Robert James Charles

Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Natural Resources by Lincoln University, 2007. Professional golfer who has carried New Zealand's reputation as a sporting nation to the centre of the world stage, winning major golf tournaments on every continent in a career spanning nearly six decades. Won the New Zealand Open as an 18-year-old in 1954. Won the British Open in 1963 at Royal Lytham and St Anne's Golf Links, Lancashire, He is the only left-handed golfer to have ever won this tournament and the only New Zealander. It was also the first victory by a Kiwi in a major international golf tournament. Today Sir Bob is semi-retired but still plays professional golf in senior events in the USA and Europe.

It is well known that in ancient Greece, where so much of our understanding of public education originated, educational practice emphasised a healthy body as much as a healthy mind.

In a famous passage describing Greek education Plato talks of young men being sent to the “master of gymnastic, in order that their bodies may better minister to the virtuous mind”.

That intertwining of the body and mind, of the physical and the mental, of sport and academic activity as we would call it today, is one of the strong educational traditions to have come down to us from the past.

At Lincoln University the tradition is expressed in a number of ways and is particularly evident in the Sports Scholarship Programme, within which six sports are represented, including Golf.

The candidate presented today for the degree Doctor of Natural Resources honoris causa is a pre-eminent representative of the world of sport, a household name throughout New Zealand, and one honoured by the Queen with a knighthood.

Professional golfer Sir Robert James Charles, better known as Bob Charles, has carried New Zealand’s reputation as a sporting nation to the centre of the world stage, winning major golf tournaments on every continent in a career spanning nearly six decades.

And what a stellar start he made when, as an 18-year-old, he won the New Zealand Open in 1954 - a tremendous feat for one who had never had a professional golf lesson and had entered his first tournament only two years earlier - the Wairarapa Mixed Foursomes, in which he partnered his mother and was beaten in the final!

The biggest moment of Bob’s career was of course winning the British Open in 1963 at Royal Lytham and St Anne’s Golf Links in Lancashire. He is the only left-handed golfer to have ever won this tournament and the only New Zealander. In addition, his victory was the first by a Kiwi in a major international golf tournament, so it was a mark-setting moment in New Zealand sporting history.

Subsequent successes down the years are well documented in the public record. Today Bob is semi-retired but still plays professional golf in senior events in the USA and Europe.

There is a less public strand to Bob’s life which, for the past 35 years has run parallel with his golf, and that is farming. In Canterbury, at Oxford, he runs a mixed farming unit where the focus is on sheep and deer.

With farming antecedents in the Wairarapa on his mother’s side - his father was a Cantabrian and a school Principal - he feels as comfortable on the land as on the golf course.

The long combination of golf and farming means that for the bulk of his life Bob has earned his living outdoors. Seven years in a bank office job when young are a distant memory!

The “outdoors” environment in New Zealand is that great natural resource which has traditionally helped define Kiwis, and we see it clearly in the life of Bob Charles.

It’s a resource that can contribute to healthy minds and healthy bodies for all, and he believes a balance of the two is essential for quality of life.

Fresh air, sunshine, exercise and sensible nutrition, all help not only our bodies but our thought processes, he says.

He also reflects that among personal characteristics that have been valuable in helping him achieve his goals are an ability to focus on a task and concentrate to the exclusion of all distractions.

There is certainly a message there for those pursuing excellence in any field from the mental to the physical, or in terms of the Greek educational ideal, the harmonious combination of the two.