Collis disregards golfing form book

Press, 24 March 1988, Page 60

Collis disregards golfing form book

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

I Vicky Collis, from the Greenacres club in Nelson, became the “spoiler” as the four players for this morning's semi-finals of the Canterbury women’s match-play golf championship were decided at Shirley yesterday afternoon.

i Match-play golf seldom runs true to strbke-play form, but the top four qualifiers from Tuesday's two stroke rounds were on course for places in the semi-finals until Collis ensured not everything went according to plan. ; ! The title-holder and top qualifier, Tracey Hanson, of Wellington, won through on her side of the draw and was joined in the semi-finals by the Russley champion and fourth qualifier, Adrienne Bond.

On the other side, Dianne Woodhouse, champion at Waitikiri arid winner of “The Press” tournament last month, confirmed her third place in the qualifying round, and she expected to be opposed by the Canterbury No. I, Liz Douglas, the second qualifier. |

Collis, however, upset the calculations of Woodhouse and most others by Winning the last . hole against Douglas and the match, 1 up. A breezy, bustling player, Collis, aged 22, did not expect to do the unexpected. Did she think at ’ the start ’ of’ the day she would be in the semi-finals? “No way,” she said merrily. Although her last-green victories over two former champions, Sue Hamiltori, in the morning, and Douglas propelled | her into the final four, Collis was not without form background. The No. 2 ifor the Tasman Stylemaster team last year, she had been in a winning position in "The Press” tournament! last month before faltering to sixth. 3 J'!:

A large slice of her daily routine centres around golf. She works in the shop of the Greenacres professional, Gary Broadhurst, and assists the director of the New Zealand Golf Foundation,

Murray [Macklin, of Nelson.’ . j j. Putting had been a problem! for her on Tuesday and [again in the early stages ojf her first round match against Hamilton. She was 3 down crossing the road i to play the twelfth but left the fourteenth green square after holing a birdie putt on that grrien.! i Her break j came when Hamilton, squeezed out with her approach by a tree at |lB,Lhit a flat shot which chreered across the green, through the rough, and into the clubhouse surrounds.) J I The [ fourteenth hole proved [ significant again in the quarter-final. Collis holed a! 5m putt there to remain 12 up, lost 15 to a 4m birdie putt, but firmly holed a 2m putt to halve 16 after she had the good fortune! to bounce her drive,oyer the drain.

Douglas! got the break at 17, her drive bouncing but of ja fairway bunker and she won the hole with a par, Collis, unable to [ play a! direct approach, chipped through the green with her third. . The [weird vicissitudes) of the match took another i turn at) 18; Douglas hit a! big dqve but ran her approach ! into I a back bunker! She came out deftly, [only to miss her par putt from less than 2m. | [ . . Hanson has an invested interest for wanting to! retain her title. The usual sweepstake was| held be-; fore the championship’, and Hanson was the! “horse” the others in the field wanted to be on. Through the luck of the draw [she was saddled with herself.

More importantly, Hanson has a debt to settle when [she opposes Bond this morning. Their last meeting was in the quar-ter-finals of the New Zea--land amateur championship [at Hokowhitu’ Palmerston North, and the Canterbury golfer advanced to the semi-finals.!

Hanson, aged 21, brandishing' her graphite-shajft driver, from Korea to tellf ihg effect, pulled away from (Jeannette' Ross on

[ the back nine of their [ quarter-final.

I, : In the first round, HanI; son, 1 down after 14 to the bottom qualifier, Mary Sparrow, left her run late, but wori 15, 16 (with a 4m birdie) and 17 when Sparrow had a contretemps with a creek. "I hit it better at the start of the quarter-final but then fizzled out. However I was hitting it well again at the end and it was nice to finish on that note," Hanson said. [ [Hanson’s driver was obtained for her by her coach and employer, Geoff Pitman, the resident professional at the Wellington Golf Club. '[ .Pitman arrived at Shirley yesterday to see his protege reach the last four,, but he has no hope of retrieving his driver. ‘Tve had it 18 months, it suits me,” said Hanson. [ Bond had two decisive wins and the 1980 champion played with authority after a slow start to her first round. Woodhouse, too, . was never in danger of defeat yesterday. She won her first contest at the thirteenth and, after falling two behind Jackie Ben-, schop after six holes in the afternoon, she won ’most of the holes in the middle stanza to eventuially seal the gamp at the sixteenth. She bemoaned her lack of concentration, ’however, and will not be able to afford similar I lapses against the accomplished Collis. Results:— : ’ Championship: First round: i'T. Hanson beat M. Sparrow, 2 and 1; J. Ross beat L. Shas- ! key, 5 and 3; A. Bond beat K. Starr, 5 and 4; A. King beat !R. Buxton, at the' 19th; L. Douglas beat D. Manley, 2 and 1; V. Collis beat S. Hamilton, 1 up; D. Woodhouse beat I R. Lee, 6 and 5; J. Benschop ! beat J. East, 2 and 1. ! Quarter-finals: Hanson beat ! Ross, 4 and 2; Bond beat I King, 6 and 5; Collis beat Douglas, 1 up; Woodhouse ! beat Benschop, 4 and 2. i! Championship flight: Shas- : key beat Sparrow, 2 and 1; i Buxton beat Starr, 2 and 1; ! Hamilton beat Manley, 1 up; ! East beat Lee, 2 up.