N.Z. golfers set for ‘best’ effort

Press, 14 October 1986, Page 44

N.Z. golfers set for ‘best’ effort

PA Wellington The' Auckland amateur golfer, Glen C ddfinch, believes New Zealand has a chance to match, perhaps to better, its best performance in the world amateur team’s championship when it contests the Eisenhower Trophy in Venezuela from October 22.

Goldfinch believes New Zealand has the players, and the players have the preparation, to figure strongly in the 72-hole strokeplay championship, played on the long Lagunita Country Club course on the outskirts of Caracas.

The young Aucklander is confident of his own form and believes his team-mates, Brent Paterson, Michael Barltrop and Phil Aickin, have begun to show their own readiness for amateur golf’s premier tournament. His only reservation is that the team has little information about the course and the conditions it will encounter.

“I think we have a good team and everyone is playing well at the moment,” he said. “If I have any worries, it is about the course and the heat.

“We expect temperatures will be reasonable — about 22 to 27 degrees, which is quite mild. We have to remember that it’s turning to winter there now.

“It’s also the rainy season and we’ve been told it is likely to rain most afternoons. That’s not a concern in itself. New Zealanders are quite used to playing in the rain

and the weather conditions, whatever they are, will be the same for all teams.” Goldfinch said he was personally suited to the strokeplay format of the tournament. The championship is contested by four-man teams over four rounds with the two best scores from each round providing the team aggregate.

“I personally like strokeplay better than matchplay,” he said. “In matchplay, your opponent can have a freak round and you can lose no matter how well you are playing. “This is very much you against the course. If you have a bad day it. doesn’t matter so much because your score can be dropped and the other guys might fire. The next day, you might have a good round and one of the others might have an off day.

"With strokeplay you can aim to improve every day on your previous effort.”

Goldfinch said he had had little competition but had worked on fine-tuning his game since the announcement of the New Zealand team last month.

“I’ve had a bit of competition in the last few weeks and I’m ready forthe tournament. We’ll be looking to do better than New Zealand teams have done before and, if that means winning, I think we have the players to do it.”

New Zealand’s best placing in the Eisenhower is second to ah American side led by Lanny Wadkins in Madrid in 1970.