MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE Nagle 2 Over Forecast For Sixth N.Z. Open

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31851, 2 December 1968, Page 19

MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE Nagle 2 Over Forecast For Sixth N.Z. Open

(By R. T. BRITTENDEN) K. D. G. Nagle, of Australia, took 272 strokes to win his sixth Nev> Zealand Open golf title at Shirley, two more than he predicted as the win ner’s score; and this trifling error of judgment was the most serious he made.

In beating F. Phillips, also of Australia, by seven strokes, Nagle gave another memorable performance. He was under the card in each of his four rounds; he was rarely in trouble, and when he was, he recovered with superb skill.

The story of the last two rounds is confined largely to the final five holes. Over them, in the morning, a brilliant burst of scoring turned a three-stroke deficit into a lunch-time lead of one for Nagle. And in the afternoon, Phillips’s brave at- i tempt to hold Nagle in | that final run of testing holes. Nagle’s winning score was six more than the total with which he took the title when it was last played at Shirley in 1964. but he was in splendid form again, and in thorough command during the last round. Phillips, in the middle section of the final 18 holes, tried desperately to wrest the initiative from Nagle, but the title-holder was equal to every demand made on him. “I just wasn’t good enough,” said Phillips. “He Splayed too steadily, and aftei ■the sixth hole I could not ’.see that I could get into it”

Getting Better Reminded of the pressure

he applied in the middle of the round, Phillips said: ‘He _kept holding putts and 1 could not get a long one •down. But it was only seven ;shots difference this year—l must be getting better." The weather was less pleasant, and more demanding on the players than it had been on the first two days. In the afternoon a fresh easterly posed problems of line and distance, and the scoring generally in the fourth round was not good.

For a considerable time it seemed that Phillips was capable of holding off Nagle’s challenge. At the start of the day he led by two strokes, and he stretched this to four half-way through the morn-

ing. But there was no denying Nagle, whose accuracy from the tees faltered seldom, and whose ability to put the ball near the pin and hole the putts left the others looking like his pupils. Charles Disappoints j R. J. Charles put in a challenge, briefly, in the final round, but slumped to a dis-j appointing score and was passed by P. W. Thomson and! G. B. Wolstenholme, neither • of whom ever looked likelyl to challenge the leaders. For Saturday’s two rounds the young New Zealand professional, J. M. Lister, was next best to Nagle, with 140 to Nagle’s 135. Phillips began like a winner, holing a putt at the first for a birdie, and at the fourth playing one of the great shots of the tournament—he finished 12 feet from the hole with a 5-iron second which he pushed out across the parked cars and drew back behind the tall tree which is a feature of this 505-yard hole. He continued to play well throughout the morning, and his 69 would have been a damaging blow to a lesser adversary than Nagle.

Dramatic Run For some time Nagle played

well, looking as relaxed as ever, but without much success on the greens. But his dramatic run began at the fourteenth, where his drive came to rest in a divot mark. From it he played a great iron to the green and holed a 12ft birdie putt. A 4-iron at the fifteenth and 20ft putt gave him another, and at the 600-yard sixteenth,, it was a wedge and a putt of five feet which brought the birdie. At the next hole he was bunk--ered, but recovered spectacu-

larly for his par, and at the last a birdie seemed a formality. The putt was of six, feet. Poor Phillips—playing solidly* but quite unable to match this brilliance. There was little hint of a

come-back in the beginning of Charles’s morning round, but a magnificent iron at the sixth, and a putt of three feet, gave him a birdie. From that point he played well, but he could not reduce the deficit of five strokes with which he started the day. The long-bitting Englishman. I. N. Richardson, was one of nine players who broke 70 in 1 the morning—there were only two in the afternoon—but at the 54-hole stage, it was a battle between Phillips and Nagle, with Charles needing a miraculous sort of round to be a challenger. Gallery 4000 A gallery which grew to 4000! watched the final act. Phillips ! started better than Nagle, being inside him at the first two holes, but failing with birdie chances. The short third gave Nagle an opportunity to close the door on Phillips, but he missed a fivefooter. to everyone’s surprise.

So it was blow for blow until the sixth, a hole which all but ended Phillip’s challenge. He took an iron off the tee, but hooked it into the creek. When he dropped, the ball rolled almost over the bank again, and there was a considerable delay before it was ruled that he could drop again.

Then he hooked his iron savagely, played a great recovery shot which obstinately stayed on the top terrace, with the pin just below, and he was down in 6. Phillips recovered one shot when Nagle’s second at the eighth hit a tree and came straight down, but at the turn he was two behind.

They both played the tenth badly, but then the easy rhythm returned to Nagle’s game. Phillips held the honour from the ninth tee until the fourteenth but could make no real advance. On the fourteenth fairway, from a downhill lie, he hit a bad iron, and was fortunate in having the

ball hit a rise and rocket off, a first bounce, which carried a bunker 120 yards away. But he lost the hole to a par 4, and the next to a 3. Easy Putt Phillips, on the down-slope of the creek after a superb drive at the sixteenth, took a penalty and still had his par s—but Nagle had a putt of only 10 inches for his birdie. He had another al the seventeenth. He hit a good drive at the last hole, and when he pitched in and came up for his putt, there was a moving ovation for a great golfer and a great sportsman from thej crowd making a deep ring! about the green. Charles had a short run of success. He started the last round in the best form he showed at the tournament, with two birdies in the first four holes. But he three-putted the fifth and lost ground at the sixth, just as Phillips had. by driving into the creek and taking 6. From that point, errors quite out of character outnumbered typical [touches of brilliance. Bright Finish Thomson pleased the gallery with a litle grandstand finish—a grand drive, a perfectly-con-trolled pitch «ind a little putt for a birdie at the last hole. But the tournament went to the man with the best temperament. the best putting touch, and the greatest ability, in the last round, in controlling his shots in the wind. Leading Amateur R. M. Farrant, of Waitikiri. was the leading amateur and won the Bledisloe Cup—the first player from Christchurch to achieve this distinction since R. C. Murray, theji of Russley, won it in 1958. Farrant had rounds of 74, 71, 74. 74. With one round to play, he was on 219, with Murray and R. D. Gillespie, of Auckland, with J. R. Broadhurst (Russley) one stroke behind and G. D. Brown (Balclutha on 221. The scoring in the final round was not good, but Farrant handled the conditions better than the others.