Weibring wins by a stroke

Press, 2 December 1985, Page 60

Weibring wins by a stroke

From

BOB SCHUMACHER

, at Titirangi For the four days of the Air New Zealand Shell Open golf tournament, D. A. Weibring took great delight in holing putts from all corners of the greens to demonstrate the effectiveness of his bizarre putter to the disbelievers.

“It is not just the all-time gimmick. I wouldn’t do something because someone says to do it. I’ll always test it out first,” he said earlier this week. In the final round of the tournament at Titirangi yesterday, the cheerful American had almost 10,000 people, many now converts, watching him as he lined up a match-winning birdie putt of a little more than Im at the final hole. Those who had seen Weibring, aged 32, in such devastating form with the 6 utter, one with three golf alls set in a straight line behind a small blade, in earlier rounds, had no doubts as to the outcome.

Weibring confidently holed the little borrowing putt to win the tournament with a record 72-hole score of 262, 16-under par.

It was the first victory in the event by an American since Bill Brask won the inaugural tournament in 1975. Weibring had to finish in the most spectacular style, birdie, birdie, to achieve it, for the Australian, Rodger Davis, was only one stroke behind at the finish.

The pair had used Saturday’s third round to establish a useful lead on the field, and engaged in a cut and thrust duel yesterday down to the last putt.. Davis scored four birdies from the twelfth to the sixteenth holes to go from two behind to two ahead, only to be cut down by Weibring’s brace of birdies at the last two holes.

Third equal in the tournanent were the 1978 winner, Bob Charles, easily New Zealand’s best performer, and the 1983 New Zealand Open title-holder, lan Baker-Finch, of Australia.

They were six shots behind Weibring and one stroke ahead of Terry Gale, the West Australian who won the event three years ago. In spite of suffering pain from a recurring injury to his left wrist, Weibring had the best round of 66 on Saturday to lead Davis by two strokes after 54 holes. “Thank God the hand felt better today,” Weibring said after his round. “I felt I had things under control, although I was a bit frustrated when I noticed I was one behind after 15. “I came here to win all week and I’m proud that I didn’t panic. In fact I got stronger.

“A month ago I won the Golf Digest-Polaroid Cup in Japan when, after being tied after 16,1 birdied 17 and 18. So perhaps it was a case of deja vu.” Although Charles, with an eagle at the sixth and an 8m birdie putt at the ninth, had the best front half of the leading division, a threeunder 32, he had gained only one stroke on Weibring and Davis, both of whom had two bridies in their 335.

Three putts at the tenth stifled Charles’ bid, and Weibring playing in the last group one behind Davis, stayed two ahead of his Australian rival when both birdied the twelfth. Davis rammed home a 5m putt on that hole and that really inspired him to play great golf over the next four holes.

He birdied 13 from Bm, 15 from 5m and 16 from Bm.

Meanwhile, Weibring had a one-over at 13 and three straight pars to slip two behind.

At 14, Weibring had a stoke of luck, he hooked his tee shot at the par-three and was heading for an unfavourable position wide of the green when his ball struck the foot of a spectator and rebounded on to the green. He made a safe par from 4m.

A three-shot swing over the last two holes was inconceivable the way Davis was going, but it happened. At 17, Davis had to wait on the tee for about five minutes. Then he tried to play a little fade, but caught it on the toe of the club and hit the ball into trees.

He dropped a shot when he missed a 2m putt and he was in trouble again from the tee at 18. Twice he walked away, disturbed by the click of a photographers’ camera, but he heard it again as he finally swing and the ball was pulled left again. Davis did remarkably well to get his par on the hole after almost going out of bounds with his second. He chipped to within 2m, and read the little break perfectly. That putt, Davis thought, would probably be good enough for the title or at least a play-off. But Weibring’s will to win shone through. He controlled a low, running No. 4 iron approach for 200 m and holed a 2.5 m putt for a birdie at 17 to make a win possible for him at the last. After his drive he walked

almost to the green, satisfied himself of Davis’ score and what he needed for the win, then hit “a finesse wedge” to within 1.5 m of the cup. Out came the weird and wonderful putter, and down went the winner putt, worth $25,200 to Weibring. The genial Illinois-born professional was having his second success from three tournament and only the third of his career.

“That makes it two out of three for the putter, and vindicates my faith in it,” said Weibring.

Scores after the final round:— 264: D. A. Weibring (USA) 64, 67, 66, 67, ($25,200). 265: Rodger Davis (Aust.) 67, 63, 69, 66, ($15,120). ' ' 270: Bob Charles (NZ) 63, 67, 72, 68; lan Baker-Finch (Aust.) 63, 68, 71, 68, ($8316). 271: Terry Gale (Aust.) 67, 68, 67, 69, ($5824). 274: Jeff Senior (Aust.) 67, 72, 69, 66, (5348). 275: Peter Fowler (Aust.) 66, 70, 72, 67; Greg Alexander (Aiist.) 68, 67, 70, 70, ($4480). 276: Gerrard Taylor (Aust.) 72, 69, 67, 68; Stewart Ginn (Aust.) 71, 67, 69, 69; Mike Colandro (US) 69, 66, 72, 69; Roger Stephens (Aust.), 67, 69, 69, 71, ($3115). 278: P. Hamblett (NZ) 69, 70, 70, 69; R Vershure (US) 69, 67, 71, 71. 279: V. Somers (Aust.) 69, 71, 69, 70. 280: Jr Price (Aust.) 69, 71, 69, 71. . 281: M. Ferguson (Aust.) 71, 69, 72, 69; N. Ratcliffe (Aust.) 66, 72, 74, 69; T. Power (Aust.) 66, 70, 70, 75.

282: M. Loughland (Aust.) 69, 73, 72, 68; I. Stanley (Aust.) 68, 70, 74, 70; L. Canning (Aust.) 71, 74, 68, 69; M. Bembridge (UK) 70, 69, 72, 71; T. Elliot (Aust.) 65, 77, 70, 70. 283: S. Owen (NZ) 68, 70, 76, 69; S. Reese (NZ) 70, 69, 74, 70; K Murphy (Aust.) 76, 70, 67, 70; M. Clayton (Aust.) 69, 70, 70, 74. 284: L. Tinkler (Aust.) 67, 71, 71, 75. 285: P. Jones (Aust.) 68, 74, 72, 71; J Clifford (Aust.) 74, 66, 72, 73. 286: A. North (US) 71, 73, 72, 70; A. Gilligan (Aust.) 69, 73, 72, 72; B. Officer (Aust.) 72, 69, 70, 75, 287:1. Roberts (Aust.) 69, 71, 78, 69; W. Riley (Aust.) 75, 71, 70, 71; D. Hunter (Aust.) 70, 69, 77, 71; P. Fisher (NZ) 70, 73, 71, 73; J. Lister (NZ) 74, 66, 73, 74. 288: O. Moore (Aust.) 67, 71, 79, 71; C. Johnsen (US) 71, 73, 72, 72; T. Jansson (Sweden) 74, 70, 72, 72; C. Henderson (Aust.) 68, 71, 71, 78. . 289: M. Cahill (Aust.) 74, 69, 75, 71; P. Somers (Aust.) 74, 69, 74, 72; K. Nagle (Aust.) 73, 71, 70, 75. 291: G. Smart (NZ) 74, 71, 73, 73, 292: G. Grut (NZ) 74, 72, 76, 70. 293: K. Murray (Aust.) 72, 72, 75, 74; W. Davies (NZ) 71, 69, 81, 72; L. Woodward (Aust.) 70, 74, 74, 75; B. Vivian (NZ) 70, 75, 73, 75. 294: A. Bennington (NZ) 73, 72, 74, 75; A. Kumar (Fiji) 68, 77, 72, 77; W. Dodd (Aust.) 67, 74, 76, 77. 295: L. Stephen (Aust.) 71, 72, 79, 73. 297: P. Powell (NZ) 70, 75, 74, 78; T. C. Kendall (NZ) 73, 72, 76, 76; J. Deep (Aust.) 68, 78, 77, 74; T. McDonald (Aust.) 71, 74, 74, 78. Picture, page 3