Turner eyes Open

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 31

Turner eyes Open

By

ROBIN CHARTERIS

in London

The promising young New Zealand professional, Greg Turner, already with a lucrative start to the 1986 European golf circuit, hopes to compete in his first British Open next week. Turner, aged 23, will be one of 148 players seeking just 15 Open places from a 36-hole qualifying event at Prestwick's St Nicholas course on Sunday and Monday. Other events are being 'held on a further three Scottish courses to fill the regaining 45 qualifying places for the Open, which will begin on July 17 at Turnberry.

* Two more New Zealanders, 'Frank Nobilo and Stuart Reese, are also in the qualify- ■ ing events. Bob Charles, as a former Open champion, is an automatic entrant. Turner, after successes on the South-east Asian circuit earlier this year, where he won the Singapore Open and • was fourth in the Hong Kong Open and eighth in the

-Malaysian Open, has already won more than £ll,OOO ($31,500) in Europe.

He finished seventh in the Irish Open, eleventh in the British P.G.A. and seventeenth in the Spanish Open. Turner was tied for the lead in the British P.G.A. after a second-round 68.

Although he has scored well in most events, Turner is not yet happy with his game.

"I've had a couple of good finishes, but really I'm just grinding it out. What I’ve been trying to do lately is make some simple swing changes to improve my consistency and reduce the margin of error,” he said on his return this week from the Peugeot French Open in Versailles.

"The changes haven’t helped my recent scores, but I feel fairly close to getting things right now.” Although his latest tournaments, the Monte Carlo and French opens, added little to his earnings, his winnings so far this season are “ahead of

costs.” Turner missed the cut at the French Open after rounds of 71 and 76.

The courses he had played on, apart from Monte Carlo, were much longer and harder than those in New Zealand, he said, but he felt he was adapting reasonably well. He is competing in a 72hole tournament at Leeds this week. He will play a number of European-circuit tournaments after the British Open before returning to Dunedin at the end of September for a two-week break, then will join the Australia-New Zealand circuit.

There is a possibility Turner will play for New Zealand in the Dunhill Cup world teams event at St Andrew’s in September, but teams have yet to be announced.

Turner saw the New Zealand cricket team in action in England last week and had a brief meeting with his brother, Glenn, the New Zealand team manager and former international.