NAGLE EIGHT BIRDIES IN BRILLIANT 67

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30603, 20 November 1964, Page 15

NAGLE EIGHT BIRDIES IN BRILLIANT 67

Leads Open By 3 Strokes

“What would he be like if he was fit?” asked a spectator at Shirley yesterday, when told that K. D. G. Nagle, who leads the field in the New Zealand Open with a six-under-par 67, has been suffering from a back injury. It was a reasonable question, for Nagle, in giving notice of intention to acquire his fourth New Zealand title, played with all the relaxed efficiency of a man who has already sensed another triumph in the offing. Nagle’s magnificent round, which included eight birdies, put him three strokes ahead of another Australian, F. Phillips, and four ahead of J. J. Sullivan and R. Tuohy, also Australian professionals.

So Nagle, so often a principal figure at New Zealand championships, was the only player to break 70 in a field which, in the practice rounds, had looked likely to leave 70 behind repeatedly.

But the extra stresses of a tournament round told, and the demands of the course were not lessened by the stiff easterly breeze which tempered the warmth of the sunshine.

The course played beautifully, the watered greens holding the pitch shot satisfactorily, and as putting surfaces they could not be faulted. A crowd of about 800 enjoyed a day’s golf which, apart from Nagle, did not produce all the spectacular scoring expected, but which was always highly interesting. Some Mediocre It was a day in which the difference between the practice and the grimly competitive round was most marked. Some of the visiting golfers returned mediocre scores, and

to some extent it was through a much more cautious approach to the course than they had shown in the previous few relaxed days. But there was evidence to suggest that today many of these inhibitions will have been mastered. Watching Nagle play golf is a fascinating study. His basic virtues are his serenity, his ability to place his drive, to judge a line, to sum up a position. He did not tame Shirley, and it forced from him much of his finest golf. Economic Swing Th _ matter-of-factness of Nagle’s golf is visible in the economy of his swing. For a split second as he unwinds into his drive or fairway woods and irons, Nagle’s legs and body tighten, preparing for the blow. Otherwise, his movements are kept to a minimum, and the club flows through sweetly. A sad start to his round might have unsettled another golfer. His first drive drifted with the wind into thick grass under the trees. His second was played perfectly, but it dropped short into a bunker, and a five went down on the card for the first hole. But not another shot was to be dropped until the sixteenth, during which the chubby Australian had redeemed himself with seven birdies. A 15ft putt at the second put him level again with the card, and a 4ft putt at the fourth made him one under.

Already there had been hints that this might be Nagle's day: the fifth confirmed it. Two long shots left him just off the green, and

then a magnificent little chip took the ball to within a foot of the hole, for his third birdie. On in two at the par five eighth, his eagle putt from six yards took a long look at the hole before sliding past. But at the next, and from 20ft, his putt never looked like missing, and Nagle had reached the turn in a fourunder 33. He should have had another birdie to start the second half when he was just off the green in 2, but his pitch was a little too wide and the putt off line. However, he made up for this at the eleventh with an incredible 14yd pitch and run from off the green. At first Nagle elected to use his putter, but after taking another look at the hole he exchanged it for an eight iron. The ball was hit sweetly, but just a little too hard. There was a gasp from the gallery, and then a bigger one as the ball hit the pin with a slap and dropped dead into the hole. “It was always on,” was Nagle’s dry comment.

chip over two bunkers to score his seventh birdie at the twelfth hole, and then took regulation figures for the next three, scrambling a little at the short fifteenth when his drive and pitch left him three yards short. The sixteenth was a sorry let-down. Two long wood shots and a carefully-played chip left his ball pin high and six yards to the left. His birdie putt clipped the side of the hole and stopped 14in past. Nagle took his time with the return putt, but tugged it an inch wide. The seventeenth produced another steady four, and then at the home hole he left a few hearts in their mouths when his 6ft putt for the eighth birdie hit the back of the hole, looked away, and then relented. 67 An Omen

It might have been a good omen for the Australian in that his number for the day was 67. It will be the same again today, and another 67 would just about make the championship a one-horse race.

Nagle’s card read: Out — Par: 44355*45 3—37 Nagle: 53344444 2—33 In— Par: 54434354 4—35 Nagle: 53334364 3—34 Phillips is one of the most exciting hitters in the tournament, but he achieves his prodigious length through fine timing, for his swing is quite sharply restricted. For a while he putted with a certain touch, but later the ball began to elude the hole fairly consistently. Yet he was always a threat to Nagle, and he played some magnificent shots. Notable among them was a huge drive at the 335-yard twelfth which left him a putt of only seven feet. The eagle putt wavered off line at the last moment.

Phillips’s most telling blows were struck on the first half, with three successive birdies from the third. Putts of 21 feet and 7 feet put him two under, and a magnificent bunker shot at the fifth produced his third birdie. He dropped his only stroke at the eleventh, recovered it at the tweltfh, and was only once more in much danger. It took a superbly-judged chip at the twelfth to save his figures. Phillips’s card read: Out: 44244445 3—34 In: 55334354 4—36

He played another masterly