Lapsley stars

Press, 25 February 1983, Page 34

Lapsley stars

PA Wellington ‘ The "new boy,” Jim Laps- | ley, played like a seasoned I golf international at Here- ‘ taunga yesterday as he helped New Zealand beat j Japan in the Air New Zea- I land amateur golf inter- ■ national. After taking a 10-shot lead in the first 36 holes at Dunedin’s St Clair course on Tuesday, the New Zealanders i kept the pressure on yesterday and by the final hole had ’ increased the margin to 28 . strokes. It was a fine team effort ( from the New Zealanders ! with Michael Barltrop, Neil : Gaskin, Kim McDonald and I Lapsley all playing their ! part, but it was Lapsley who took the eye yesterday with a two-under par 70 in the morning round. In the afternoon he returned 75 after a bad patch on the back nine when he dropped four shots in as many holes. the 29-year-old Rangiora farmer put the ball out of bounds at the fourteenth, three-putted on the fifteenth green, found the trees on the sixteenth and landed in a bunker while playing the seventeenth. Lapsley kept his cool, however, to par the final hole which gave hiim a 72-hole 1 agregate of 291, the best of the eight players taking part. The gusty wind made j things difficult and Gaskin in particular didn’t perform as well as he had at St Clair, where he finished four shots better than any other player. Gaskin shot a 75 in the morning and followed it up with his worst round when he carded 77, including three < double boygeys. Starting well enough with j ] a birdie on the first hole, i Gaskin parred the second < before three-putting for a < double bogey on the next i hole. A double-bogey at the 1 seventh saw him turn for i home three-over par and on 1 the inward nine he dropped two shots at the twelfth and one at the fifteenth while the only birdie he picked up was ( the 428 m fourteenth. I Scores yesterday (best three f scores counting for team aggre- E gate on each round) were.— New Zealand: M. Barltrop 73, 75; N. Gaskin 75, 77; J. Lapsley 70, 75; K. McDonald 77, 73. Japan: S. Higashi 80, 79; K. Oie F 75, 77; T. Sakata 74, 81; H. Tominaga 79, 75. i Final aggregates: New Zea- I land, 870, beat Japan, 898, by 28 | strokes. i