by Dr. Iain
Corness
Mike
Franklin has the title of the ‘Golf Guru’ in Pattaya, following his
promotion of the game in this city, but for students of history, he really
won the title many years ago. After all, how many local golfers can boast
of playing with VJ Singh (currently world number 1 or 2 depending on the
day of the week), the late Payne Stewart (winner of the US Open and member
of the successful Ryder Cup team) or the internationally very well known
Nick Faldo, winner of many titles? If that is not enough to elevate Mike
Franklin to the position of Golf Guru, what about the fact that he
inveigled the following members of the British Royal family to attend one
of his golf tournaments - HRH Princess Anne, the Duke of Edinburgh, HRH
the late Princess Margaret and Prince Charles?
In a sport where players begin very early, for example
Tiger Woods started playing when he was three years old, Mike Franklin was
what you could call a ‘late starter’, being 48 years old before taking
out the clubs in anger. I asked him why and he replied that he had never
had a next door neighbour to invite him down to his club to play.
At the time, Mike was a senior account executive
handling the Tesco Company and had become (I think) a little envious,
watching people going off to play golf in tournaments all over the world.
He mentioned this to Tesco’s chairman, Sir Ian MacLaurin (later Lord
MacLaurin) who invited him to play, and Mike had to admit that he did not
even have any golf clubs! M’Lord’s reply was to take him to his own
personal club-maker where Mike was kitted with his own personal
monogrammed clubs. (In hindsight Mike said monogramming was not such a
clever decision, as when he came to sell them he found that golfers did
not want to buy clubs emblazoned with “MJF”.)
It took Mike a couple of years before he was playing
what he described as “a respectable round of golf”. This was when he
felt comfortable playing with people with a lower handicap than himself.
This was when his handicap was down to early 20’s, despite his late
start.
Sir Ian MacLaurin was the catalyst for Mike’s next
foray into the golf world too, as he suggested that Mike put something
together for a charity golf tournament. “Something together” resulted
in an annual charity golf tournament that brought in 850,000 pounds in six
years!
What Mike did was to contact Ken Schofield, the
executive director of the PGA European Tour, to see if he could supply 40
of the top 100 professionals, who would play for no appearance fees, while
Mike would rustle up 120 amateur golfers who were prepared to pay a lot of
money for a charity tournament. And which charity? That was left to the
discretion of whichever member of the Royal family was willing to become
involved. To do this takes between three to six months prior application
to Buckingham Palace, but Mike pulled it off, with spectacular success.
By this stage, golf had become something of an
obsession rather than a hobby, though Mike used the term “dedicated
golfer” adding the rider, “as my ex-wife will tell you!” When he was
offered a start in a pro-am for King Hassan’s 20th anniversary in
Morocco, he had the clubs loaded and he was off. He found he was one of
only two amateurs, with the other being Nick Faldo’s manager, but by now
Mike’s golf was more than just “respectable”. The first morning he
missed the bus and by the time he arrived at the course it looked as if he
were going to have to play on his own. He was teeing up when the famed
golfer Payne Stewart also arrived late and Mike was asked if he could join
him. Showing more than a modicum of mischief, Mike said, “How’s your
game?” and Payne Stewart replied, “Well, I’ve just won the US
Open!” Mike graciously replied, “OK, I’ll play with you.” During
that 10 day tournament Payne Stewart coached him and always asked how he
went each day. A true gentleman, as well as being a champion golfer.
However, it was also at this tournament that Mike found
that there were many differences between amateurs and professionals. He
was playing with VJ Singh who had just got par on one hole, to applause
from the gallery. Mike, on the other hand, then birdied the hole to
thunderous silence. “How come I got no recognition for my birdie?”
asked Mike. “You’re not supposed to do it,” replied VJ. “You’re
an amateur!”
Mike arrived in Thailand for a 14 day golfing holiday
and played 10 rounds of golf on courses he considered to be magnificent,
and incredibly cheap compared to the UK and Europe. He retired and arrived
here to enjoy “the people, the food and the climate.” And the golf!
Of course it was not long before he was back organizing
tournaments, being the golf chairman for the Pattaya Sports Club for three
years, then going on to organize tournaments for the Diana Group, the TQ
Masters, Delaney’s, Shenanigans and now Jameson’s Irish Pub with the
Jameson’s International Golf Series (JIGS).
However, there are two tournaments that are very close
to his heart, both under the stewardship of Thailand’s much loved ex-PM
Anand Panyarachun, being the UNICEF and Special Olympics tournaments.
He is also proud of the fact that his wife Banjob is
not a golfing widow, but plays a very respectable round of golf too.
However, his daughter seems more interested in Tae-Kwan-do!
We finished the interview with Mike launching into another tale from
his illustrious golfing past. “When I was in Morocco, on the putting
green with Faldo...” it began, but I’ll let Mike Franklin tell you
himself. Our local Golf Guru has many stories such as this. We are indeed
fortunate to have Mike in our midst.
