to Sydney to do a revamp of the Australian Golf Club.
“I remember one year he had 19 of the top 20 Yanks here, with Jack’s help.
“Packer would look after the players, take them up to North Queensland fishing on his boat. He had the right idea.
“Everything was going well, but there was this sniping behind the scenes where the AGU wanted to flex their muscles, as they liked to do in those days.
“So, they had a bit of a ‘blue’ about gate money (the money taken for entry) and Packer just told them to stick it and that was the end of it.
“The standard answer is “oh, it’s only $2500 we were talking about”, but they just didn’t play the game the right way.
“Rich cats like that you have to sort of smoodge to them a bit and go their way and it was just a little thing like the gate money that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“We are probably still paying the price for that. You can’t afford to lose people like that out of the game.
“Packer started to revolutionise the television coverage and to this day Seven is still at the forefront of television golf and has been, through Graham Rowlands, who was without peer as far as producing golf tournaments was concerned.”
Packer’s handicap was as low as five at certain stages and he combined with Greg Norman to win the Bob Hope Desert Classic at Pebble Beach in 1992, winning by six shots.
He once played in a pro-am at Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament and his five-ball partners were Nicklaus, Bob Hope, Gerald Ford and Perry Como.
In 1986 Packer also put up a $500,000 pot for a skins match between Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson and Greg Norman at The Australian and when his own game was a bit off, he once flew in touring pro Phil Rodgers from the US, at Nicklaus’s recommendation, for a week’s coaching for a reported five-figure sum.
Yep, Kerry Packer loved his golf.
Ellerston – the course that Kerry built
Kerry Packer never played it, son James has ventured out onto the course very rarely, if at all these days, while the exclusive golfing hideaway some say is perhaps as hard to get onto as Augusta National.
However, despite its exclusivity, the Ellerston course, which winds its way through a section of the Packer family’s property of the same name, has been seen by enough golfers and golf media to be ranked alongside the very best courses in the country.
The 14th hole at Kerry Packers’ Ellerston course near Scone.
Located east of Scone on the Upper Hunter Valley in NSW and designed by Greg Norman and Bob Harrison, Ellerston opened in 2001, built with an open cheque book and with a charter from Packer to deliver Australia’s toughest and most spectacular golf course.
Ellerston is so exclusive the resident greenkeeping staff keep the course in tournament-ready condition although there are days, even weeks, when they won’t see a single golfer.
Kerry Packer passed away in 2005 at age 68, without ever having the opportunity to play the course.
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