N.Z. lies fifth in world cup

Press, 15 October 1976, Page 24

N.Z. lies fifth in world cup

By DAVID BARBER, NZPA staff correspondent PENINA

With big-hitting Ted McDougall (Tokoroa) his consistent self, Geoff Clarke (Otago i back in form, and the two young newcomers showing great promise. New Zealand will go into the second round of the world amateur golf team championship m Penina, Portugal, in good heart.

“A joint fifth placing, five strokes behind the leaders, after one round is not a bad position to be in,” the team manager (Mr John Slade) said after the first round. “I’m very happy, and we are right up there with a great chance.”

A lot can happen in three more rounds on the beautiful, but devastatingly testing. Penina course in the southern Algarve region of Portugal. A lot of experienced players came to grief in the opening round, on Tuesday, but the New Zealanders handled the conditions well and returned scores of remarkable consistency.

McDougall and Clarke, apparently recovered from the throat ailment that cost him his great form in practice rounds, turned in one-over-par 745. Both the youngsters, Peter Burney, aged 26, of Manukau, and Alex Bennington, aged 22, of Wellsford, carded respectable 765. With each nation’s three best scores making up the aggregate, this left New Zealand with 224 on the scoreboard at the end of the day

— the same as the team from the United States, which has won six of the nine tournaments for the

Eisenhower Trophy, including the last four.

Ahead of them were the joint Great Britain and Ireland team and South Africa (219) and Rhodesia and Sweden (223). A total of 38 four-man teams are competing in the four-round tournament which will end tomorrow.

For New Zealand, there were several encouraging features of the first-round play which augur well for their bid to erase the memory of the fifteenth placing in the last Eisenhower Tro-

phy, in the Dominican Republic in 1974, and get back into the top league of world amateur golf.

McDougall—playing in his seventh Eisenhower—showed that he is well capable of carving strokes off the course amateur record, reduced by one shot to 71 by the South African, Davied Suddards, and Teddy Webber, of Rhodesia.

Clarke, who has had a fabulous season winning 16 of 17 matches in New Zealand, has recovered from his throat problem and regained the strength that had left him since arriving in Portugal. “I was very happy with my. game,” he said. “I played steadily and drove very well.” He also showed that he has not lost the putting touch that has helped him to so many wins this year. But equally important for this tournament —and perhaps more so for the future of New Zealand golf—was the showing of Burney and Bennington. Burney has also been out of touch since arriving in Portugal and it looked as though it was going to stay that way when he covered his first nine in a five-over-par 43—a triple bogey on a short three-par hole rubbing in the misery. *‘l could have cried,” he said. But he came right on his run home, two birdies giving him a second half two-under. “I was hitting the ball as well as I have ever been,” he said.

Bonnington was very unhappy with his game and particularly angry at a putt of a third of a metre he missed on his seventeenth. A sliced drive off the last tee giving him an awkward lie under a tree and failure to get his second shot on the green led to another bogey on the eighteenth. But for these mistakes, he could well have paired the last two holes and finished with the 74 of his two much more experienced colleagues. The position will be so much clearer after the second round, but the first round proved that as in all Eisenhower tournaments anything can happen, and this lush Penina course, with its huge greens, is a great leveller. Collated scores (best three In-

dividual scores in each round count in teams of four):

Britain and Ireland (M. Kelly 72, I. Hutcheon 73, J. Davies 74, S. Martin 75), 219; South Africa (D. Suddards 71, G. Levenson 73, R. Stewart 75 P. Todt 77), 219; Sweden (H. Hedierson 73, J. Rube 75, G. Lundqvist 75, M. Sorting 79). 223; Rhodesia (T. Weber 71, N. Price 73, G. Harvey 79, A. Johnstone 80), 223; New Zealand (G. Clarke 74, E. McDougall 74. A. Bonnington 76, P. Burney 76), 224; United States (J. Fought 72, F. Ridley 74. B. Sander 78, R. Siderowf 78), 224; Switzerland (M. Rey 73. T. Fortmann 74. Y. Hofstetter 79, J. Storjohann 84), 226.