SIX-UNDER 65 IN FINAL ROUND Happy birthday for Dunk—$2000 prize

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33096, 11 December 1972, Page 28

SIX-UNDER 65 IN FINAL ROUND Happy birthday for Dunk—$2000 prize

(New Zealand Preus Association I

WELLINGTON.

The Australian, E. W. Dunk, yesterday had a thirty-fourth birthday he will remember. He went round the Paraparaumu course in a six-under-par 65 to win the $2OOO first prize in the Caltex tournament by three strokes from his countryman, J. Newton, after being two shots behind Newton and J. M. Lister (New Zealand) overnight.

“You do not often hole so many 20-foot putts in a round,” said Dunk, who had won the New Zealand Open on the same course a fortnight ago.

But the most wondrous ! aspect of Dunk’s golf was j his driving, in spite of five 'times holing putts from between 10 and 20 feet. He I missed only three fairways yesterday—the first, sixth and seventeenth —but on two of these holes he carded birdies. “Just before the World Cup, 1 changed the shaft in my driver,” Dunk said. “I put in a stiffer shaft and I think that might be the reason I have been so safe off the tees.

“But, generally, I am hitting the ball now as well as I have ever done.” For the first few holes yes-

terday, it seemed that Newton would bolt away with the tournament. He birdied the first, from 10 feet, the sixth, with a four-footer, and at this stage was three strokes in front of Dunk. Out of contention j Lister, who finished third in the tournament, had a two-over at the first and three-putted the fourth, and K. D. G. Nagle, only a stroke behind overnight, was putting so , badly he had fallen from contention. But then Dunk made his charge. He holed a 20-footer for a birdie on the sixth, sank another long one for a birdie on the eighth, and had further birdies at 10 and 12. Newton’s downfall was the i ninth. He was 20 feet from! the pin here but had to wait! for five minutes while his | partner, Lister, fished for his ball in the creek and then | sought a ruling on where he [ could drop it. Perhaps Newton’s concen-1 ' tration was broken for he three - putted, dropped another stroke on the i eleventh, another on the fifteenth, and needed birdies at 17 and 18 for his round of 70.

“Had to win"'’ Even so, this might have been good enough had Dunk not holed 15 footers for birdies on 14 and 15. “When that putt went in on 14 it was going pretty fast,” Dunk said. “I thought then that if things like that happen you have to win or you’ll never win a golf tournament.”.

On the sixteenth, the short hole that he had not hit before in the tournament, Dunk drew huge cheers from the crowd for being on in one. He was unlucky to take a one-over five at the seventeenth, but he attacked the eighteenth with all four shots, holing the last from six feet.

His four-round score of 273 equalled the aggregate of R. J. Charles in the 1966 New .Zealand Open at Paraparaumu. Faulty start Lister fought on commendably to finish third after his disastrous start, which included a* fluffed chip, two missed putts from under a yard, and a snap hook into the trees. But he birdied both the fifth and eleventh—from itwo feet, and he managed his [birdie on the eighteenth !which took him clear of D. ipiark. [ Clark again demonstrated his-skiHs, finishing With a 72 iin fourth place. He had 15 pars in his round and has

now won nearly $2OOO on the circuit—a fair bonus for a club professional. However, he has no thoughts of playing other circuits. In fifth place was Nagle and he, for the most part, play golf normally foreign to him. He drove into the rough, missed short putts—one from 18 inches on the sixth green—and hit a small number of greens in regulation figures. ,

Charles had his best round of the tournament, a 69.