Young Nelson golfer in stunning upset

Press, 23 September 1980, Page 30

Young Nelson golfer in stunning upset

PA Wanganui Miss Debbie Randell, aged 17, of Nelson, was the talk of the Belmont course yesterday after she sensationally eliminated a former international player Miss Cherry Kingham, from the New Zealand women’s match-play golf championship at Wanganui. Miss Kingham, of Auckland, flirted with danger all day before falling to the blonde teenager as the game went to the twentieth green. The championship field in the Bell Tea-sponsored event was whittled down to an elite group of quarter-final-ists. Even though the weather was again against them -— a gusting north-westerly in the morning and rain in the afternoon — the real form players maintained concentration through a gruelling fifth day to give promise of

enthralling battles again today. „ In addition to Miss Randell, the. three members of the national team to complete in the World Espirito Santo teams tournament in the United States next week, Mrs Liz Douglas, Mrs Brenda Rhodes and Miss Jan Scandrett,. won their two matches along with Mrs Sue Bunt, Mrs Jocelyn Glanfield, Mrs Alison Hasey and Miss Natalie White. Miss Kingham has played in Wanganui amid speculation on the selectors’ wisdom in omitting her for the American trip. In the morning, she had fellow Aucklander Miss Karrin Young three down with just five holes to play, but the Manukau player won three of the next four holes and halved the eighteenth to push Miss Kingham into extra play.- Finally, Mrs

Kingham sunk a nine-foot putt to win on the twentieth.-

Miss Kingham again was 5-up after seven holes in her afternoon match against Miss Randell, but the current national junior champion cut back the deficit to three by the half-way mark and then won the eleventh and twelfth to be just two behind. Taking the fourteenth in par, Miss Randell holed out a superb bunker shot on the fifteenth for a wining par three. The Nelson girl surged ahead on the sixteenth, but lost the eighteenth with a double bogey six, and, still locked together after pars on the nineteenth, Miss Randell played the twentieth to perfection in par four.' Miss Randell faces a tough assignment this morning in meeting Mrs Douglas,

the Southland housewife whose last national matchplay victory was during her “grand slam” year in 1976. Yesterday Mrs Douglas was one up at the turn, all square on the tenth, and battled out three straight par holes with Wellington’s Miss - Cathy Ramm. between the eleventh and thirteenth before powering ahead. A birdie on the fourteenth lifted Mrs Douglas and she finally beat Ramm 3 and 2 after two more .pars. Another Wellington golfer, Mrs Daisy Seiringer, pushed the experienced Mrs Douglas in the afternoon. Mrs Douglas was three up after 10 holes before Mrs Seiringer made a magnificent comeback, scoring birdies on three of the next four holes to square. However, the international’s experience finally had its reward- An eight foot

putt for a winning par on the sixteenth was followed by. a series of disasters' on the seventeenth before another single putt green gave Mrs Douglas .success at 2 and 1. The 22-year-old Te Puke woman, Mrs Brenda Rhodes crushed the former national champion, Vai Cullen of Russley.in the morning by 8 and 7, finishing on the eleventh in four-under-par figures. She disposed of another Auckland player, Miss Pauline Meyer, in the. afternoon, 4 and 3. Two up after threeholes, she hit the next five greens in regulation figures but, as she remarked, "the birdie putts just wouldn’t fall.” Moving to four up on the eleventh, Mrs Rhodes hit over the twelfth green and lost her ball. She went four up on the fourteenth and

sealed the game with halved par on the fifteenth. Miss Scandrett, the third member of the current’ national team, showed vastly improved form to first , down Rangitikei’s Miss Claire Stewart 3 and 2 and then Mrs Evonne Allen (Springfield) 2 and 1. All square to the seventh, the University of Otago student made her decisive break by winning the eighth and ninth and extended her lead on the eleventh. The pair shared the next two holes before Miss Scandrett lost the sixteenth and halved the seventeenth win. Today’s draw is: Mrs Douglas v. Miss Randell; Mrs Bunt v. Miss Scandrett; Mrs Rhodes v. Miss White; and Mrs Glanfield v. Mrs Hasey, .