Jones Stops Thomson Run With Greatest Victory

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30922, 1 December 1965, Page 21

Jones Stops Thomson Run With Greatest Victory

(New Zealand Press Association)

HASTINGS.

The Hastings amateur golfer, S. G. Jones, five times winner of the New Zealand amateur title and 11 times a New Zealand representative, scored his greatest stroke-play triumph on his home links at Bridge Pa, Hastings, yesterday.

Jones won the Watties £l5OO 72-hole tournament against a powerful field that included the British Open champion, Peter Thomson, the brilliant Australian professional, Kel Nagle, and several other world-class professionals.

Jones’s four-round total of 270, with rounds of 69, 65, 67 and 69, was a record for the Wattie’s series in Hastings.

The previous best was 271 by R. J. Charles in 1963. His scores were 66,

68, 67 and 70.

Jones went into the final round yesterday afternoon, nine strokes under par and he finished with a 69, to give him a 10-under-par aggregate. He was 13 strokes ahead of the next best amteur, I. S. MacDonald, also of Hastings, whose 283 total was greatly assisted by a brilliant 64 yesterday. This was one stroke more than Jones’s course record. Had MacDonald scored a bogey four instead of a five at the eighteenth, he would have equalled the record. His round included seven birdies and the only stroke he dropped was at the last hole where he was on the edge of the green in a soft lie for two and took three more to hole out.

The leading professional was J. J. Sullivan (Australia), who had a four-round total of 272. He shot a five-under 65 on his final round to pull ahead of B. J. Coxon on 273. Nagle, Ted Ball and Thomson shared third berth among the professionals, with 275. Three-stroke Lead Jones played magnificently throughout the four rounds. Yesterday morning he went round in 67 to gain a threestroke lead over Ball and Thomson. In the afternoon he was out in a one-under 34, after birdies at the first two holes and dropping a stroke at the eighth. On the second half he birdied the short thirteenth but dropped strokes on the fourteenth where he was bunkered and the short sixteenth where he was well wide of the green with his tee shot. But he came back strongly with a birdie at the seventeenth and had no trouble managing a par four at the eighteenth for his 69 and victory. Sullivan, six strokes behind Jones going into the last round, pulled up spectacularly with his 65. He carded six birdies and dropped a stroke at the par-four fourteenth. Coxon Has 64 Coxon, the former Manawatu professional, now living in New South Wales, was 209 after three rounds. In the afternoon he shot a brilliant 64. Thomson, after two lOimds, appeared set for his fourth successive victory, but yesterday morning could do no better than a 70, which he matched in the afternoon. He missed some long putts by a whisker and at least two very short ones which he needed badly. Ball had an uphill fight all afternoon after trailing Jones by only three strokes with a round to play, but although he holed chips for a birdie two at the thirteenth and an eagle three at the seventeenth, he still wound up with a one-over-par 71.