Dunedin’s K. McDonald takes golf lead

Press, 9 May 1979, Page 42

Dunedin’s K. McDonald takes golf lead

p Wellington The Dunedin left-hander Kim McDonald says Paraparaumu is one of the toughest golf courses he has ever played.

Yesterday, the 26-year-old St Clair golfer fired a superb four under par to lead the 120-strong New Zealand amateur field after the first qualifying round. “It is definitely one of the hardest I have played.” he said. On Monday McDonald won the foursomes title with Otago’s John Sanders. “You neec such a range of shots,” he said. McDonald was top qualifier in the amateur at Bridge Pa last year with a 36 hole total of 144 — the same as his club-mate Geoff Clarke. But he said his effort yesterday was “the best I have ever played.” McDonald, an Otago Freyberg Rose Bowl representative three times, started his round steadily and picked up his first birdie with a 120 cm putt for a three at the sixth. A putt of a similar length at the tenth took him two under and then he slotted yet another birdie putt at the par five twelfth. He hit a nine iron 120 cm away at the short but difficult sixteenth for his fourth birdie and then parted in for his 67. The St Clair man hit the ball straight and long, though he narrowly missed birdies at the second, eleventh and seventeenth.

1 McDonald attributed his 1 fine score to a slight set-up 3 adjustment he made after / Monday’s foursomes. “I r brought the ball back a little in my stance and achieved i consistency with my irons,” ; he said. 1 But even though he was i pleased with his form he i admitted to being a little ’ st rprised at his score. “I tend to be a little erratic ■ and that generally suits : match play,” he said. • One shot behind McDonald ; was the reigning champion . Frank Nobilo (Titirangi) on ■ 68. ■ Nobilo also stormed home in three under 33. The 18- • year-old eagled the par 5 • eighteenth with a putt of ; 10m. after earlier snaffling i birdies at the seventh, i twelfth and fourteenth. His only dropped shots came at i the ninth and thirteenth. > The round was a con--1 fidence booster for the t youngster who had not wanted to play in the event i until two weeks ago. “I had - had enough of golf. I was 1 playing terribly,” he said. • Nobilo captained the New Zealand junior team to Aus»tralia last month. , Play began on time yester--1 day. After heavy rain during , the night the greens and fairways had pools of sur-

face water parly yesterday morning. ' But the tournament committee decided that the weather was going to clear and the first players teed off as planned at 7.45. The weather did clear and from 8. a.m. conditions were pleasant — overcast but fine and calm, with the promise of continuing improvement.

Most of the water disappeared very quickly on the sandy course. It was a disappointing day for the Canterbury golfers reported “The Press” special correspondent. Des Turner was the only player to have a reasonable round and his 73 leaves him in good shape to qualify today. The Canterbury amateur champion, Geoff Saunders did not play as well as usual. He was suffering from food poisoning and played too many loose shots in his 78. Bruce Taylor was quite happy with his performance and his 75 was intermingled with brilliant and loose shots. Murray Brown played steadily, until he reached the par-four thirteenth where he received an unlucky bounce and ended in deep rough to finish with a seven. He then dropped a further five shots over the last five holes to end on 83.

Stephen Street and Brent Paterson both dropped four shots over the last three holes to spoil what otherwise would have been respectable rounds. The surprise player of the Canterbury contingent was Nick Horgan, who had 76, which included four threeputt greens.

It is going to take a lot ofi improvement by some of the Canterbury golfers if the province is to be well represented in the 64 qualifiers for the match-play, ( At the end of the first round, 70 players are on 79 or better, of whom eight are from Canterbury. Scores in the first round: 67— K. McDonald (St Clair). 68— F. Nobilo (Titirangi). 71— G. E. Clarke (St Clair). 72— A. Proctor (Paraparaumu Beach). 73— D. N. Turner (Christchurch), M. T. Davidson (Miramar). 74— J. D. Durry (Paraparaumu Beach), J. H. Lapsley (Winton), R. J. Johnston (St Clair), B. Hall (Remuera), I. A. Peters (Springfield), K. A. Roberts (Shandon). 75— M. Bartlett (Paraparaumu Beach), N. H. Johnson (Whakatane), G. D. White (Wellington), D. Taylor (Russley). 76— A. J. Cawley (Stratford). N. Gaskin (Levin), N. J. Horgan (Harewood), C. H. Lacy (Paraparaumu Beach), R. H. Glading (North Shore). R. H. Bradley (Miramar), J. Smale (Coringa City), M. W. Small (Manor Park), M. McDonald (Manor Park). 77— S. Creighton (Paraparaumu Beach), J. G. Gatley (Lochiel), P. R. Hay-McKenzie (North Shore), A. N. Rowntree, R. Rookes (Foxton), P. D. Street (New Plymouth), G. D. Wallace (Remuera).

78— S. Barron (Paraparaumu Beach), J. R. Billington (Miramar), S. Bittie (Hamilton), T. Scott (Takapau), J. T. Simpson (Hutt), T. Cochrane (Waitemata), G. C. Saunders (Christchurch). 79— C. M. Harper (St Clair), P. K. Keenan (Levin), G. R. Kirk (Carterton), G. Lasker (Lochiel), D. McKenzie (Miramar), M. N. Nicholson (Whakatane), S. W. Street (Harewood), K. Hayden (Paraparaumu Beach), P. Mosley (North Shore), S. Scott (Takapan).

Other Canterbury scores were: 82—P. Magee (Rangiora).

83— M. G. Brown (Christchurch). 84— D. J. Cochrane (Coringa). 85— G. J. Hanna (Burnham), H. J. Henderson (Rangiora). 83—J. R. A. Parlane (Christchurch).