Tait launches new amateur tour to showcase golf's cack-handed community

With the kind of tireless energy that the Duracell bunny used to display in those adverts championing long-lasting batteries, Alan Tait doesn’t seem to stop.

A proud PGA member and a man dedicated to providing opportunities to all walks of golfing life, the well-travelled, well-kent 52-year-old always has something on the go.

Tait has set up a number of mini-circuits over the past couple of decades – his Get Back To Golf Tour for pros and amateurs amid the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic was a roaring success – but his latest venture is perhaps his most intriguing.

In the rich tapestry of golfing styles, methods and general curiosities, those amateurs who employ the cack-handed grip – left-hand-below-right and vice versa for a lefty – will get the chance to showcase their talents on Tait’s Cack-handed Scottish Golf Tour.

“I was on a Facebook page called Golf Courses of Scotland and a guy on there said he was a cack-hander and wondered how many others were out there,” said Tait as he explained how an online search piqued his interest in this motley crew.

“He got bombarded with people getting in touch. That got me thinking. Golf is such a rich and varied game and we have events for left-handers, for blind golfers, disabled golfers; everybody. I couldn’t find anything for cack-handers.

"I sent a message out saying that I was thinking of doing a wee championship purely for cack-handers and the response was unbelievable. They all said they’ve been crying out for something like this for years. I was only going to do a 36-hole championship but the enthusiasm has led to me doing a mini-circuit of six events.”

Cack-handers reaching the giddy heights of the game are few and far between. The South African, Seesunker Sewgolum, won a trio of Dutch Opens back in the day and finished 13th in the 1963 Open during a sporting life shackled by apartheid.

In more recent years, John Gallagher, a former Scottish Amateur champion who is now a professional, flew the cack-handed flag with great, idiosyncratic aplomb.

When the Edinburgh man reached the final of the Amateur Championship at Royal Birkdale in 2005, fascinated observers would peer at his unorthodox grip with the same kind of whispering, intrigued reverence you’d adopt when filing past a body lying in state.

“When I was young, the only cack-hander I encountered was the Scotland cap, Jim Hay, from Kirkintilloch,” recalled Tait, the former Tartan Tour No 1 and a fellow of The PGA. “He was a fine golfer but then John came on the scene in later years. I did play with him a couple of times and there weren’t many boys who flushed it like him. Hitting a full drive with a grip like that is a huge talent in itself. I gave it a go and managed about 20 yards. In fact, the cack-handed grip was sore and when I tried it, I thought I was going to break my wrist.”

For the true cack-handers, though, it’s a case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. A giddy mix of golfers – “I’ve had interest from a plus-four handicapper to those in their high 20s,” noted Tait – will assemble at a variety of venues throughout the season including Montrose Links, Glenbervie, Hayston, Spey Valley and Strathmore with the 36-hole showpiece taking place at Deer Park.

For Tait, this latest project gives him another outlet to pour his boundless enthusiasm into. The sudden, devastating passing of his big brother and “best friend”, John, last year, means his sense of purpose is driven by the pain of loss.

“All these projects are a coping mechanism,” he said “As long as my mind is somewhere else, I’m alright. The busier I can keep myself, the better.”

The cack-handers are now the latest golfers to benefit from Tait’s enduring endeavours.

• Categories:
• Scotland