Timely boost for N.Z. women’s golf

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 44

Timely boost for N.Z. women’s golf

New Zealand’s women’s golf needed an injection to revive flagging spirits and the tied result against Australia in the Tasman Cup at Heretaunga last week-end was a timely shot in the arm. Australia, unbeaten in the contest since 1971 and with only a draw in 1978 interrupting a winning sequence of nine, left nothing to chance in the selection of its senior side. Edwina Kennedy, winner of - the British, Canadian and Australian amateur championships in a long and distinguished career, and Louise Briers, an international of 10 years and runner-up in both the British and European championships last year, formed the top duo for the foursomes and also the singles. Perhaps, surprisingly, the third most experienced member, Ericka Maxwell, was left out of the foursomes, but she was the team’s No. 3 singles player, with the 1985 Australian junior champion, Mardi Lunn, playing the foursomes with Alison Munt, a recent winner of an invitation tournament in India. Australia prides itself on the strength of its foursomes play, an area of golf which New Zealand has seldom concentrated on, although it has placed more emphasis on it recently, and the New Zealanders were quite elated with their three wins from the four fourNot even the combined experience and talents of Kennedy and Briers could prevent .the top New Zealand pairing of Liz Douglas and Jan Cooke, from winning, 1 up.

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

in a tense contest. The last seven holes were halved, one in birdies, and the recovery shots of both Douglas and Cooke were remarkable for the New Zealanders seemed determined to place themselves in trouble off the tee. When New Zealand won both foursomes on the second day, the Australian non-playing captain, Carole Blair, admitted it was an occurrence that had not entered her team’s calculations. However, charged with winning three of the four singles that afternoon, Australia was good enough to do that and retain the cup. New Zealand’s performance, though, has placed women’s golf back on to firm footing and has given fresh hope for a possible victory in the eighth Commonwealth tournament in Christchurch in October. Australia won the last contest in Canada in 1983

for the first time and Briers, who won the deciding game in the Tasman Cup against the New Zealand No. 2, Tracey Hanson, considered happenings at that tournament equally as dramatic as her spectacular finish — four-under par for the last , five holes — to beat Hanson on the last green. Briers were complimentary about the mature play of the 20-year-old Hanson as the Australian made her charge. "She didn’t fold, she did the right thing and got her pars. Liz Douglas was three-under par on the first day and . beat me 5 and 4, I was three-under today and won at the eighteenth.” It may be of little consolation, but the two New Zealanders who looked set to give their team the win it wanted for the Tasman Cup, Hanson and Debbie Smith, both fell victim to the brilliance of their opponents’ golf rather than through any sudden shortcomings in their own games. Victory would have been sweet, even more so because four of the five players who gave New Zealand its last success in 1968 — Cushla Sullivan, Jean Whitehead, Glenys Dwyer (nee Taylor) and Natalie White — were present for the event, but Australia sneaked in to tie on the last hole and, as one of the New Zealand team remarked: . “You couldn’t ask. for a closer finish or for better golf.”