NAGLE’S 64 EQUALS COURSE RECORD

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31548, 9 December 1967, Page 15

NAGLE’S 64 EQUALS COURSE RECORD

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND. The young New Zealander, W. G. Godfrey, shared the lead with the two Australians, P. W. Thomson and K. D. G. Nagle, after the second round of the B.P. S4OOO golf tournament yesterday.

It was another day of sensational scoring, Nagle leading the way with an eight-under-par 64, which equalled his own course record.

Godfrey had a 68 and Thomson, who would have been a clear leader had he not dropped two strqkes at the sixteenth, returned the same score.

One stroke behind the joint leaders, on 135, is the tall Englishman, G. B. Wolstenholme, while the overnight leader, P. Townsend, had a 71 yesterday, and is on 136. S. G. Jones, with a magnificent 66, is the leading amateur, but J. M. Lister, the Timaru professional, dropped behind with a 73. Godfrey’s was an incredible round. At least three of his shots looked unplayable but clever recovery or sheer good fortune got him out of trouble each time.

At the difficult, 402-yard third he pulled his drive into the trees but managed to direct a 4-iron shot to the elevated green. A 20ft putt ran into the hole for his second successive birdie.

three-putted the tenth but two superb 1-iron shots and a couple of putts gave him a birdie at the twelfth. Another birdie at the thirteenth enabled him to retain his fourunder score to the end. Thomson seemed to be assured of the lead when he was five under the card play- • ing the sixteenth. To his coni sternation, a wedge shot bounded forward off the green ‘ and into the bushes behind ! it. The result was a two-over six. Otherwise, he had a • largely uneventful 68. Nagle strolled round the course, picking up strokes in each half. Out in 32, he had an eagle at the twelfth from 3|ft, birdied the thirteenth

and seventeenth, and then delicately guided in a 9ft putt at the home hole for a final flourish.

Jones raised the biggest cheer on the course when his 9-iron approach to the 320yard second hole bounced gently and ran straight into the hole for an eagle two. Nor was this his only memorable shot. A 4-wood second sped to within 6ft of the cup at the 488-yard seventeenth and down went the putt for his second eagle of the round. Jones had halves of 34 and 32.

Townsend began badly by missing a short putt for his birdie at the first, threeputting the second and failing with another five-footer for a birdie on the third. He had a struggle all the way for his 71.

Lister could not reproduce his first-round 66 and a nervous start put him five over after 10 holes. However, he recovered partially with four birdies on the way home.

Godfrey was out in 32. He