28 Mar 2012 - Source: NZ PGA
A new challenge for South African golfer David Frost at the New Zealand PGA Pro-Am Championship in Arrowtown this week.
For more than 30 years Frost has plied his trade as a professional golfer, picking up 10 titles on the US PGA Tour in the process. He’s had seven top 10 finishes in the Major Championships and spent 86 weeks inside the top 10 on the world rankings. However, for the first time in his career, he is set to play in a tournament against his son Sean.
They join an elite group of father-son combinations to have competed against each other in professional events around the globe, including Gary and Wayne Player, Jack and Gary Nicklaus and Jay and Bill Haas.
It’s an exciting prospect for Sean Frost, who only turned professional in May last year and he is thrilled to be given an invite to play the event which forms part the PGA Tour of Australasia. He has played countless rounds with his father over the years but says it will be fantastic to take him on in a professional environment.
“There has always been an unspoken competitiveness between the two of us. Social events are fun, but this time it’s an actual competition, which we have never faced before”.
Like his father, Sean rates his short game as his strength. David Frost holds the record for the fewest putts in a 72-hole tournament on the US PGA Tour and Sean says that has influenced his own game dramatically.
“What better mentor around and on the greens than him? I would say he is one of the best chippers and putters ever. I have mimicked his posture, image, and stroke subconsciously.”
The similarities between their games have sparked the inevitable questions about whether Sean will be able to follow in the impressive footsteps of his father. However, the 24-year-old prefers to focus on his own career.
‘There’s nothing really I can do about it. The best thing I can do is play my golf, learn from his and take advantages that other people might not have.”
It’s a philosophy that has served Sean Frost well in his brief professional career to date. He has had a number of starts on the Hooters and Adams Tours in the States and just missed out on his first appearance in a Major Championship last year when he was beaten in a playoff in qualifying for the US Open. He’s now champing at the bit to tee off in the New Zealand PGA Pro-Am Championship, which will be the biggest event of his career to date. The rare opportunity to claim official bragging rights against his father just adds to the occasion.
“When we play each other, if I beat him it’s always oh I wasn’t trying or this or that, but if he beats me he lets me know. This time there’s no excuses.”
And a look at the course has boosted his confidence of going one-up in their one on one battle.
“I’ve been playing pretty well coming into this event and there’s some pretty lengthy holes that I might have a little bit of an advantage on.”
The New Zealand PGA Pro-Am Championship tees off at The Hills in Arrowtown on Thursday March 29.
