Snappy shot required

Press, 28 October 1977, Page 24

Snappy shot required

NZPA-Reuter Victoria Falls The British golfer Noel Hunt yesterday won the accolade of the bravest piayer in the $54,000 Victoria Falls classic when he played the quickest wedge shot of his career—a few metres in front of the jaws of a crocodile. Hunt, whose 71 left him three shots behind the first round leader, Hugh Baiocchi, of South Africa, drove into a pond at the 175 m eighth on the Elephant Hill, course, a favourite grazing ground for wild game roaming the banks of the Zambesi River. In the pond was a sleeping crocodile.

Hunt took off his shoes and socks and sent his British partner, Warren Humphries, to guard his rear with an eight iron.

“Then 1 blasted the sand wedge very quickly and got out of the water equally quickly,” said Hunt. Hunt’s wedge shot landed on the green and he two-putted for a four. He finished his round two under par to be among the leaders after the first day of the 72-hole tournament, which has attracted golfers from 33 countries.

Baiocchi fired a 68 over the testing 7191 m par 73 course to lead the Scotsman Sam Torrance by one stroke.

“I’m very happy, I played well,” said Torrance. “This course is one of the hardest I’ve played. The wild game don’t help—l encountered baboons at one hole, warthogs at another and heard a rhino only a short way away in the rough.” But many of the wild animals have been frightened away by the Rhodesian Army',' who have mounted an intensive security operation to guard the golfers against any possible black nationalist guerrilla attack. Gary Player (S.A.) was among four on 70. Bob Charles (N.Z.) and Tony Jacklin (U.K.) both shot 735.