West Coast golfer in N.Z. semi-final

Press, 19 April 1986, Page 80

West Coast golfer in N.Z. semi-final

By

BOB SCHUMACHER,

in Wellington

Michael Thompson could be excused if he got his crotchets and quavers mixed up while taking music classes at Westland High School yesterday afternoon.

His thoughts were probably drifting to the Hutt Golf Club where his son, Stuart, was endeavouring to keep South Island hopes alive in the quarterfinals of the New Zealand match-play championship. Thompson junior was equal to the task, beating the Australian, Brad Lincoln, at the sixteenth, a whole he he considers the ideal finishing hole. His three matches have ended there. In the semi-finals over 36 holes today, Thompson will meet another Australian, Peter O’Malley. The other semi-final will involve a player from each country, Terry Cochrane, of Auckland, and the Queenslander, Steve Taylor. Calls of encouragement came from the Tasman area after Thompson’s morning win against the Auckland Government Life representative, Greg Dyer, and he would undoubtedly have received many more last evening as news of the 19-year-old’s progress reached the West Coast. Thompson’s formula for success has been his accelerated starts. He has been 2 up or 3 up inside five holes and has played so consistently from that point that it has needed his opponents to produce the spectacular. Nobody has managed it to date. “I’m just keeping it steady, making a few putts,” said Thompson, who admits to enjoying the challenge of playing and beating Australians.

Lincoln was his second Australian victim after he eliminated the runner-up in the stroke championship, Jon Evans, in the first round. The care-free, sometimes vocal Thompson had Lincoln silent and subdued after five holes. Thompson, 3 up at that point, lost six and seven, but was 2 up at the turn, matched pars with Lincoln for the next five holes and had the match in safe-keeping when his opponents, resigned to his fate, three-putted the fifteenth. O’Malley won his quarter final of the Nation-wide-sponsored tournament the hard way. The unheralded Ron Olivecrona, the No. 1 at the Hutt club, was ahead for most of their match. He was 1 up after 13 and O’Malley did remarkably well to hole pressure putts from 3m and 5m at the next two holes for halves. At 16, O’Malley slotted a 4m birdie putt; Olivecrona folded badly and conceded his opponents birdie putts at 17 and 18. O’Malley, aged 20, was runner-up in the Austra-

lian amateur championship last year. Taylor was the most impressive of the four to have qualified for the semi-finals. He beat the New Zealand representative, Owen Kendall, at the sixteenth and putted extremely well. He had five birdies, including three in a row, from the eleventh to the thirteenth. Cochrane, the 1981 national champion.

needed an extra hole to beat Paul Devenport, the Wellington No. 1. Devenport, 2 down at the turn, had levelled the game with a birdie at 16, but he bowed out in an anticlimactic manner. He three-putted the nineteenth, missing his second from a half-metre when the ball firmly struck the back of the cup and popped out. The beautiful Wellington morning brought anything but good news for club officials, and, later, for Canterbury players.

Vandals violated the course overnight, and greens at the second, third and thirteenth holes were damaged; tee markers being uplifted and used to gouge out the holes. Strips of turf were taken from the practice green and transplanted on the affected holes. Play was delayed for only 15 minutes.

Canterbury’s interest in the main championship disappeared when Brent Paterson, despite a late rally, succumbed to Cochrane at the seventeenth, and Mark Street picked the wrong time to hit a loose wedge shot off the tea at the eighteenth. Street had an absorbing match against his opponent, Lincoln. They had drawn their contest in the Clare Higson international last week and little separated them once again. Street chipped in at the sixth for a 1-up lead which he held to the eleventh.

At 10, he missed a birdie putt from Im and,

as the game transpired, that was a vital mistake. Lincoln won 11, and had tap-in birdies at the next two holes to be 2 up. Street replied with a 4m birdie putt at 14, a threeputt stopped him winning 15, but he squared the match in strange circumstances at 17. His drive hooked into trees but bounced back into the fairway, still a long way behind Lincoln’s drive and 210 m from the green. However, he hit a superb long iron to the green, Lincoln overshot his pitch and they were even playing the last. There Street was astray, missing the green at the par-three hole. Lincoln was on the mark, stopping 1.5 m from the hole and having his putt conceded when Street missed his par.

Results.— New Zealand championship second round: P. Devenport (Paraparaumu Beach) beat E. Boult (Marlborough) 4 and 2; T. Cochrane (North Shore) beat B. Paterson (Coringa) 2 and 1, S. Taylor (Australia) beat G. Power (Australia) 2 and 1, 0. Kendall (Mount Maunganui) beat S. Morshuis (Taieri) 4 and 3, R. Olivecrona (Hutt) beat P. Aickin (Whitford Park) 1 up, P. O’Malley (Australia) beat K. McDonald (St Clair) 3 and 2, B. Lincoln (Australia) beat M. Street (Harewood) 1 up, S. Thompson (Hokitika) beat G. Dyer (Maungakiekie) 3 and 2.

Third round: Cochrane beat Devenport at 19th, Taylor beat Kendell 3 and 2, O’Malley beat Olivecrona 2 up, Thompson beat Lincoln 3 and 2.