TAYLOR LOSES TOUGH MATCH E. J. McDougall faces Dailey in golf final

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 48

TAYLOR LOSES TOUGH MATCH E. J. McDougall faces Dailey in golf final

(New Zealand Press Association)

PALMERSTON NORTH. The 37-year-old Dannevirke men’s outfitter, R. B. Dailey, omitted from the Hawke’s Bay Frey berg Rose Bowl team this season, will play in today’s final of the New Zealand amateur golf championship in Palmerston North. Yesterday afternoon he beat the defending champion, G. C. Stevenson (Waikare), 4 and 2.

His opponent will be the New Zealand representative, E. J. McDougall (Tokoroa), who was taken to the seventeenth by the Canterbury player, B. C. Taylor (Russley), before winning 2 and 1.

McDougall found the youthful Taylor much more difficult than any of his opponents so far. Taylor started the game very well, even though he missed a couple of putts which could have given him the lead. At the fourth his putt —from about 30ft—actually went over the cup without dropping. McDougall made the first break on the fifth, when Tay-

lor put his second into rough on the left, and the big Tokoroa man sank a 7ft putt. Taylor sliced his fairway wood shot out of bounds on the sixth. McDougall again made no bones about this hole, sinking a sft putt for a birdie and a two-hole lead. Taylor took one back at the next hole when McDougall took three to get down from just off the green. This was the first indication of the putting problems which were to cause McDougall trouble later in the game. The ninth was halved in birdie 3s after both golfers hit good drives and even better approach shots. Recovered well McDougall went back to 2 I up at the tenth when Taylor missed a 4ft putt after he had recovered well from a tee shot which left him well to the left behind the trees. Poor tee shots, followed by fine chips, enabled the golfers to share the short eleventh in par 3s. McDougall had his first three-putt green at the twelfth, missing a two footer to enable Taylor to come back to one down.

Both were in trouble with their tee shots on the thirteenth, being under trees on the left. Both recovered so well, however, that they halved the holes in par 4s. McDougall made the final break at the fourteenth when Taylor missed a 4ft putt for a birdie and McDougall sank his to go 2 up. The New Zealand representative went further ahead at the fifteenth when he was on the green for two and took two putts for another birdie. Taylor was in trouble again with his second shot on this hole, ending behind the trees. On to the sixteenth and here McDougall three-putted again. Playing the hole for the first time in two days, he was on the front of the green and was short with his first putt. Short putt On the seventeenth Taylor made a valiant effort to keep the game alive when he just missed a 40ft putt. McDougall, faced with a difficult short putt, holed it and the game was all over. Stevenson, who has putted fairly well throughout the tournament, was out of touch on the greens yesterday, and it was possibly this phase of his play which cost him the match. Dailey kept the pressure on all the way after getting 1 up after the second hole, and Stevenson did not win a hole until the tenth. Dailey played par golf, but

his second shot on the sixth was his shot of the match. He was’ only 1 up at that stage, and his drive was" on to the fifth fairway behind tall trees. Offering up a small prayer he took a four wood 1 and blasted through the top - of the trees to end up on > the sixth fairway level with > Stevenson’s second shot. ! First hole i Stevenson conceded the r hole after chipping well past c the pin, and Dailey was 2 up. Dailey missed an easy putt, - and the seventh was halved, 1 but he won the eighth and s the ninth was shared, foi 1 them to go to the tenth with r Dailey 3 up. s Stevenson won his first hole t of the match when he birdied i the par 4 eleventh, but he couldn’t match Dailey in the 1 next few holes and the match i ended at the fifteenth with t Dailey 4 up. 5 In the quarter-finals Stei venson was taken to the t eighteenth by J. Hagar (Hutt), who missed by just an inch a putt which would have taken the match on to the nineteenth. r Stevenson had been two up ’ after the sixteenth, but Hagar won one hole back. ' Stevenson put the game be- , yond doubt when his chip on ' the eighteenth finished just , under two feet from the hole ; from just off the green. J McDougall was not as im- . pressive as previously when > beating P. A. Shadlock i (Manukau), 4 and 3, but after taking the first two holes the > big Tokoroa man was never , really threatened. , Dailey had too much exi perience for the 19-year-old G. N. Daines (Blenheim) in t their quarter-final.