Champions contender ‘can strike it like Seve’

Sep 4 2008 by Tim Taylor, The Journal

CALLUM Tarren, described by last year’s County Durham captain John Kennedy as a shot-maker in the Seve Ballesteros mould, will be sprinkling his star dust over The Journal Champion of Champions tournament at De Vere Slaley Hall on Sunday week.

The 2008 county strokeplay and matchplay champions are among those eligible to join the field of club champions, but Ramside Hall’s Steven Dance misses a second successive appearance following serious injuries suffered in a car accident in July.

Tarren, 17, from the Dinsdale Spa club, took the Durham matchplay title with a 3&2 win over Durham City’s experienced Graeme Marchbank in the final.

Dance, having already won the county strokeplay championship at Chester-le-Sreet – and the Ramside club championship – was eliminated before the last day of the county matchplay semi-finals and final at Seaton Carew.

It was when that left Dance with a spare Saturday that he decided to play in Cumbria with a county team-mate, Beamish Park’s Chris Hewitt, and was involved in the car crash while attempting to make the journey.

Dance is making a startling recovery from an accident that left him with serious injuries to a leg, knee and hip and an ankle broken in three places.

He is walking on crutches and has been given the go-ahead by his surgeon to start swimming.

His father, Gordon, who has been helping to care for his son, said yesterday: “You just can not believe the incredible will power of the man. His attitude right from day one has been amazing.

“The surgeons say he is a month ahead of schedule and Steven is absolutely determined to be back playing golf in time for the start of next season.

“The support from the golf world has been phenomenal. Virtually all the Durham and Northumberland teams have been to see him and we have had countless messages.

“We had a very moving and inspirational card from Northumberland, which means a lot when they are such fierce golf rivals of County Durham.”

Tarren leads his county’s challenge at Slaley Hall saying: “We’re all delighted to hear Steven is on the way back and I’ll do my best to fly the flag for County Durham in the Champions.”

Last year, Tarren was one of six players who tied for fifth place and finished two shots ahead of Dance. Then 16 years old, Tarren now plays off a handicap of plus two and is aware of the pedigree of the tournament.

The first winner, Doug McClelland, representing the South Shields club, went on from that triumph 40 years ago to become the first North East golfer to play on the PGA European Tour.

A student at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington, Tarren has also won the Northern Boys Championship this season, having recovered from breaking an ankle playing football earlier in the year. “If I can do well against so many top players in the Champions,” he said, “it will give me more confidence for big tournaments in other parts of the country.” Ex-Durham captain Kennedy, a former county strokeplay and matchplay champion from the Consett club, said: “I have never seen such an unbelievable natural striker of the ball as Callum in all the time I have been involved in county golf.”

Having once played in a group following five-time major winner Ballesteros in a European Tour event at De Vere Slaley Hall, Kennedy added: “Having seen Seve Ballesteros that close up I have no hesitation in saying Callum is that sort of golfer.

“He’s special, a shot-maker, a show-stopper. He hits it miles and he hits it straight, his short game is the best part of his game and he’s got a good temperament.”

Also in the Champions field is Bishop Auckland’s Jamie Birkbeck, the golfer who has been given a wildcard pick by the 2008 Durham county captain, James Handy, from the South Moor club.