Philip Charles (Phil) Skoglund – 

Obituary – Denis Duffy.

Philip Charles (Phil)  Skoglund, who died at his home in Palmerston North recently, displayed a high level of aptitude in many sports, but it was in Bowls that he became an icon. In the history of his chosen game, he occupies a place in the stratosphere probably shared only by former World Singles Champion Peter Belliss. His mana and charisma were such that many, including his biographer, were quite simply in awe of him, and, even in his declining years, ordinary players would regard it a personal highlight to simply play with, against or somewhere adjacent to the local legend.

Phil created his greatest legacy by being first to break down the barriers preventing younger and fitter people from playing Bowls. When he sensationally won the 1958 National Singles title after an unbeaten run of sixteen matches, his father told him to give his age to the press as twenty-one, rather than the correct twenty.  The difference was significant then, and he was already in enough trouble for arriving at the green in his father’s ministerial car. Many clubs then enforced a minimum age for members and resented the intrusion of youth, but that mindset was henceforth on the way out. Phil was the stand-out member of a remarkable Bowls dynasty that originated with his great-grandfather  and grandfather in Greymouth and Stratford respectively. However, the family flair for the sport really appeared in the next generation. His uncle, T.T. Skoglund was a Gold Star holder, twice an Empire Games representative and the standout player nationally in the 1940’s and 50’s, while his father Phil Snr (P.O.). Skoglund won thirteen  Manawatu titles and was also well respected nationally. This was the man who ultimately became Minister of Education and source of the aforementioned black ministerial car. With wife Carol, who survives him, Phil produced sons Raymond and Philip, who together won the National Pairs title in 1999. Philip (P.J.) also followed his father into the National team on several occasions, and remains today a respected presence at top level.

Phil always cared deeply for the game of Bowls, and its sharp decline more recently in numbers and popularity, though shared with other major sports, troubled him deeply. He tirelessly threw possible solutions into the public arena via a local newspaper column and then very latterly he offered his services as President of Bowls Manawatu, for the second time, in 2013/14. During his peak years, he found time to spend several terms as a  member of the former N.Z.B.A Council, and also as a National Selector.

Phil Skoglund was noted for a high backlift and silky delivery which concealed till the last second the pace of the impending shot. Once having found his line, he would use it time after time with metronomic precision. This was allied to a razor-sharp tactical brain and ice-cool temperament. These qualities were good enough to win his Northern club’s Senior Singles only months before his death, and a host of honours earlier. That first National Singles at Christchurch was followed by four more. Between 1970 and 1972 he won an amazing treble of three Singles titles in a row, the third bringing with it a Gold Star. This was in a period when ‘The Dominion’ drew huge fields, and he was never seriously troubled in a final, often annihilating his opponents in the closing rounds. There was also a hard fought Pairs victory for his Northern club in 1972 with highly talented former jockey Vic Sellars. In 1976 at Dunedin Phil astounded the pundits by taking out both the Pairs and Fours titles with a group of club players who were largely unknown and unrated at a higher level. He later pointed out that this became possible because “we were very, very compatible and this got us through under pressure.” This closed the Skoglund tally of National titles at eight, but as late as 1991 he finished second in the Fours with sons Philip and Raymond, as he had done twice with earlier teams.

The National Selectors would have seriously contravened the current prejudice against youth if they had sent Phil to the Empire Games in 1958,  and he was again overlooked for the Perth event in 1962.  It wasn’t till the inaugural World Bowls event at Sydney’s  Kyeemagh  greens in 1966 that he finally got the nod to play for New Zealand, in Singles and Pairs.  For the next quarter of a century he was selected on a regular basis for a  series of major events, but most were contested on Northern Hemisphere greens. These were  longer, lush in growth, frequently plagued by strange irregularities, and invariably much heavier than the speed expected in New Zealand. Then there was the expectation that play would continue to a rigorous schedule through often abysmal weather conditions. More recent New Zealand representatives have found ways to at least prepare soundly for these differences and so have found fewer nasty surprises in store, but throughout Phil’s era, most international play brought with it very challenging conditions.

Despite this, Phil won a Gold, two Silver and two Bronze medals at World Championships. The Gold that finally crowned his Bowls career finally came at the Auckland event of 1988, when he won the Triples with Morgan Moffat and Ian Dickison.This represented a rare success for him in the north of the country, and was supplemented with the winning of one of his two World  Silver medals  in the Fours. Participation in five Commonwealth Games events brought a relatively lean return of two Bronze medals and a solitary Silver in the Fours at Edmonton, Canada, in 1978. Phil always insisted that his most memorable international outing was an extended Tour of South Africa in 1968. The locals were far too good at home, and the three Tests all 0-3 defeats, but Phil rated the total ‘package’ of the playing and touring experience on the High Veldt as an unforgettable one. His most bitter disappointment was being dropped from the team for the World Bowls back in South Africa in 1976 – a team that Vic Sellars was included in. At a local level, Phil won twenty-one Manawatu    Centre titles, and also three in Wellington while domiciled there in the early 1960’s. He was the driving force behind the creation of the Lion Masters’ Singles, an iconic and unique event which brought a dazzling array of national and overseas talent to the Manawatu and to the nation’s TV screens in the late 1970’s and early ‘80’s.

Phil Skoglund was honoured with the O.B.E. in 1988. He was a member of several National Sports Halls of Fame, including the one established quite recently by his own sport of Bowls. He has been named as an all-time Manawatu Legend of Sport, and was four times Manawatu Sportsman of the Year. His biography, written by Denis Duffy and published by Rugby Press, appeared in 1983. Phil’s passing removes a colossus from the sporting scene, both locally in Manawatu and also nationally.

A funeral service for Phil will be held in Palmerston North on Saturday 16 May 2015 at 2pm.

RIP Skog!