Peter Williams: Smart money is on Wright and Gill to succeed

I spent last weekend playing a 72-hole tournament with two players from the New Zealand amateur team - the Waikato pair Richard Wright and James Gill. This was the Taieri Classic, near Dunedin. It's the last significant event of the year for the top players in Otago and Southland and the tournament committee, wanting to get a bit of extra profile, invite some of the country's best to take part.

Last year Matthew Holten repaid their investment by winning and Wellington veteran Rodney Barltrop ran third. This year Gill and Wright again did the decent thing by finishing first and second.

Thanks to the vagaries of the draw, I had two rounds with Wright and the final 36 holes with Gill. They were both part of the Waikato team which lost to North Harbour in the interprovincial final at Titirangi a fortnight ago but seemed to have recovered from that and arrived in Dunedin relaxed and ready to make amends.

What sets these two apart from most others of their age in the elite amateur ranks is their life balance. The majority of their peers are golfers first and any employment is part time or shift work to accommodate golf commitments.

Wright and Gill have both been full-time students at Waikato University and are now only a semester away from finishing their degrees. Both intend to have more education - Gill in Britain, Wright possibly in teacher training - before making any decision about full-time golf careers. This level of education, higher than most of their peers, seems to carry over to the golf course, too. They seem more golf smart than many others of their generation.

For instance, there's a hole at Taieri, the 6th, which is a classic risk and reward par four. It's only 270m long but the green has water in front, on the right and at the back. Hit left with an iron or fairway wood, you have an easy wedge in and always a four, sometimes a three. To me it's a no-brainer (but then I could never carry the water anyway) and I made four easy pars.

But over the two days, both among the group I was playing in and in the four in front, I saw just too much macho, even idiotic and stupid golf from local representative players who could not resist taking the water on. To the best of my knowledge, none made birdie, most hit it in the water and they all made at least a bogey.

Wright and Gill, who both have more than adequate length off the tee, played safe every round. They laid up with a medium iron so they could play a full wedge in to get maximum spin on the hard greens. They both played the hole under par for the weekend.

The other lasting impression from watching these two up close for a day is their ability to make par, or better, from dodgy positions.

Taieri is a typical New Zealand tree-lined, parkland golf course. You have to hit it exceptionally well to avoid trees at some stage of a 72-holer there and Wright and Gill were not exempt from detours off line.

But, even when they had to chip out or lay-up short of the green, their ability to pitch it close, or in some cases chip in, meant they dropped few shots because of errant play off the tee.

Gill finished four rounds eight-under par and Wright was one shot behind. It wasn't always perfect golf but it was intelligent play. The course management skills of these two should put them in good shape when they play for New Zealand at the Lake Macquarie Invitational in New South Wales late next month.