Nagle Now Looks Certain Winner

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31862, 14 December 1968, Page 15

Nagle Now Looks Certain Winner

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND. Only something really spectacular from one of his challengers and a sudden loss of his own immaculate form can prevent the masterly Australian golfer, K. D. G. Nagle, winning the $5OOO B.P. tournament today. He will go into the last 36 holes with a four-stroke lead after scoring a 69 yesterday to go with his recordbreaking 64 in the first round.

On 137 are R. J. Charles, New Zealand’s main hope, two other Australians, A. A. Murray and R. Vines, and the tall British professional, G. B. Wolstenholme.

A stroke behind them are another two Australian visitors, E. A. Ball and P. W. Thomson.

Nagle is playing as if he can do no wrong, and the Incredible chip shot he made from a bunker beside the eighteenth green yesterday was proof of his supreme.confidence. From ball to pin there was gap of 45 feet. Nagle simply looped the ball into the air; it bounced nine inches from the hole and dropped into the cup. It took the gallery by suri prise. But after a few stunned ' seconds, they roared appreciation as Nagle bowed and lifted his cap. I “I took the right swing, the : right amount of sand . . . and ! bingo.” That is the Nagle reI cipe for golfing artistry. I Unfortunately, this chip II was one of the few really out- , standing shots played all day. , Steady rain in the morning " —and intermittent sunshine ' and showers in the afternoon ’ did not make for pleasant . playing conditions —nor for j pleasant-looking score cards. . Many golfers watched their . strokes race upward as the I rain came down. One of the ’'worst affected was B. A. , Stevens, the New Zealand ' amateur champion, who followed up his 69 on Thursday j with an 80 yesterday. r Stevens turned three over > the card, but coming home ' was lucky if he played par , figures at each hole. ’ S. J. McHardy, a profes- ' sional, who was among the 1 elite after the first round with : 72, collapsed to score an 84 |in the second. I Certainly no golfer looked!

like getting anywhere near Nagle’s record 64 and only Murray of the leading professionals bettered his first round total.

In fact, Murray’s 68 in yesterday’s conditions was even more commendable than Nagle’s solid play. He scored three birdies on the outward journey, turning two under, and played to the card coming home. Although Nagle scored a one-under 69, to be seven under par for the two rounds, his play yesterday was a little frustrating in some ways. Several times he missed 10 to 15ft putts for birdies. The first lengthy putt he holed was at the eleventh when he was shooting for par at that hole. Then, at the sixteenth, Nagle dropped one from 20ft to go under the card at last. He lost the advantage on the

difficult par-four seventeenth, but with that superlative chip on the eighteenth picked it up again. The greatest disappointment of the day was the failure of W. J. Godfrey to qualify. Last year, at Titirangi, he scooped the B.P. tournament. Yesterday he scored a 74 to add to his 76 on Thursday, and thus missed the cutoff by one stroke. Thirty-six players with totals of 149 or better qualified for the last day’s play. A disconcerting feature of the second round was the lack of control on the large galleries. Nagle had his concentration often interrupted by moving spectators. Charles, with a 69, was also annoyed. He appealed to spectators to have more consideration for the golfers. “If people spread out and stand further back, they can see more themselves, and help us as well,” he said. “We could get round much faster if we were not crowded in by the gallery. I would like to see more roping off done on the course before ,the final two rounds.” One of the few golfers ap-l parently undisturbed by the audience’s close attention was Ball, who finished a day of! mixed fortunes with 71. At times he played some fine tee shots and some excellent putts, but he rarely tied them i together at the same hole. Other sub-par men, apart rfrom Nagle, Murray and ! Charles, were Thomson,; Wolstenholme and T. C. Ken-; dall (New Zealand).