CALTEX GOLF Lead shared by two on 68

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33094, 8 December 1972, Page 24

CALTEX GOLF Lead shared by two on 68

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON.

Two Australians, A. Snape, who is now based at Auckland, and J. Newton, set the pace in the first round of the Caltex $lO,OOO golf tournament at Paraparaumu yesterday.

Both on 68. they were one stroke ahead of K. D. G. Nagle (Australia) and S. Owen (New Zealand). R. J. Charles, after dropping three strokes at a short hole, had a 72, J. M. Lister, troubled by the greens, scored a 73, and another pretournament favourite, M. Bembridge (England), was on 75. Snape was two-over-par after four holes, but he sank 2ft birdie putts at 5 and 6 and did the first nine in par. RUN OF BIRDIES A 3ft putt on 10 put him one under, he had another birdie on the eleventh from 6ft, holed a 30-footer for a four on the long twelfth, and sank one from a similar length on the sixteenth. At the last, his chip for an eagle three hit the pin and stopped two inches from the hole. Newton’s round was more orthodox. He was out in 34, with birdies on 1 and 6 and a one-over on 8, but he managed more birdies on 11, 12 and 18, and dropped only one more stroke, at the difficult thirteenth. OWEN OUT IN 31

Nagle had four birdies in his 69, and Owen, at one stage, was heading for a course record. He holed a huge putt on the third, a 12footer on the fifth, drove the green on the sixth, and with a birdie on the seventh, after a superb wedge, turned in 31. At the eleventh he was lucky not to drop a stroke for his ball moved just as he lined up a putt; fortunately for him he had not grounded his club. He hooked his approach on the thirteenth and was bunkered on the next, but steadied and finished with pars for his 69. Unhappy with the greens were Lister and Bembridge. Lister had one-overs at the last three holes and estimated that he had hit only three bad shots; Bembridge scored

only one birdie, at the first hole, and described his 75 as a “very good 75, really.” FOUR TO GREEN Charles’s big trouble came at the 140-yard sixteenth. He missed the green with a wedge, used this club three more times before he reached it, and then two-putted for a three-over six. The top amateur is the Otaki player, J. Aldridge, who had six birdies in his round of 72, and led the young Hutt player, P. Mahoney, by one stroke. Leading scores: 68— J, Newton (Australia!, A. Snape (New Zealand). 69— K. D G. Nagle (Australia), S. Owen (New Zealand). 71— T. Kelso (New Zealand), E. W. Dunk (Australia), D. Clark (New Zealand). 72— *J. Aldridge (Otaki), D. J. Good (Australia), G. HoUoman (United States), R. Vines (Australia), R. J. Charles (New Zealand), S. P. Ginn (Australia) 73— B. J. Burgess (Australia), J. Kelly (Australia). D. Maggs (Australia), *P. Mahoney (Hutt), R. Mangelsdorf (Australia), R. A. Shearer (Australia), I N. Stanley (Australia), G. Wolstenholme (Australia), W. J. Godfrey (New Zealand), Lim Bobby Yat Foong (Malaysia), J. M. Lister (New Zealand), S. Peach (Australia). 74— P. Firmstone (Australia), G. Keats (New Zealand), A. J. Palmer (New Zealand), B. Vivian (New Zealand), *M. J. Webber (Paraparaumu), L. Brown (New Zealand), *B. Webster (Otaki), T. J. Woolbank (Australia). 75— P. Connell (Australia), R. M. Farrant (New Zealand), B. W. Jones (Australia), T. C. Kendall (New Zealand), ’W. Poka (Talhape), M. Bembridge (England), V. Bennetts (Australia), *J. M. Lacy (Paraparaumu), F. Phillips (Australia), D. J. Sullivan (New Zealand). (• denotes amateurs).