MARSH, THOMSON, BEMBRIDGE SET PACE Three share Open lead; Charles one behind

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32775, 27 November 1971, Page 46

MARSH, THOMSON, BEMBRIDGE SET PACE Three share Open lead; Charles one behind

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN.

If omens mean anything, the Australian professional, G. V. Marsh, should win the fifty-fifth New Zealand Open golf championship when the final two rounds are played this week-end.

Just as he was finishing his second round of 68 yesterday to join the leaders, he was framed in a perfect rainbow that spanned the Balmacewen course.

The pot of gold in this* case is the winner’s prize of $3OOO, and challenging: Marsh for it at the halfway stage are two other] players on five-under-par 137: P. W. Thomson: (Australia), who had a: 66 yesterday, and M. Bembridge (Britain), 67.

Only one stroke behind these three is R. J. Charles, whose 68 yesterday gave him a 36-hole total of 138. J. Newton (Australia), is on 139, and one stroke further back are the overnight leaders, B. J. Hodson, G. B. Wolstenholme and J. M. Lister. Marsh neglected For a man of his past re-i cord. Marsh was strangely’ neglected by the spectators.; He had won the Earl Jellicoe Cup with the lowest! round of 64 in the 1969 Open i and shared it again with Charles and G. B. Wolstenholme last year. His golf was not spectacular, but he gradually gained three more strokes, lost one at the fourteenth, and then recovered it again. Any doubts that Thomson would not be a leading contender were removed by his round yesterday. Beginning

rail square with the card, he Shad birdies on the second and third, and another on the sixth before surprisingly dropping one on the par-4 eighth. Thereafter he stayed 2 under for the next five holes, before earning another birdie at the fourteenth. Then, on the sixteenth, which has caused much pain and anguish to golfers in this tournament, he scored his second eagle in two days.

Change of wind His drive on the 298-yard hole finished within 4ft of the pin and he duly sank the putt The drive was partly the result of a change of wind from nori-west to norieast, and some measure of this was seen at the seventeenth. After driving past the pin the first day, Thomson was 30 yards short of the green yesterday.

A big crowd at the eighteenth watched Thomson finish a fine round after his second had been skied inches past the bunker and on to the green. Bembridge, the blonde, stocky British Ryder Cup player, impressed by his powerful driving. He played steadily over the first nine, getting a birdie 3, and then four more birdies on the second nine, dropping only one stroke.

Dissatisfied with his putting for a one-under 70 on the first day, Bembridge had two inches taken off the handle of his putter, and the benefit showed on the greens yesterday. After picking up strokes on the early holes, Charles had

a chance to share the lead when he holed a beautiful curling putt on Tipperary for a birdie 4, to go 5 under. At the next hole, however he caught his tee shot on the heel of his driver and the ball went into the trees, finishing in a coil of hose. After dropping out for a penalty, he placed a fine iron to the green and holed his putt. Hodson, after a 67 in the first round, played patchy golf yesterday. He went from 5 under to 7 under after the first five holes, and stayed that way until the ninth, when a bad lie and a bad putt cost him two strokes.

He dropped another at the thirteenth, his putt lipping the cup, and then two more, at the fifteenth and seventeenth. But he ended the round with a fine chip on the eighteenth for a 73.

Putts stayed out

Lister, like Bembridge, was another who impressed with his driving and he was regularly putting for birdies. But few of his putts went down, and he finished 2 under for the day. One of Otago’s brightest hopes, A. J. Palmer, looked to be well placed when he went out on 69, but his position was much worse after two hooked drives on the first three holes. He took a 2-over 7 on the first, then was under the trees on the third for another 2-over. Afterwards, he played steadier golf, but finished on a 75.

K. D. G. Nagle’s chances of winning his eighth New

Zealand Open faded sharply on one of the shortest holes of the course. He had looked sound enough earlier on, although he missed a six-footer for his birdie at the sixth. At the 177-yard twelfth, his tee-shot hit the branch of a pine and kicked back down the hill; his second went over the green; he chipped back to the edge; and then took three more from there for a 6. That was enough to remove his name from the leading scorers. Leading amateur The American amateur, R. Manwell, built a steady twounder 69 to add to his earlier 72, and leads the amateurs. The player who had held this position after the first day, B. Webster (Otaki), had a disastrous 81, which included 40 putts. G. E. Clarke had his second 71 and F. Whitaker his second 72.

Two players have withdrawn. S. McHardy became indisposed on the first day and picked up half-way through the second nine, and B. C. Rafferty, who had a 77 with a dislocated thumb on the first day, did not play yesterday.