U.S. wins world teams golf

Press, 22 August 1977, Page 32

U.S. wins world teams golf

NZPA-Reuter Gleneagles Brilliant play from Lee Trevino and Jerry Pate took the United States to its first ever victory in the Double diamond world team golf classic yesterday. The United States side beat Australasia, a shock finalist, by 3j-|, in the final with only the captain, Billy Casper, failing to win his match, when he halved with! Simon Owen, of New Zealand. Trevino, the irrepressible former United States and British Open champion, delighted the crowd with his non-stop chatter and pre-

cision golf. He brought the| competition to a superb climax in the final match with the 22-year-old Australian, Greg Norman, who made a fighting come-back after being four holes down at the halfway stage. Trevino hit six birdies in the first seven holes but Norman fired six birdies himself before eventually losing 2 and 1. The Californian scored four wins and a half in his five matches during the competition and finished the week 13 under par. His team-mate, Jerry Pate, did even better, winning all his matches, and finishing

with a comfortable victory over lan Stanley, 4 and 3. The third Australian, Bruce Devlin, lost 5 and 3 to Bob Murphy and it was left to the sole New Zealander playing in the final to stop the Australasian side being beaten 4-0. Simon Owen hit three successive birdies to fight back and halve his match with Casper.

The Americans had already beaten the Rest of the World side by the same margin in the semi-final yesterday morning, but there' was consolation for the! world side, which beat Wales in the play-off to decide third place.

The Rest of the World beat Wales in the match for third place by winning more holes. The series was halved at two games each. U.S. 31, Australasia j Bob Murphy beat Bruce Devlin (Australia), 5 and 3; Billy Casper halved with Simon Owen (New Zealand), Jerry Pate beat lan Stanley (Australia), 4 and 3; Lee Trevino beat Greg Norman (Australia), 2 and 1. Rest of the World 2, Wales 2

Hugh Baiovchi (South 1 Africa) lost to David Caugh, 1-down; Simon Hobday (Rhodesia) lost to David Llewellyn. 2 and 1; Hseih Min Nan (Taiwan) beat Craig de iFoy, 4 and 2; Kazuo Yoshlkawa j (Japan) beat Simon Cox, 7 and 18.