Australia wins golf

Press, 13 December 1977, Page 44

Australia wins golf

PA Wanganui, Two magnificent putts on thv sixteenth and seven- | teenth greens by the veteran) Australian Kel Nagle lifted; Australia to a one-up victory i in a Tasman golf “test” against the New Zealanders) Bob Charles and Simon Owen i at Castlecliff golf course, in Wanganui yesterday. Displaying the coolness i under pressure which has made him such a popular! figure on the New' Zealand) golf scene for over 20 years.) Nagle snatched the match) from under the nose of the) Kiwi duo. With Peter Thomson not) reading the greens well.) Nagle grabbed the limelight) by running in 8m putts on the two vital holes to give) Australia a narrow’ win in) the Air New Zealandsponsored match. However, on gross scoring!

the Australians had to play second fiddle to their opponents. Nagle manage only a one-over 73 and Thomson a 74, with Ow'en, playing the course he walked often in the years prior to his turning professional, finishing w’ith a three-under-69 and the left-handed Charles in an even-par 72. The 69 w 7 as a welcome return to form for Owen, who had a nightmare tournament at Middlemore at the weekend in his defence of the New Zealand open title he won at Heretaunga a year earlier. Ow’en. who is off to Fiji for two further Air New Zealand matches next weekend. was most critical of the Middlemore layout, terming it a “trick” course with ridiculously narrow fairways and badly positioned rough areas. Overseas golfers took the bulk of the money from New Zealand’s pre-Christmas pro-

fessional golf circuit, the Press Asoociation reports from Auckland. The leading 20 moneywinners in the three New Zealand tournaments. — D. Good (Aust.) $16,963; B. Byman (U.S.) $15,907.50; B. Dunk (Aust.) $9000; T. Gale (Aust.) $7985; S. Ballesteros (Spain) $7700; M. Krantz (U.S.) $5435; R. Davis (Aust.) $4800; G. Marsh (Aust.), G. Norman (Aust.), Bob Shearer (Aust.) $3787.50 each; T. Ball (Aust.) $3508; K. Cox (U.S.) $3015; S. Ginn (Aust.) $2835; S. Owen (N.Z.) $2582.50; P. Headland (Aust.) $2485; G. Wolstenholme (Aust.) $2467.50; T. McDonald (Aust.), B. Burgess (Aust.) $2250 each; J. Clifford (Aust.) $2120; N. Ratcliffe (Aust.) $1976.50. Others.—R. J. Charles (N.Z.) $1900; J. Lister (N.Z.) $1860; K. Nagle (Aust.) $1540.60; P. Thomson (Aust.) $775.