18 | IN PROFILE
IN PROFILE
‘Swampy’ eyes retirement
Graham Marsh says he can see the
finish line.
The man affectionately known
as Swampy told Golf Industry
Central he would quit the US PGA
Champions Tour within two years.
He has already started scaling
back his playing schedule.
“I am cutting back quite
considerably now and will play
for another year or two and that’s
as far as I’ll be going,” said Marsh,
who has played professionally for
four decades.
“I’m down to 15 tournaments a
year and next year I’ll only play
12.”
The 65-year-old has had a stellar
career winning 68 professional
tournaments worldwide including
one win on the US PGA Tour
where he rarely played, 10 on the
European Tour, 20 in Japan, 14 on
the PGA Tour of Australasia and six
on the Champions Tour including
two majors – the US Senior Open
(1997) and The Tradition (1999).
His best result in major
championships was a tied ninth
in the US Masters (1976), fourth in
the Open Championship (’83), tied
seventh in the US PGA (’78) and a
tied 16th in the US Open (’79).
There is little doubt he could have
played successfully on the US Tour
after winning the 1977 Heritage
Classic and was named rookie of
the year.
But he opted for the Japan Tour
and a Perth (West Australia) base.
He said he could have contended
in more majors and been a better
player had he played in the US,
but he was determined to raise his
family in Australia.
That virtually ruled him out of
three of the four majors each year
when winning a major was one of
his goals.
That was hard enough, but he
also played during an era when
superstars littered the fairways.
“I saw some of the greatest
players and I would consider the
group to be the greatest,” he said.
“I think of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold
Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino,
Tom Watson – those guys have
won seven, eight and nine majors
and in Jack’s case 18.
“In this era we have one man
(Tiger Woods) with 14, but the
most number of majors the others
have won has been three.
“I feel very fortunate in my
competitive career that I played
with players that will stand the
test of time.”
In 1984, Marsh was awarded the
MBE by Queen Elizabeth II in
recognition of his services to golf.
He was chairman of the PGA Tour
of Australasia for six years and was
instrumental in the introduction
of a number of professional
tournaments to the tour’s
schedule.
Sadly, many of those tournaments
have been erased from the
c [[