The Omega European Masters – then and now
The great Sir Bob Charles and yours truly during his 1974 Swiss Open victory
51 years ago, I arrived in Crans-sur-Sierre above the Rhone Valley of Switzerland for the 1974 Swiss Open around 9.00pm, having sailed on the hovercraft across the English Channel to Bolougne and then driven across France and Switzerland to this most beautiful of mountain resorts.
Having been raised in the magnificence of the South Island of New Zealand, I couldn’t imagine there would be anything to beat the grandeur of the spectacular scenery of Central Otago or some of the other many areas of my homeland. Still, my first visit to Crans Sur Sierre would go a long way to proving me wrong.
Waking up in the morning following our drive down to Dover from London, then across the Channel and through France and Switzerland passing cities such as Lausanne and Montreaux on Lake Geneva, I opened my balcony door at our boutique hotel, The Teleferique, in the morning of Tuesday of tournament week to a breathtaking view.
The village of Crans Sur Sierre and its adjacent town of Crans Montana are ski resorts in the winter, but in the summer, the Crans Sur Sierre Golf Club emerges from its role as learners slopes for a high-end ski resort to expose a golf course capable of hosting the then Swiss Open, but now of course the Omega European Masters.
This Thursday, the Omega European Masters, or its former equivalent, first held in 1923, is played as an integral part of the DP World Tour, with the winner to receive €475,000, an increase of nearly 80 times from that won by the winner in 1974.
Such a purse makes it a just above average event on the DP World Tour in that regard, but in 1974, when I caddied for the winner of the event, (Sir) Bob Charles, the total purse the winner received was the equivalent of €5,900.
Charles won the event by a shot over Tony Jacklin, and while I would not have swapped the experience of caddying for one of my golfing idols back then, and even now, for anything, it would have been nice to be on the receiving end of a caddie bonus from the €475,000.
The win had come at a crucial time for me, however, and given that the very next week I caddied for Simon Owen when he won the German Open in Krefeld (for an even lesser purse), I was back on my feet and the outlook for the remainder of the year financially was a little more certain.
