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June 27, 2025 15 mins

This week, with thanks to Elmwood Trading Company, Lesley Murdoch was joined by special guest Geoff Saunders. 

Saunders is a retired Christchurch lawyer who, along with Lee Robinson and Bill Brown, founded Saunders, Robinson, Brown – now SRB. 

He’s had a long and decorated playing career, winning the Bledisloe Cup (leading amateur at the NZ Open), and when it came to administration, he was a member of the NZ Golf Board and a NZ Open Chairman. 

These days, he plays and writes about the game, as a columnist, commentator, and of late, an author – writing biographies for two high profile golfers, Sir Bob Charles and Ian Baker-Finch. 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, what a treat. On the All Sport Breakfast in
association with the Elmwood Trading Company, we are chatting with
Jeff Saunders. He is a retired christ Church lawyer who,
along with Lee Robinson and Bill Brown, founded Saunders Robinson
Brown now SRB. And of course Jeff has a long
and decorated playing career, a winner of the Bleederslow Cup,

(00:20):
which is for the leading amateur at the New Zealand Open,
and as an administrator of the game, a former New
Zealand Golf Board member and former New Zealand Open Chairman.
We'll talk about that a little bit later on, but
these days Jeff plays golf, writes about golf as a
columnist and commentator, and of recent years a celebrated author.

(00:41):
He has written the biographies of two high profile international golfers,
our very own Sir Bob Charles and Ian Baker Finch.
Will get to those a little later on, but first
of all I beg welcome Jeff, thanks for having time
to speak to us.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Oh, good morning, Leslie.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Great to speak to you so part from or a
professional career which has been outstanding. Golf has been very
important to you. Clearly, how did golf start for you.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I think I started the way many kids would have were.
It was a secondary sport and our family cricket was
a big part of my father's life. But we started
up at Hemmah probably at the age of eight, two
golf clubs, a Hickory four iron and a hickory putter,
and we just ran riots around Hemma Springs Golf Club,

(01:32):
which is actually still one of my favorite venues. The
next steps were probably very familiar with most golfers of
my era. In Kenbury Hereward Golf Club provided the nursery
for Kenterbury Golf in those days, and New Zealand Golf
Foundation lessons, you know, free lessons from benevolent coaches, and

(01:57):
then on to Shirley Crash each golf club. When I
was about thirteen.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
I think, wow, Actually we were talking with Hannah Golf
Club Mike Gainsford last week. Oh yes, yes, So that
was great finding out about a little bit more about
the history of that and how important it is in
terms of where it's situated. But for golf, you could
have been a professional.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
I probably would have been the worst professional in the
world if I'd carried on that line. I reduced my
handicap from fourteen or fifteen down to about two and
stars in my eyes. At the age of sixteen, I
turned pro, much to the shock of my parents, who

(02:42):
took it very well actually, and so I worked at
the local club over the summer, won some prize money
and a couple of programs, and probably decided a better
go back and finish an education. So a couple of
small they cost me my amateur status. Golf New Zealand

(03:06):
were very kind to me and they suspended me for
six months. That dated my suspension to the date of
my first check and I served only a week suspension,
so very kind, and I carried on with an amateur
career that after that year I managed to get into
the Canterbury team, a New Zealand under twenty one team,

(03:29):
and had a reasonable career as a player. I think
a lot of kids believe that they'll be world beaters.
We've clearly got one or two of them in Canterbury
at the moment that will be. But you know, I
think the odds are really about one thousand to one
of doing any good in the professional game. I needed

(03:51):
to make a living and my father had worked in
a firm started by my grandfather, which is now one
hundred years old. Yeah, I was really happy to go
to Saunderson Coe. It was a great, great firm, sporting history, cranball, ken,
every cricket captain was a partner. I had twenty twenty
years at Saunderson Co and then twenty years with Lee

(04:15):
really at Saunders Robinson and we had a lot of
sports related work. So leeh and I hit a ball
New Zealand cricket, New Zealand golf venues like Jade Stadium,
you'll know Lee's amazing involvement with Hagley. It was a
law firm with a bit of a difference and that

(04:35):
suited both of us. Retty well still suite Lee, who
will probably never retire, I don't think. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Well recently of course accorded life membership for New Zealand Cricket.
Lee Robinson so thoroughly deserved in that. But given how
accurate you have to be in law in anything that
you do, is that why you then became part of
governance roles or became the administrator? Was that what made
you give back?

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Not really? No, I'd played in seven New Zealand opens,
I'd made the cut in them all. And I've been
fortunate to play with Thompson Magel Charles lifetime friendships and
the New Zealand Open in two thousand and six was
really struggling, lost nine hundred thousand the first year I

(05:24):
was involved in it, and so my role in Golf
New Zealand was ready to take the Open and try
and revive it into something that we'd be proud of.
So that was a project that was a three year
project for me, which I loved and slightly shocked the

(05:45):
establishment when I suggested it goes down to Queenstown. Had
a lot of help from Sir Bob who was supportive.
Michael Campbell played a role and of course Michael Hill,
who provided a venue that everyone wanted to see. So
that was two seven and once we convinced the board

(06:10):
to go down there, we had thirty three thousand people
turn up in the first year, which was extraordinary as
opposed to about eight thousand people in Auckland the year before.
So that was fun, although a guided it. I mean,
there were a lot of heroes involved in that reinvigoration.

(06:33):
Bob Twoey was fantastic, Mike Godney helped at the front
of the thing and I convinced Sir Bob to come
out of retirement at the age of seventy one and
play in the event, and he was a superstar that year.
We had a weak field and he almost attracted the
largest galleries at the age of seventy one.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Extraordinary, really extraordinary that he's still playing golf at eighty nine.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yes, he's eighty nine. I play with him a lot.
He's a genuine three handicapper. I think he's recently beaten
his age by a shot a hole, which blows my
mind completely, but lovely we close friends and play a lot.
So no, he's something else.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Well, I tell you what, JeI if we have glossed
over what has been a fantastic part of your life
and probably haven't given it the due diligence that it deserves.
But we have got a couple of other parts that
we need to talk about. So after the break we
will come back and we'll chat about you becoming an
author about exceptional golfers. Obviously we're talking about Sir Bob

(07:44):
Charles and the wonderful story around Ian Baker Finch. Well,
we are chatting golf in association with the Elmwood Trading
Company and we are chatting to someone who has made
a massive impact not just in golf but in law
here in the city as well, talking about Jeff Saunders
and he has added another string to his bow by

(08:05):
becoming an author. Sir Bob Charles the biography Ian Baker
Finch to Helen Back, So how did this happen? Jeff?

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, it's a good question. I think my children and
my wife asked me the same question every now and then.
But yeah, I went to Carnusti in twenty ten with
Sir Bob. There was there been a celebration for one
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Open, and it was

(08:36):
a bit of a pilgrimage really because I wanted to
watch his last competitive round on the European Tour Senior Tour.
We sat down for dinner after he had played his
last round, very emotional, a lot of players coming up
to him, Bernard Lane, Tom Lahman. I just couldn't believe
the respect that he had amongst his peers. And we

(08:56):
sat down and I said, I can't believe that no
one's from the book about your life, Bob. You've been
on tour with Verity for fifty years and he said no,
too much trouble and books a lot of work. I
sort of persevered and I thought I could do it.
Finally get his agreement, but I was about to start it,
and then the Canterbury earthquakes came along. So retired from

(09:17):
law and maybe two thousand and eighteen, I think I'd
had twenty years at SB. He agreed to go along
with the project. Then what really kicked it along. I've
probably only written about eight chapters with the help of
my brother. Actually, Covid came along and we both got bored.
So we started the book in earnest and finished eighteen

(09:39):
chapters in three months. During COVID, I think we stuck
to the rules. He'd drive to our place in his
golf cart. I would sit in the back of our
station wagon in the garage. We'd stay socially distanced, and
I'd do the interviews. The golden nugget was a box
of his mother's scrap books that he delivered to me,
and big scrap books. His mother had been a friend

(10:01):
of my mother, Ruth. These scrap books charted every competitive
round and chronological order that Bob had had in his career,
and so in terms of a resource. Yeah, it was
just it was gold and made the book not easy
to write, but it certainly smooth its way, so I

(10:22):
was happy with it. We had a lot of fun.
We had two seven hundred photographs to choose from and
including the Getty Library, so love doing the photos which
we put all throughout the book. It worked. I'm proud
of the book, and so's Bob. So that was number
one out of the way.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
But it is a lot of going through a lot
of different files etc. That it takes. You know, unless
you've done something like that, you would not know how
much work it entails.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
I completely and utterly underestimated it. I think. I mean,
it's essentially a piece of craziness, really, because once you
get going, you can't get it out of your head.
My wife has banned me from writing another one until
next year, so that'll give you some idea.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Amazing story of En Baker Finch.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yes, at the tail end of my playing career eighty
two and eighty three, I played in a couple of
the same New Zealand opens as Ian. I was aware
of him. He was charismatic, really good looking, pleasant man
with beautiful clothes sense, and he won the New Zealand
Open and eighty three got him into the British Open

(11:29):
in eighty four, as it was called in those days.
Marie and I went to that Open and to won
six years later, and we saw his he'd never played
in a major before and found himself leading it after
three rounds and Gallistairus won that one and Ian collapsed lightly.
But I think he was under huge pressure and a
bit of bad luck, which is covered in the book. Yes,

(11:49):
that was what ignited my interest. Watched him play Who
Opens and then we were pretty friendly with Peter Thompson,
who was redesigned Shirley Golf Course, and Peter sat down
in twenty fifteen and said Ian's story is the saddest
story in golf, that he should have won another opened,

(12:10):
and he spent an evening telling me all about it.
I wrote some notes down, discovered them after the bog
book was published, and decided I'd do a book on
in Finchy as he's known in Australia. And it's been
it's been so much fun.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
You actually mentioned that word a lot fun.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
And we shouldn't really go too much into the books
because we want people to buy them.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Oh, It's true. They're going fine, actually, I think. But
the sales are good. The Bob Charles book had a
good run, and the Baker Finch one has had huge
coverage in Australia, which I didn't expect actually, you know,
double page spreads and the dailies and all the television.

(12:57):
And I said to him, you know that, I said,
being amazing courage and he said, Jeff, you just underestimate
how popular I am. He's got the greatest sense of
humor Australian book but released in the States in a
couple of months and in the UK at the end
of the year. So we're really happy with sales so far.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Oh fantastic. I'm not surprised. I mean I would imagine
that again the care that has gone into it and thoroughness,
which would be an earmark of your particular skills. But
while you've done, sir Bob Charles and En Baker Finch,
what about someone back here that we keep close tabs on.
He's doing particularly well at the moment again, and that's

(13:35):
Cooper Moore.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yes, what a great what a great player he's going
to be. He's at an early stage of his career,
but to be honest. He reminds me very much of
a young Bob Charles. We had an opportunity to pair
him with Bob and Ian at Shirley a few months ago,
and Cooper was keen, but then realized that his schedule prevented.

(14:00):
He was heading up to play in the PGA in
Hawks Bay. But he is potentially superstar material, that boy,
and such a great temperament, you know, good adversement for
his parents. Quiet. I talked to him on the practice
the way a few months ago, but then made sure
I wasn't too close to him when he's hitting balls,

(14:21):
because he makes you feel completely inadequate, a lovely player.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
The composure is that the key, I think.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
So. Yeah, you look at the temperaments of the great
players and the odd fiery one, but I think he
is very calm. Pets off to him and these days
it's yeah, it's customary to talk about his team, but
he has a great coach, great parents, and disguise the limit.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
In my view, Jeff Saunders, hats off to you for
not only what you have contributed to golf and will
continue to do so, but recording two outstanding golfers telling
their story and leading us in a little bit more
about Cooper Moore because we are lucky enough to talk
to him. He's very available, he's very generous with his time,

(15:09):
but it's nice to hear from other people just how
good he is going to be. And we watch his
career unfold, and we watch very much how both these
books will go for you and the enjoyment that people
will get from them. So thank you, thank you for that,
and thank you for joining us on the All Sport Breakfast.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Much appreciated. Thanks Leslie for.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
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